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M ore than 600 players, coaches, and team administrators from the NFL would eventually go into military service during World War II. When Cleveland Rams owner Dan Reeves joined the Navy early in 1943, his club was permitted to suspend operations, leaving the league with nine teams and an awkward scheduling problem. Moreover , the Office of Defense Transportation ordered the league to cut travel by 37 percent and reduce the size of rosters to 28 players. “Most significant,” wrote author Andrew O’Toole, “was a rule change that received little notice in 1943—free substitution. Football had long been played by men who ‘went both ways,’ performing for both their offensive and defensive teams. The wartime rosters, however, were too exhausted to take full advantage of the new tenet. Nonetheless, free substitution smoothed the way for separate offensive and defensive units, and led to specialists such as field-goal kickers and punters. Until this rule change came into effect a player could enter a game once in each quarter, except in the fourth quarter when two players on each team could be substituted twice. Free substitution not only initiated the birth of ‘skilled’ players, but also drastically reduced the number of injuries incurred.” In March, Rooney told Jack Sell of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that the Steelers would be “going through the motions” of preparing for the annual player draft in April, “although, personally, I am not very optimistic about the National League operating next autumn. “My partner, Bert Bell, is handling the personnel problem along with coaches Walter Kiesling and Jim Leonard. They did a pretty good job last year. Of course, many of the names chosen this time will be of players who may be scattered all over the world in the armed forces by mid-September when the league race usually starts.” Chester L. Smith, the sports editor of the Pittsburgh Press, wrote that NFL commissioner Elmer Layden would use “every legitimate means in his command to force the circuit to function” because of a war clause in 16. The Steagles 98 • Chapter 16 Layden’s annual $25,000 contract stipulating that in the event of a league breakdown, he doesn’t get paid. One NFL official predicted to Smith that the league would be able to field only five teams in the fall. “If it weren’t for George Preston Marshall, of the Redskins,” he added, “the el-foldo would be certain.” Marshall fought vigorously to keep pro football alive during the war because he had sold more than $60,000 worth of season tickets for 1943 in an amusementstarved city. Before the NFL owners convened in Chicago on April 6, Bell and four other club owners met as an executive committee and recommended to Layden that the league proceed with plans to operate in 1943. The commissioner then announced that the upcoming sessions would be conducted on the “We can and we will play football” theme. On May 27, with his roster down to five players, Rooney told the Pittsburgh Press that he had conferred by telephone with Bert Bell in Philadelphia and that there was a good possibility that the Steelers would merge with the Eagles only for the duration of the war. “As we maintained at the last league meeting, we are doing everything in our power to continue operation,” Rooney explained. “But, the prospects of continuing on our own look very bad. As I see it, about the only way we could continue to field a representative team will be to merge with Philadelphia.” Bell and Rooney approached Eagles owner Alexis Thompson early in June and suggested merging their two teams, at least for the 1943 season. Thompson, however, was not immediately enthralled with the idea because he thought that it would hurt the team’s image and wasn’t really sure that such a move was necessary. Eagles general manager Harry Thayer told Thompson he was “reasonably sure” that the Eagles could field a team by themselves. “In addition to the 16 players the Eagles still had under contract, Thayer said they had ‘strings attached’ to about a dozen more,” wrote Matthew Algeo in his book Last Team Standing. Thompson said that he would have to think about the merger for a while. On June 15, 1943, Thayer, speaking for Thompson, told reporters that “on the whole” his team preferred to operate alone but would consider a merger only if they were able to retain the name “Philadelphia Eagles” and play...

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