Football Q&A – NFL Franchise
NFL Team Information
Football Q&A begins with a question about the year the NFL teams were founded and when they joined the NFL.
The oldest franchise in the NFL might surprise you, but with Super Bowl XLIII coming, it’s somewhat timely.
This question comes from Larry, who needed to settle a bet with his friends. Hope you ended up on the right side of the bet, Larry.
Football Question:
Cliff –
I would like a list of when each team was founded, and when did they enter the NFL? Like Arizona Cardinals founded 1898, NFL 1920. Also I would like a list as to what their names where before now, like Kansas City Chiefs, started as Dallas Texans. I find information but it is confusing to me and it is not always clear on the dates. So please I just want lists with no other info than what I am asking for Please.
- Thank You, Larry
Football Answer:
Larry –
Here you go. Here’s the team, the date the team was established and the date the team joined the NFL.
Strangely, the Arizona Cardinals are the oldest franchise in the NFL, though their history is chaotic.
The Arizona Cardinals started as the Morgan Athletic Club in 1898, then became the Racine Normals 1899-1900, then the Racine Cardinals 1901-1906, then disbanded 1907-1912, reformed as the Racine Cardinals 1913-1919, then changed their name to the Chicago Cardinals 1920-1943, Card-Pitt 1944 (combined with the Pittsburgh Steelers do to lack of available football players during World War II), became the Chicago Cardinals again in 1945-1959, the St. Louis Cardinals from 1960-1987 and the Phoenix Cardinals 1988-1993, before finally settling on the Arizona Cardinals from 1993 to present.
All the teams that were formed from 1958 to 1960 and joined the NFL in 1970 were the old American Football League (AFL) teams. These were the Jets, Bills, Broncos, Chiefs, Patriots, Raiders, Chargers and Titans. When the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, the two leagues became the basis for the two NFL conferences: the NFC and AFC. Older NFL teams like the Steelers, Browns and Colts where moved to the AFC to balance out the number of teams in each conference.
On the list below, I placed the year the team formed and the year the team joined the NFL. I placed the teams in order of their joining the National Football League (instead of the year they formed), so this reads more like a history of the NFL than a timeline of franchise formation.
Especially in the early days, there were teams which joined the NFL that did not last. I have not included these teams. That’s how only two teams remain from the NFL’s first season. The list of defunct NFL teams can wait for another question.
Team Name – Year Team Formed – Year Joined NFL
- Arizona Cardinals – 1898 – 1920
- Chicago Bears – 1919 – 1920 (Were the Decatur Staleys 1919-1920 and the Chicago Staleys 1921)
- Green Bay Packers – 1919 – 1921
- New York Giants – 1925 – 1925
- Detroit Lions – 1929 – 1930
- Washington Redskins – 1932 – 1932 (Were Boston Braves in 1932, Boston Redskins from 1933-1936)
- Philadelphia Eagles – 1933 – 1933
- Pittsburgh Steelers – 1933 – 1933
- St. Louis Rams – 1936 – 1937 (Were the Cleveland Rams from 1936-1945, the Los Angeles Rams from 1946-1994)
- Cleveland Browns – 1946 – 1950 (From 1996 to 1998, the Browns were not in existence, after the original Browns left Cleveland to become the Baltimore Ravens. The NFL mandated that Cleveland would retain all team records.)
- San Francisco 49ers – 1946 – 1950
- Indianapolis Colts – 1953 – 1953 (Began play as the Baltimore Colts from 1953-1984)
- New York Jets – 1958 – 1970 (Were originally the New York Titans 1958-1962)
- Buffalo Bills – 1959 – 1970
- Dallas Cowboys – 1960 – 1960
- Minnesota Vikings – 1961 – 1961
- Atlanta Falcons – 1966 – 1966
- New Orleans Saints – 1967 – 1967
- Denver Broncos – 1960 – 1970
- Kansas City Chiefs – 1960 – 1970 (Were the Dallas Texans from 1960-1962)
- New England Patriots – 1960 – 1970 (Were the Boston Patriots from 1960-1970, Bay State Patriots in 1971)
- Oakland Raiders – 1960 – 1970
- San Diego Chargers – 1960 – 1970 (Were the Los Angeles Chargers 1960)
- Tennessee Titans – 1960 – 1970 (Were Houston Oilers 1960-1996, Tennessee Oilers 1997-1998)
- Miami Dolphins – 1966 – 1970
- Cincinnati Bengals – 1968 – 1970
- Seattle Seahawks – 1976 – 1976
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 1976 – 1976
- Carolina Panthers – 1995 – 1995
- Jacksonville Jaguars – 1995 – 1995
- Baltimore Ravens – 1996 – 1996 (The Ravens Franchise was originally the Cleveland Browns, but was stripped of their name and official team records when they moved to Baltimore in 1996)
- Houston Texans – 2002 – 2002
I hope this helps, Larry.
This should be pretty accurate, I believe, though I put this together fairly quickly. I don’t normally to take this much time to answer a question that’s not normally on the site, because this is unpayed work. But I have wanted to add a list of teams years anyway, and so I’ll eventually post this information to the site. Thanks for the question and I hope you keep reading the site.
-Cliff
Before the NFL Merger
Here’s more information for those interested in what the National Football League and American Football League looked like before their merger in 1970. Note that several of the current AFC teams moved over from the NFL when the merger happened, to balance out the size of each conference.
From the year of the merger, former-NFL teams won the AFC 5 of the next ten years – Colts once and Steelers four times – and helped establish the American Football Conference as the dominant half of the NFL during those years. Only the Dallas Cowboys would win a Superbowl for the NFC in those years, until the San Francisco 49ers began their run in the 1980’s, which would begin a period where the NFC won 15 of 16 Superbowls and one streak of 13 straight wins. .
Pre-Merger NFL Teams
St. Louis Cardinals – now Arizona Cardinals
Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
New York Giants
Detroit Lions
Washington Redskins
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
Los Angeles Rams – now St. Louis Rams
Cleveland Browns
San Francisco 49ers
Baltimore Colts – now Indianapolis Colts
Dallas Cowboys
Minnesota Vikings
Atlanta Falcons
New Orleans Saints
Pre-Merger AFL Teams
New York Jets
Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs
Boston Patriots – now New England Patriots
Oakland Raiders
San Diego Chargers
Houston Oilers – now Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins
Cincinnati Bengals
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