When Did Pete Roseel Become NFL Commisioner?

[BD Sullivan]

I imagine that the documentary did say that Bert Bell was still Commissioner when the American Football League was being formed, which is true. I doubt that they even suggested that he was around in 1960, when the league was preparing for its first season.

However, Lamar Hunt and other AFL owners had talked to Bell about their intentions right before they made the announcement of their new league in August 1959, and Bell mentioned the conversation in a vague way (said that he was aware of one, and maybe two proposed leagues) when he was testifying before a Congress subcommittee that same month. Unfortunately, Bell died during that 13 month period between first announcement and first kickoff. I sometimes wonder whether the Dallas Cowboys would have existed as an NFL team at all, had it not been for Bell's death.

How come?

George Halas was pushing for the NFL to expand to Dallas or Houston, maybe both. Bell likely would have stood in his way, given the presumed gentleman's agreement he made with Hunt & Co., but once Bell died, Halas was free to push expansion and Rozelle immediately announced his support for it after getting elected.

[Mark L. Ford]

I sometimes wonder whether the Dallas Cowboys would have existed as an NFL team at all, had it not been for Bell's death.

How come?

George Halas was pushing for the NFL to expand to Dallas or Houston, maybe both. Bell likely would have stood in his way, given the presumed gentleman's agreement he made with Hunt & Co., but once Bell died, Halas was free to push expansion and Rozelle immediately announced his support for it after getting elected.

And B.D.'s explanation is what mine would have been as well. Bert Bell had all but pledged to a U.S. Senate subcommittee that he was all in favor of a new league, and "the more teams and the more competition, the better" http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1959 ... eague-plan

so I agree that he would have stood in the way of folks who wanted to stop Lamar Hunt before he could launch his new league. I don't think that a Bell-managed NFL would have been brazen enough to launch a Dallas NFL team to go head-to-head against Hunt's Dallas AFL team, nor to persuade the AFL's Minnesota owner to defect to the NFL. Rozelle, on the other hand, hadn't made any commitments to U.S. senators, and he owed his job to owners like Halas.