Free NFL Team? How the Washington Commanders Started

Every NFL dynasty began with a wild leap of faith. And back on October 2nd, 1932, everyone was buzzing in the streets of Boston as football was now becoming professionalized in their town and they had their very own team. Born from a laundry tycoon with ambitions and decked out in blue and gold, thrown straight into the pro football spotlight. This was football. the Boston Braves, and they weren't just another franchise. They would spark a legacy that would one day grow to dominate the league, but also give the league one of its blackest eyes with a name that they had for years of Redskins. They've now changed that to the Commanders, and today we're going to dive into the history of how the Washington Commanders started out as the Boston Braves and came to be today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide, because as a kid, I could win Techno Bowl without using Bo Jackson. Today's trivia question to listen out for is, how much did it cost the owners of the Boston Braves to join the NFL? So the NFL technically started in the 1920s. And they continuously looked for places and cities that kind of wanted to follow the baseball model. Major cities in the East Coast, Northeast. And they had a team in Boston called the Boston Bulldogs. But what happened a lot back then in the 1920s, especially in 1929, during the Great Depression, teams folded. They couldn't afford to pay their players. They couldn't afford their travel or the uniforms. It was bad. an expensive thing, especially in football compared to baseball. You have more players and, you know, more injury risk. So the Boston Bulldogs folded in 1929 and the NFL was desperate to gain traction into Boston as it was a major city back then as it still is today. And they had a fan base already established. So in 1932, George Preston Marshall partnered with Vincent Bendix, Jay O'Brien, and Dorland Doyle. All these different businessmen had a dream to start an NFL franchise. But George Preston Marshall was really the spearheaded guy of the team, and he made his money through a laundry service that his family had bought into previously, and he helped grow it to give him wealth. And so these guys in the NFL worked together, and they were excited for the opportunity to bring another team to Boston and have great financial backing behind it. And so to make it even easier for them to join the league, the NFL didn't even make them pay for the rights. All they had to cover was the operating expenses. So they were freely let into the NFL. Understand me. This team was in the NFL for free. Back in 1932, you could own an NFL team as long as you could pay for the operating expenses. What? Every NFL team now is worth over a billion dollars. And less than 100 years ago, it was free. Let that boggle your mind today. But they also wanted to create a good establishment and build a brand in this major city that they had. So George Marshall wasted no time blending spectacle with the business. He contracted with the Boston Braves baseball club to use the Braves field and also use their name. What? This is something that actually happened a lot back in the day. You have a football team named the same team name as the baseball team. Could you imagine, you know, I'm going to go see the Boston Braves and it's September or October, you know, when both the teams are playing and you don't know which one you bought a ticket for. It was a great way to get recognition that the Boston Braves had won and had an established fan base. So it was great for them, but confusing for the fans. I cannot believe, especially back then when you couldn't look up things like today, you just had to go based off what you knew and what was in the newspaper. Crazy, crazy, crazy time back then. And Marshall's marketing strategy for the team, was very aggressive. He ran local ads promising top quality football at accessible ticket prices of 55 cents a bleacher, $ 1. 10 for the grandstands, and $ 1. 65 for a box seat. That means you could have got a ticket back then. Remember, this is the Great Depression time. So that means the ticket price for the lowest one would be about $ 13 a day. Very reasonable. And for a box seat, it'd be $ 38. Would you want box seats for $ 38? I would. So this aggressive value they offered allowed the team and the fans to come see the team. You couldn't see them on TV. Eventually, you'd be able to hear them on the radio. But to gain that fandom that you needed, you needed people to come and watch. And that's what he did. He also hired ex-NFL player J.R. Lude Lode Weary as their head coach, providing them with leadership and respectability at that coaching position. And he recruited top-end talent and would raid players from other teams, giving them expensive signing bonuses. Like All-American tackle Turk Edwards was giving $ 1, 500 to sign with them, which was a lot of money during the Great Depression. And it gave them instant credibility. And he also had dynamic runner Cliff Battles and Ernie Pinkert, future Hall of Famers, join as well. And they were off and running. During their first training camp, it was actually held in Lynn, Massachusetts. And they would play exhibition games throughout the area to build buzz about the football going on in Boston to gain even more fans. So the team had all the vision and was ready to go. Now they needed the jerseys. And the business that Marshall owned was called Palace Laundry, who had brand colors in blue and gold. So the team wore blue and gold, inspired by his own business, linking both his business to the NFL. So now the team is ready. They've had training camp. They have their coach. They have their stars and their free agents. And they're ready to begin their first season at Braves