|
The 1944 NFL season was the 25th regular season of the United States National Football League. The Boston Yanks joined the league as an expansion team. Also, the Brooklyn Dodgers changed their name to Brooklyn Tigers. Meanwhile, both the Cleveland Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles resumed their traditional operations. But the Pittsburgh Steelers then merged with the Chicago Cardinals for this one season due to player shortages as a result of World War II. The combined team, known as Card-Pitt, played half of their home games in each city. Card-Pitt set the 20th century record for lowest punting average by an NFL team with 32.7 yards per punt.〔Kiss Em Goodbye: An ESPN Treasury of failed, forgotten, and departed teams, p.69, Dennis Purdy, Ballantine Books, New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-345-52012-8〕 The season is notable in that it featured two winless teams (the only such case in NFL history after the league stabilized from its earlier years of revolving door membership when winless teams were much more common) as both Brooklyn and Card-Pitt went on to finish 0–10. Since 1944, only four teams have gone winless in the NFL for an entire season: the 1960 Dallas Cowboys (0–11–1), the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0–14), the 1982 Baltimore Colts (0–8–1), and the 2008 Detroit Lions (0–16). In the case of the Colts, the season was shortened due to a league-wide players strike, while the Cowboys and Buccaneers were both expansion teams the year they went winless. The season ended when the Green Bay Packers defeated the New York Giants in the NFL Championship Game. ==Major rule changes== *The free substitution rule is modified so that substitutes do not have to report to the officials before a play. *Communication between the players and coaches on the field is permitted as long as the coaches are in the designated areas along the sidelines, and that they do not cause a delay in the game. *If the offensive team commits pass interference in their opponent's end zone, it is just a distance penalty and no longer an automatic touchback. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1944 NFL season」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|