Atlanta Makes Its Pro Football Choice

Our Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the Day comes from the July 1, 1965, edition of the Atlanta Constitution, when they described in print:

Atlanta Selects NFL After Rankin Smith is Awarded Franchise: AFL Bows Out As Lease is Granted at $9 Million

The Atlanta franchise that would soon be called the Falcons was officially opening up shop. Original franchise owner Rankin Smith was offered to become an NFL expansion team to help prevent him from starting his club in the rival AFL. The AFL aggressively pursued to get a team in the Atlanta market as they staged two pre-season tilts in the city in 1962 to attract interest. The big battle was on who could secure a lease with the Atlanta Stadium Authority.

The article suggests that the Stadium Authority ultimately chose which of the rival Leagues would play in Atlanta. Commissioner Pete Rozelle personally flew to the Georgia city and urged the authorities in Atlanta to decide between the two leagues, and eventually, the NFL was chosen. The brand-new 57,000-seat stadium had just been built at a price tag of $18 million, and now half of its cost would be covered by the new Rankin franchise. This was son after the Milwaukee Braves had moved to Atlanta too. 1966 would indeed be a banner year for sports fans in that area!

A newspaper report in Reno, Nevada's  Nevada State Journal on July 1, 1975, said that the WFL was fining their Jacksonville Express franchise for prematurely signing running back Tommy Reamon on June 30, 1975.

Reamon was the MVP and leading rusher of the World Football League the season before as part of the then recently defunct Orlando Blazers. When the Blazers went under, there was a decision by the WFL to assign this player to the San Antonio Wings franchise, but when they were unable to sign him, they notified the other teams in the League that he was available for trade or purchase. 

However, Jacksonville signed the coveted player before finalizing a deal with the Wings. The penalty...well the Express faced losing a percentage of their gate revenue for two regular season games for the violation. Both of the games that they lost gate revenue from were against the Wings during the 1975 season, 10% in the first meeting and 6% for the second game.

On Wednesday, October 22, a few days before the start of week 13, the WFL went out of business. The Birmingham Vulcans, with a league-best record of 9–3 at the time of the shutdown, were proclaimed league champions. And what happened to Tommy Reamon?

According to Wikipedia, after the WFL folded in 1975, Reamon joined the Pittsburgh Steelers, who had drafted him in the 1974 NFL Draft and retained his rights. That same draft class for the Steelers included the likes of future Hall of Famers Lynn Swann, Jack Lambert, John Stallworth and Mike Webster. Tommy scored a touchdown for the Steelers in the last game ever played between the NFL Super Bowl Champions and College All-Stars. During the 1976 pre-season the Steelers traded Reamon to the Kansas City Chiefs.