Well, what do you know?

[Bob Gill]

A couple of weeks ago, when the Redskins played the Eagles on Saturday night, the announcers said their rivalry dated back to 1934. The first time, I assumed it was just a slip of the tongue; the second time, I figured somebody had looked this up but managed to get it wrong. I finally got around to checking it for myself last night, and lo and behold, 1934 was right! Though the Eagles and the Redskins were both in the Eastern Division in 1933, they did not play each other at all.

I knew the individual teams were still making their own schedules back then, but that's pretty hard to believe. I wonder if George Marshall hated Bert Bell -- or, perhaps more likely, the other way around.

[Jay Z]

A couple of weeks ago, when the Redskins played the Eagles on Saturday night, the announcers said their rivalry dated back to 1934. The first time, I assumed it was just a slip of the tongue; the second time, I figured somebody had looked this up but managed to get it wrong. I finally got around to checking it for myself last night, and lo and behold, 1934 was right! Though the Eagles and the Redskins were both in the Eastern Division in 1933, they did not play each other at all.

I knew the individual teams were still making their own schedules back then, but that's pretty hard to believe. I wonder if George Marshall hated Bert Bell -- or, perhaps more likely, the other way around.

Marshall was friends with Bell pre-NFL and invited Bell to buy a franchise. So I don't think it was animosity. Just extremely quirky scheduling of 1933.

In addition to not playing the Redskins, the Eagles also didn't play fellow Eastern Division team the Brooklyn Dodgers. Only 3 of the Eagles' 9 games were in the division; they played the Giants twice and the Pirates once. They played Western teams Green Bay and Cincinnati twice, the Chicago Bears and Portsmouth Spartans once, and didn't play the Cardinals.

The Giants of 1933 played 8 division games, 5 more than the Eagles. Of course, they also played 14 games, five more than the Eagles' 9. The Giants did manage to play all of their division opponents twice. Of course, they also played the Packers, Bears, and Spartans twice, and didn't play the Reds or Cardinals at all.

The Eagles' first NFL game didn't come until October 15th. Why this was the case is unclear to me. The two other new teams, the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates, both opened in September.

An issue may have been stadium availability. Most of the teams played in parks that also featured baseball, and had limited availability for home dates until October. Green Bay and Portsmouth were exceptions, and opened with several home games. Pittsburgh also opened with four homes games. These were all Wednesday night games, presumably played under portable lights. The first occurred on September 20th, the baseball Pirates had played their last home game of the season earlier that day.

Wednesday night games were necessary because Pennsylvania's "Blue" laws prohibiting Sunday play weren't changed until the fall of 1933, subject to municipal vote. The municipal vote took place in November, and after that the Pirates and Eagles could play Sunday home games. For some reason, the Eagles were more reluctant to schedule Wednesday night games, only scheduling one at Baker Bowl. Since Baker Bowl never had permanent lights until it was abandoned by the baseball Phillies, perhaps neighborhood issues made night baseball unattractive there. That's just speculation on my part.

[Bob Gill]

All interesting stuff. Your speculation is better than anything I could think of.