Editing All-America Football Conference (section)

==NFL reaction==

As might be expected, the NFL did not welcome its new rival. In 1945, Layden remarked that the AAFC, still a year from its first game, should "first get a ball, then make a schedule, and then play a game".<ref name="Officialhl-AAFC">The NFL's Official Encyclopedic History of Professional Football, 1977: ''The AAFC'', pgs. 245-251</ref> This insult, often paraphrased as "tell them to get a ball first", would be long remembered.

[[Washington Redskins]] owner [[George Preston Marshall]] was perhaps the NFL's hardest-liner regarding the AAFC. In 1945, he commented: "I did not realize there was another league, although I did receive some literature telling about a [[Works Progress Administration|WPA]] project".<ref name="MacCambridge13">America's Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation, by Michael MacCambridge, 2005, pg. 13</ref> Later he declared, "the worst team in our league could beat the best team in theirs".<ref name = "MacCambridge64"/> After the AAFC put a team in [[Baltimore]], Marshall's opposition to it would be a major obstacle to interleague peace. Not coincidentally, his team was badly hurt by the AAFC. A top team from 1936 to 1945, the Redskins began a decades-long title drought after coach [[Ray Flaherty]] and many key players defected in 1946.

Layden's successor, [[Bert Bell]], pursued a policy of official non-recognition, generally answering "no comment" to queries about the other league. In 1947, ''[[Pro Football Illustrated]]'' previewed both leagues in its annual publication and was banned from NFL stadiums.<ref name="MacCambridge50">MacCambridge, pg. 50</ref>