The 1921 Buffalo All-Americans season was their second completed in the young

American Professional Football Association The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...

(APFA). The team matched their previous output of 9–1–1, going 9–1–2 against league opponents, and losing the league title to the

Chicago Staleys The Chicago Bears American football franchise is a charter member of the National Football League (NFL), and has played in all of the league's 100 seasons. The team has captured nine NFL championships – eight NFL championships and one Super ...

in a disputed tiebreaker.1921 Buffalo All-Americans
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Philadelphia Quakers moonlighting controversy and absorption of Detroit Heralds

During the 1921 season, several of the Buffalo All-Americans, most notably future

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

co-founder Lud Wray, also played for the Philadelphia Quakers, an independent club based in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Since Philadelphia was subject to

blue laws Blue laws, also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws and Sunday closing laws, are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world. The laws were adopted originally for religious reasons ...

in the commonwealth of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, the Quakers had to play their games on Saturdays, as opposed to the Sundays used by the APFA, including Buffalo. The Buffalo players played for Philadelphia on Saturday, then traveled back to Buffalo for Sunday's game. A few days before Buffalo played Canton, the league found out about violation of league policy, and made the players choose which team they wanted to play for. Five, including Wray, chose to stay with the Quakers, blaming the Buffalo management for " blowing the whistle." Buffalo was able to hire players from the

Detroit Heralds Detroit had four early teams in the National Football League before the Detroit Lions. The Heralds played in 1920, and had played as an independent as far back as 1905. The Tigers, a continuation of the Heralds, played in 1921, folding midseason ...

, who folded midseason, to complete their roster.Who Really Won in 1921?
. Bills Backers United.

De facto championship game

The Chicago Staleys (to be renamed the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

after the end of the season), led by wide receiver

George Halas George Stanley Halas Sr. (; February 2, 1895October 31, 1983), nicknamed "Papa Bear" and "Mr. Everything", was an American professional football player, coach, and team owner. He was the founder and owner of the National Football League's Chic ...

, and the

Buffalo All-Americans Buffalo, New York had a turbulent, early-era National Football League team that operated under multiple names and several different owners between the 1910s and 1920s. The early NFL-era franchise was variously called the Buffalo All-Stars from ...

, led by quarterback

Tommy Hughitt Tommy Hughitt (born Ernest Fredrick Hughitt; December 27, 1892 – December 27, 1961) was a Canadian-American National Football League utility player, coach, referee and politician. He was also an All-American quarterback for the University ...

and fullback Catchy Oliphant, were the two top teams in the league; each playing all of their games at home, Buffalo and Chicago amassed 6–0 records in league play. On Thanksgiving 1921, Buffalo played one of its only road games of the season, in Chicago, and prevailed 7–6. Chicago demanded a rematch. The All-Americans agreed to rematch the Staleys on December 4, again in Chicago, on the condition that the game would be considered a "post-season"

exhibition game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

not to be counted in the standings; had it not, Buffalo would have had an undefeated season and won the title. (Buffalo had played, and defeated, the

Akron Pros The Akron Pros were a professional football team that played in Akron, Ohio from 1908 to 1926. The team originated in 1908 as a semi-pro team named the Akron Indians, but later became Akron Pros in 1920 as the team set out to become a charter mem ...

just one day prior.) Chicago defeated Buffalo, who did not have the services of the Heralds players it had borrowed (they were playing against the Detroit Maroons the same day), in the rematch by a score of 10–7. Halas rebutted that the second game was played on December 4 (well before teams typically stopped playing games in those days), and the Staleys played two more games against top opponents, the

Canton Bulldogs The Canton Bulldogs were a professional American football team, based in Canton, Ohio. They played in the Ohio League from 1903 to 1906 and 1911 to 1919, and the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football Leag ...

and

Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois, as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots ca ...

after the second Buffalo game (though, at the time of the Buffalo-Chicago matchup, Chicago had played three fewer games than Buffalo). The league counted the All-Americans game in the standings, against Buffalo's wishes, resulting in Buffalo (9–1–2) and Chicago (9–1–1) being tied atop the standings. The league then implemented the first ever tiebreaker: a rule, now considered archaic and removed from league rulebooks, that states that if two teams play multiple times in a season, the last game between the two teams carries more weight. Thus, the Chicago victory actually counted ''more'' in the standings, giving Chicago the championship. Buffalo sports fans have been known to refer to this, justly or unjustly, as the "Staley Swindle," and have cited it as the first evidence of a sports curse on the city. Oliphant was the most valuable player for the All-Americans as he led the league in scoring; (47 points), FGs (5) and PATs (26), 1 touchdown; he also led the league in touchdown passes (7).

Schedule

Game in ''italics'' was against a non-NFL team, is therefore not counted in league standings.

Standings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1921 Buffalo All-Americans Season Buffalo All-Americans seasons