There was one moment, at New York's Polo Grounds last week, when it looked as if the New York Giants, champions of the East for three years, might win their most important football game of the year. That was in the first quarter when they stopped the Boston Redskins one foot short of a touchdown. Except for another goal-line stand, this time when the Redskins needed four yards to score, the rest of the game, roughest and grimmest of the season, was Boston's all the way. Ankle-deep mud slowed down the Giants' best ball carrier, Alphonse ("Tuffy") Leemans.
Accidents sent three other New Yorkers to the hospital — Les Corzine with a broken ankle, Gene Rose with a bone bruise, Tony Sarausky with a concussion. Darkness came on so early in the afternoon that the second half was played under flood lights. In a cold, steady rain, the game remained partially concealed from 18,000 spectators by a cloud of steam arising from the players' bodies. When the lights went off and the mist cleared, Boston had won, 14-to-0, with one touch down on Donald Irwin's line plunge climaxing a 38-yd. march, one on Cliff Battles' 74-yd. run.
Last week's game was the most important of the season for both Redskins and Giants because it meant championship of the Eastern Division, one of the two into which U. S. professional football's National League is divided. Championship of the Western Division was clinched last fortnight by the Green Bay Packers. This week the Redskins play the Packers for the League championship.
Because the Redskins, highly popular on the road, have been so thoroughly ignored at home that their owner, Washington Laundryman George Preston Marshall, next season plans to move them home to the capital, professional football's No. 1 game of the year will be played in New York City.
Professional football in the U. S. started about 40 years ago. It has become a big business in the last two years. When the National League, oldest in the game, started in 1921, a franchise was worth $50. The Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears and New York Giants are now worth about $250,000 each. Last week the nine National League teams had drawn 1,200,000 spectators to their 54 games this season, 20% more than last year. Biggest crowd of the year was 76,000 at a pre-season game between the Detroit Lions and a team of picked college stars last September. The collegians tied the Lions, 7-to-7, but this was less a set-back than a tribute to professional football. Most of the ablest members of the amateur side were only waiting for the referee's final whistle after a second charity game against the New York Giants a week later before signing contracts as professionals.