9781422283059

in 1920 as the Decatur Staleys—was George Halas, who also was a standout end. The first coach of the Chicago Cardinals—the team that is now the Arizona Cardinals—was Paddy Driscoll. That future Pro Foot- ball Hall of Fame back also was the team’s top player. In Green Bay—the Packers joined the NFL in 1921— the top player was tailback Curly Lambeau. He also was the team’s head coach. That’s not a surprise. Football was a relatively new game when the NFL began, and the sport was still finding its way. Its best players forged the path. Indeed, the man most responsible for molding the sport in its early days was one of its top stars. His name was Walter Camp. When Camp was the captain of the Yale team

in the late 1870s and early 1880s, football was not very different from its European an- cestors soccer and rugby. But Camp, who became Yale’s head coach and is some- times called the Father of American Foot- ball, established rules that made the cur- rent game possible. He limited sides to 11

Take a trip back into NFL coaching history

13