David Rosenthal

So there's a major crisis.

Yep.

First thing they do in the January 1946 annual meeting is they boot out the then commissioner.

So the owners, they're like, okay, to lead this fight, we can't have somebody from the outside.

We need to draft one of our own from the ownership group here in the inside, who's going to be able to marshal everybody together and lead a coordinated response to this existential threat.

They install Burt Bell, who is the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, as the new commissioner of the NFL.

And he's tasked immediately with drafting a competitive response to the AAFC.

And they decide it needs to be three things.

One, they need to go meet the AAFC where they are, being nationwide and the West Coast and going to California.

Two...

the NFL, if they're going to win, they need to put out a superior product, a better game on the field than the AFC.

And then three, for the first time,

They need to do a better job than the AAFC, or at least as good a job at actually telling America about it.

They have to go proselytize.

They have to go win fans and win consumers' hearts and minds.

So fronts one and three are basically all handled by Dan and the Rams.

So immediately after Bell comes in as commissioner...

He orchestrates approval for the Rams to move out to California.

And it's a good thing they did because when play eventually starts in the 1946 season, the new Browns in Cleveland for their very first home game draw 60,000 fans, which is more than the Rams did for the entire season the year before.

And on the racial integration front, the AAFC was going to be an integrated league from the beginning.