1932
The Spartans' roster shrunk to 22 players, many of them returning from the '31 season. Only four were in their rookie year, a stark departure from previous years.
Dutch Clark was again First Team All-Pro at Quarterback, and for the first and only time,
Father Lumpkin aka Roy Lee Lumpkin earned that honor at blocking back. Clark and Presnell shared the passing duties fairly equally; Clark had about double the carries of any other rusher on the team with 138. Presnell, Cavosie, and rookie
LeRoy Erwin 'Ace' Gutowsky each had 62-68 rushes apiece.
Dutch Clark had 2 passing, 3 rushing, and 3 receiving touchdowns which tells you a lot about his versatility; no other Portsmouth player scored more in any of those categories.
Harry Ebding was the most prolific receiver in what of course was a run-dominated era, with 14 catches for 171 yards.
Green Bay appeared set to win their fourth straight title after starting the year 8-0-1, but they faded to a 10-3-1 finish including losses in their final two games to Portsmouth and Chicago - who finished in a tie at 6-1-4 and 6-1-6 respectively. As weird as it seems for teams with 6 wins to be ahead of a team with 10, it's an artifact of the policy of ignoring ties for the purposes of the standings. Portsmouth and Chicago tied with an .857 winning percentage at 6-1 as a result, while at 10-3 Green Bay was behind them at .769.
No tiebreakers were in force, but as a curiosity, from a point differential standpoint, Chicago had 151 scored and 44 allowed, Green Bay 152 scored and 63 allowed, and Portsmouth 116 scored and 62 allowed. The head to head results had Green Bay with a win and a loss against Portsmouth, a win, loss, and tie against Chicago in three meetings, and Portsmouth had tied Chicago in both of their games against each other, so none of that would have done anybody any good.
Overall, one would expect the Chicago Bears to be the best team based on the points scored, but they'd also tied almost half of their games. What ended up actually happening both is, and at the same time is not, the first playoff game in NFL history. Chicago and Portsmouth played an extra game, a rubber match if you will. Practically speaking it was a championship game and it was referred to as one, but it was also just added to the final standings, and is not officially considered a playoff game, which means whoever lost would be bumped down to third below Green Bay. Poetic justice would be for a third tie deciding absolutely nothing, and who knows how history would have been different if that happened. In actuality, it was scoreless for three quarters with the decisive play being a scoring pass thrown in the fourth quarter by Chicago's Bronko Nagurski, a man who for my money possessed the greatest name of any football player ever. The play was protested by Portsmouth who claimed that Nagurski was not 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage, which was required at the time on all forward passes. This was to no avail, the play stood and a late safety made up the final margin.
Portsmouth had been close to being champions in both their second and third year, coming away with neither one, and having the franchise's first real controversy. They finish third, and Chicago ends Green Bay's streak of titles. More importantly, the game was quite popular and prompted a number of changes by the league:
- The NFL was divided into two divisions, with a true playoff game between the top team in each to determine the champion. The precursor to the modern Super Bowl was born.
- Forward passes at any point behind the line of scrimmage were legalized, eliminating the 5-yard rule. In proposing the change, Potsy Clark acerbically noted that 'Nagurski would do it anyway'. Cheeky. One can easily imagine that this would benefit his own star, Dutch Clark, as much if not more than any other player, as a possible motivation.
- Goal posts were moved forward to the goal line from the end line.
These were the first departures from existing college rules that the NFL would make, with part of at least the stated goals improve scoring, reduce the number of ties and improve the game. At least in terms of the ties, they were successful in this. In 1932, 20.8% of games ended in a tie; the following year, that number was slashed to 8.8%, with only five games failing to produce a decisive result.
SAT Verdict
The final pre-championship game standings are listed below, followed by the SAT average over 10 season simulations. This is the intended methodology for future years as well.
Code:
Chicago Bears 6-1-6, .857; 73-39-18, .652
Portsmouth Spartans 6-1-4, .857; 54-45-12, .545
Green Bay Packers 10-3-1, .769; 62-51-13, .549
Boston Braves 4-4-2, .500; 53-51-10, .510
New York Giants 4-6-2, .400; 46-69-4, .407
Brooklyn Dodgers 3-9-0, .250; 43-66-10, .394
Chicago Cardinals 2-6-2, .250; 41-46-13, .471
Staten Island Stapletons 2-7-3, .222; 53-58-9, .477
The main conclusion here is that pretty much anything could have happened. Most teams finished in first place at some point in the replays. Secondarily, the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers were the worst overall, the Chicago Bears the best overall, and you can basically flip a coin between Green Bay and Portsmouth for the second position. Staten Island perhaps underperformed the most in the actual season compared to SAT's results.
The Bears essentially were the right champion, somewhat masked by being unfortunate in some of their tie games. Portsmouth was somewhat lucky in this case to be their opposition in the title game. Ultimately it's one of those defining events where the way things happened to turn out shaped the future sport, even if it wasn't the most likely turn of events. At some point, even if it wasn't Chicago and Portsmouth in 1932, there would have been a tie in the standings. Could have happened sooner, could have happened later.