American Football
Created by The HISTORY® Channel, SMAC Entertainment and Misher Films, “American Football” is the untold tale of the dirty, bloody and tumultuous origins of America's most popular sport.
Produced and presented by Michael Strahan and narrated by Kate Mara, this podcast dives into the history of a grassroots sport that exploded in popularity and became rife with class conflict. Hear how new immigrants and the underclass fought to play a brand-new sport that defined the American spirit, but was controlled by the American elite.
“American Football” brings together today’s greatest players, coaches and personalities to explore the history of the sport. It also features a unique play-by-play format that recreates classic games using the renowned voices of our modern era. Listen on audible and everywhere you get your podcasts.
Listen Now
Episode 1: Canton, Ohio
The sport of American football began as a stand-in for war – a place where young men at elite colleges could prove their mettle fighting on the gridiron. But as blue-collar factory workers and immigrants appropriated the new sport for themselves, a passion was ignited for the gladiatorial game. Nowhere was this more true than in the bitter rivalry between two neighboring Ohio towns, Canton and Massillon, which gave birth to professional football… and nearly killed it.
Episode 2: Path Lit by Great Flash of Lightning
Rocked by an unproven betting scandal, the professional game needed a bright new star to light its way. It would find that unlikely star in a Sac-and-Fox Native American known as Wa-Tho-Huk, Path Lit by Great Flash of Lightning. Better known as Jim Thorpe, All-American, he would soon show the world he was not just the greatest football player of his day, but arguably the greatest athlete of all time.
Episode 3: Gentleman Joe
While Jim Thorpe helped resuscitate the pro game on the field, the loose affiliation of teams were still in desperate need of organization and legitimacy. With an ever-changing number of self-interested owners, competing for ticket sales and victory at all costs, they needed a new sheriff who could come in and impose order. The man who stepped up was too small to play the game himself, but future league President Joe Carr had a dream big enough to unite football’s early warring owners into what would one day become the NFL.
Episode 4: The Human Torpedo
In 1920, the first official year of the NFL’s storied history, its success was anything but assured. The still chaotic league needed a headliner to excite fans and generate sales, someone unlike any other player who’d come before. As one of just a handful of African Americans to play pro football back then, Fritz Pollard was that once-in-a-generation player. He would suffer every racial indignity on his way to proving he was not only worthy, but was, in fact, the very best.
Episode 5: Papa Bear
Lombardi, Belichick, Landry, Shula – only a handful of names so completely evoke the heart and soul of a team. But before them all, there was George Halas, the player, coach and owner of the team he would name the Chicago Bears. Halas’ passion for football and his desire to win went beyond obsession, ignited a rivalry with the like-minded Curly Lambeau and his newly formed Packers, and forced the young league, particularly its rule-loving President Joe Carr, to keep up or get out of the way.
Episode 6: A New York Giant
Five years in and the young NFL was a success – if the goal of every team was to lose money. For rivals Joe Carr and George Halas, they had to unite to survive. The small, industrial towns of football’s past could no longer sustain its future. The league needed a New York franchise, but given the league’s current financials, who’d be crazy enough to try? Enter Tim Mara, a New York Giant.
Episode 7: The Iceman Cometh
First there was Thorpe, then Pollard. Now, a small-town, all-American was about to redefine what was possible for football, both on the field and off. Red Grange, an auburn-haired college star, became a national phenomenon, his popularity spreading a wave of football fever across the nation like warm butter on toast. Interest in where he’d play after college set off a major bidding war and established the game’s first sports agent, CC Pyle.
Episode 8: The Grange War
Not satisfied to control the fate of Red Grange, the greatest player in the game, C.C. “Cash and Carry” Pyle decided to form his own rival league to take on the NFL directly. He called it the AFL and poached enough players and coaches in a matter of months to challenge Carr, Halas and Mara at their own game. But with the two sides fighting on the field and against each other, it was unclear if either league would survive this deadly game of chicken.