Bert Bell

Bert Bell

De Benneville "Bert" Bell (February 25, 1895 – October 11, 1959) was a National Football League (NFL) commissioner who introduced competitive parity into the NFL to ameliorate the league's commercial viability and enhance its popularity. His passion for the game of football enabled him to create a path for the NFL to become the most financially sound sport's enterprise in the United States (US) and the dominant sports attraction in the country. For his contributions to the NFL, he was posthumously enshrined into the charter class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Bell played football at the University of Pennsylvania, and as quarterback for the Quakers, he led his team to the 1917 Rose Bowl. He was drafted into the US Army during World War I before ending his collegiate days at Penn and becoming an assistant football coach with the Quakers in the 1920s. During the Great Depression, he was an assistant coach for the Temple Owls and, later, a co-founder and co-owner of the Philadelphia Eagles.

With the Eagles, Bell convinced the other NFL owners to establish the National Football League Draft in order to afford the weakest teams the first opportunity to sign the best available players. He subsequently became the sole proprietor of the Eagles, but the franchise suffered financially. Eventually, he sold the Eagles and bought a stake in the Pittsburgh Steelers. During World War II, Bell auspiciously argued against the league suspending operations until the war's conclusion.

After the war, he was elected NFL commissioner and sold his ownership in the Steelers. As commissioner, he implemented a proactive anti-gambling agenda, negotiated a merger with the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), and unilaterally crafted the entire league schedule with an emphasis on augmenting the dramatic effect of late season matches. During the Golden Age of Television, he tailored the game's rules to strengthen its appeal to mass media, and he enforced a blackout policy of locally televised home contests to safeguard ticket receipts. Amidst criticism from franchise owners and under pressure from Congress, he unilaterally recognized the NFLPA and facilitated in the composing of the first pension plan for the players. His life would abide to oversee the "Greatest Game Ever Played" and to envision what the league would become in the future.