In a game of 1970s throwback suits, Bijan Robinson ran wild on Monday Night Football

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The Galloping Ghost (Red Grange) was a rookie late in the 1925 season which help save the league

Throwback Week looks back 100 years

AUDUBON PLACE - For Throwback Week 2025, the BDFL looked back at the U.S markets and the teams the NFL has abandoned over the years with a special emphasis on the 1925 season. One hundred years ago the NFL was in it's sixth regular season with five new teams: New York Giants, Detroit Panthers, Pottsville Maroons, Providence Steam Roller and the new Canton Bulldogs. Putting teams in major urban centers became a top priority for the league beginning in 1925. This brought the league's total to 20 teams for the 1925 season. The league president at the time was Joe F. Carr who took it upon himself to recruit an owner for the New York City franchise. In fairly short order, New York friends connected the top NFL official with a sports promotor with an eye for future profit, a 37-year old professional bookmaker named Tim Mara. Mara had started out in the the gambling industry (legal in New York State at the time) in his teenage years, first working as a "runner" for established bookies, collecting lost bets and delivering payouts before becoming a successful bookmaker in his own right. When first introduced to Carr, Mara asked about the league fee for a franchise. Told the fee was $2,500, including what was essentially a performance bond, Mara immediately accepted, declaring: "A New York franchise in anything should be worth $2,500, including one for shining shoes. I'll take it." Mara wrote a check to Carr, the two shook hands, and the deal was done and the New York Football Giants were born. The 1925 season was dominated by the decision of University of Illinois superstar halfback Red Grange to enter the league in November as a member of the Chicago Bears. Making his professional debut on Thanksgiving Day against the rival Chicago Cardinals, a standing room only crowd of 36,000 saw the legendary "Galloping Ghost" get stymied in a scoreless tie. Three days later the Bears won against the Columbus Tigers 14–13 in the Chicago snow. A tour to cash in on Grange's popularity followed, beginning with a game against a pick-up team in St. Louis in which Grange ran for 175 yards and four touchdowns, stoking the media flame. The Bears played 8 games in 12 days during the tour, and had a crowd of 73,000 at New York's Polo Grounds, a record attendance for a professional football game at that time, and an unexpected financial windfall that helped save the expansion New York Giants from catastrophe in their maiden season. Minor injuries forced Grange to sit out of a hastily scheduled rematch with the expansion Detroit Panthers a decision which lead to massive lines for ticket refunds, eliminating a profit that might have been enough to save the Panthers organization. Controversy still surrounds the 1925 NFL Championship. The Chicago Cardinals are listed as the 1925 NFL champions because they finished with the best record and the Pottsville Maroons were suspended from the league in December. However, many Pottsville fans at the time claimed that the Maroons were the legitimate champions since they had beaten Chicago handily late in the season, 21-7. Had the current (post-1972) system of counting ties as half a win and half a loss been in place in 1925, the Maroons would have won the championship with a winning percentage of .833 while the Cardinals would have finished as the runner-up with .821 winning percentage.