“I like Bert Bell and I think they have made a good choice. I personally want to stay in the game. I have no commercial tieups other than the business I was brought up in.” ~ Elmer Layden
Elmer Layden, in 1938, when he was head coach of the University of Notre Dame football team
The landscape of professional football governance shifted significantly on January 11, 1946, with the announcement that Bert Bell would replace Elmer Layden as Commissioner of the National Football League. While Layden was offered a lifetime administrative role with the league, his departure was essentially a forced resignation stemming from intense scrutiny over the NFL’s handling of competition with the newly formed All-America Football Conference (AAFC). Layden was criticized for failing to maintain control of the player market, allowing the rival league to sign high-profile talent and threatening the NFL’s dominance immediately following World War II.
This leadership change carried a striking layer of historical irony, rooted deeply in collegiate legend. Elmer Layden was famously one of the legendary “Four Horsemen” of Notre Dame, the backfield that led the Irish to the 1924 National Championship. The competition that forced him out of the NFL’s top job was led by the AAFC, whose own Commissioner was none other than Jim Crowley—another of the famed Four Horsemen. This unique scenario saw two icons of college football competing head-to-head in the professional administrative arena, ultimately leading to Layden’s replacement by Bell, an established NFL owner whose experience and ownership background were deemed necessary to win the war against the AAFC.
Source: The South Bend Tribune, Sat, Jan 12, 1946 ·Page 5 via Newspapers.com
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