Field, home of the Boston Braves, the baseball team. And now the Boston Braves football team is ready to take on the Brooklyn Dodgers, the baseball team. No, no, no. The football team. Yes, this is confusing. Two teams named after baseball teams played a football game against each other. I'm so glad these teams changed their names. as the Brooklyn Dodgers would later become the Brooklyn Tigers before folding in 1945. But at least they changed it to avoid confusion. The first game is ready to kick off. Fans fill the stadium to watch these two NFL teams for the first time, as it's been three years since Boston has had a professional football team, and they were all excited watching this team go on and lose and not even score. Lose 14-0 to the Brooklyn Dodgers football team. But it sounds bad. But just a week later, they would come back and win their very first game against the New York Giants, the football team. And they would win 14-6, showing that they did have quality players enough to compete with a mainstay in the NFL in the New York Giants. And it really showed that the talent they had could produce as they would go on to have a 500 record that season, which is very good for an expansion team. They would win four games, lose four, and have two ties, as ties were more common back then as they did not have overtime rules. But despite the team having a lot of hype around it, the city supporting them by showing up to the games, they still operated in a deficit of $ 46, 000. It's not too bad in today's era, a million dollars back then during the Great Depression. That was tough. So after this season, George Preston Marshall bought out his partner and became sole owner of the team, giving him complete control as he thought would really help giving them a single direction and he could lead them to success like he had success in his businesses. And he took more of a hands-on approach. In the following year, he would move them to Fenway to play the rest of their games, kind of diverging away from the Boston Braves as there's a lot of confusion, especially doing research. Back into this, on which team was which. And so to help that, he stuck with the Native American style. So he picked the worst name he could have possibly picked. Maybe there was worse names, but not many. As he picked the worst name in North American sports history, hands down. The Boston Redskins. Now this name sounds innocuous, and it was a different time. We can always say that. Having this name at that time, no one batted an eye. Now, we batted an eye. That doesn't sound right. And it didn't matter... What your skin color is, your race, any name, any color, then you add skin to it, sounds wrong. White skins, that sounds wrong. Black skins, sounds wrong. Yellow skins, sounds wrong. No matter what you did, it sounds wrong today. 1930s was different. I wish they didn't do that. Would have much rather them been the Boston Braves forever and ever. Kept the Braves name forever. You know, we still have the Kansas City Chiefs. Similar vein. They could have moved to Washington, been the Washington Braves. No issue. Or picked any other animal. Been the Boston Flamingos. It would have been perfect. No one else would have been the Flamingos. We would have had the pink team fighting for everybody. It would have been perfect, right? Just any other name. Any other animal. It didn't matter what animal he picked. Any animal would have worked great. But he picked a terrible name that stuck around with the team. Even when he moved them to Washington, D.C. in 1937, they struggled with attendance and they were still fluctuating. And he wanted them to get away from Boston because they had a lot of sports options in Boston. Come to Washington, D.C., they had the Washington Nationals, but that was the only other competition as they were a baseball team. This was the only football team in the area. And he was from Washington, D.C., had a lot more connections. He saw a lot more success. So he was granted that right, and the team would have a success immediately, winning their very first NFL championship. And they would win another one in 1942, and then go a long drought until the Super Bowl came around in 1982, winning their very first Super Bowl. And they would win two more in 87 and 91. But those were the last Super Bowls they had won. And they won those Super Bowls with terrible names. Of the Redskins. And that name stuck around. Until 2020. When they became the Washington football team. Terrible name still. But better. And then they became the Washington Commanders. Still a terrible name. But better. I'll take just about any name over Redskins. So at least we got away from that. Now we have a terrible name in the Commanders. But at least it doesn't offend anybody. So we'll take that. And it's crazy to think. That this team. That's now worth billions of dollars. Join the NFL for free at the Boston Braves over 90 years ago. Just shows you it takes some time to have success in sports. I want to thank you for listening to today's daily sports history. If you like this, please hit that share button wherever you're listening. Share this with a friend, text it to them, group chat it, Snapchat it, chat it, chat, chat, chat. I don't know all the chats, but send it to a buddy that loves sports just like you so that we can continue to grow this. The more we grow, the more I can give you. And I'm looking forward to it. I want to thank you for listening and come back tomorrow for more daily sports history. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question? How much did it cost the owners of the Boston Braves to join the NFL? The answer is nothing. It was free. I'd have a time machine and go back and join this team. Start a team for free. Name it much better than the previous team.