List of defunct NFL franchises
Membership in the National Football League (NFL) is certified by a franchise. A franchise is awarded by the league to each member club and serves as the league's authorization to operate as a professional football club in their city. Franchises award member clubs the exclusive right to hold professional football games between league members within a 75-mile radius of their city as well as the exclusive rights to market games in their area.[1] There are currently 32 clubs in the league, and new members can only be approved with the support of 3/4s of current members.[2] In the case of egregious misbehavior, a club's franchise can be revoked or suspended by the league's commissioner.[3]
The NFL has had a total of 49 franchises become defunct over its history;[4] this includes ten of the league's twelve founding members, with only the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals surviving to the present day.[5] By 1926, the league had expanded to 22 franchises, but a league meeting in April 1927 led to the decision to revoke the franchises of the clubs in the weakest financial situations; 10 franchises were ultimately revoked.[6]
Five defunct NFL franchises (the Akron Pros/Indians, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Bulldogs/Indians, Frankford Yellow Jackets, and Providence Steam Roller) had previously won NFL championships. The most recent franchise to become defunct was the Dallas Texans, which folded in 1952 after one season in the league.[7]
Contents
Defunct franchises
| ^ | Denotes the club had won an NFL championship before folding[8] |
|---|
See also
- National Football League franchise moves and mergers
- Steagles
- Card-Pitt
- List of defunct and relocated Major League Baseball teams
- List of defunct National Basketball Association teams
- List of defunct and relocated National Hockey League teams
- Major League Soccer defunct clubs
Notes
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.
<references />, or <references group="..." />References
General
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Specific
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.
<references />, or <references group="..." />External links
- ↑ NFL Bylaws, p. 6, 12-15.
- ↑ NFL Bylaws, p. 3.
- ↑ NFL Bylaws, p. 28-35.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14 7.15 7.16 7.17 7.18 7.19 7.20 7.21 7.22 7.23 7.24 7.25 7.26 7.27 7.28 7.29 7.30 7.31 7.32 7.33 7.34 7.35 7.36 7.37 7.38 7.39 7.40 7.41 7.42 7.43 7.44 7.45 7.46 7.47 7.48 7.49 7.50 7.51 7.52 7.53 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Cite error: <ref> tags exist for a group named "upper-alpha", but no corresponding <references group="upper-alpha"/> tag was found, or a closing </ref> is missing
