Editing Bert Bell (section)

====Election, Hapes-Filchock, and the NFL schedule (1946–1948)====
[[Elmer Layden]] was appointed the first NFL commissioner in 1941, but Ward appeared as dictating his hiring.<ref>Littlewood: 133</ref> Layden tendered his resignation for personal reasons January 1946.<ref>Davis 2005: 199; cf. MacCambridge 2005: 15, Peterson: 159</ref> Bell, who was not well respected in Pittsburgh,<ref>Ruck; Patterson and Weber: 225; cf. Davis 2005: 201</ref> was elected to replace him.<ref>Williams: 41; cf. Lyons: 116–117, MacCambridge 2005: 15</ref> He received a three-year contract at $20,000 per year ({{Inflation|US|20000|1946|r=-4|fmt=eq}}),<ref>{{cite news | title = Layden Quits; Bell New Czar | date = January 12, 1946 | url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rlFQAAAAIBAJ&dq=bert%20bell&pg=7194%2C6023617 | work = [[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|Milwaukee Sentinel]] }}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and transacted a sale of his stake in the Steelers to Rooney,<ref>Lyons: 114</ref> albeit for a price Bell did not construe was full-value.<ref name="Lyons">Lyons: 166–167</ref> He was then immediately placed at the center of a controversy wherein the owners denied [[Dan Reeves (NFL owner)|Dan Reeves]] permission to relocate the [[History of the Cleveland Rams|Cleveland Rams]] to [[Los Angeles]].<ref name = "MDYL">MacCambridge 2005: 15–16; cf. Davis 2005: 201–202, Yost: 57–58: Lyons: 117–118</ref> Bell moderated a settlement, and, as a result, the [[Los Angeles Rams]] were formed.<ref name = "MDYL"/> As a precondition to the Rams leasing the [[Los Angeles Coliseum]], they signed [[Kenny Washington (American football)|Kenny Washington]], which marked the beginning of the end of racial segregation on the field, but also caused "'all hell to break loose'" amidst the owners.<!--although no details exist on what the exactly means--><ref>Rathet; Brown: 210</ref>

The drawing up of a regular-season schedule had been a perennial source of contention among the NFL owners since the league's inception.<ref>Willis: 302, 303, 308, 371, 383</ref> The crux of the problem was the scheduling of games meant weighing the interest of owners who, early in the season, wanted their franchises to confront teams that drew the largest crowds, versus owners who wanted to play the weaker franchises to pad their team's win–loss record.<ref>Yost: 61; cf. Sullivan: 26.</ref> The resultant impasse coerced the owners, in 1946, to confer upon Bell the sole discretion in developing the league's schedule.<ref>MacCambridge 2005: 40; cf. Maule:  242, Ruck; Patterson and Weber: 248</ref> He utilized this responsibility to, early in the season, pit the weaker teams against other weak teams, and the strong teams against other strong teams.<ref name="S26;RPW248">Sullivan: 26; Ruck; Patterson and Weber: 248</ref> His goal was to augment game attendances by keeping the difference in team standings to a minimum as deep into the season as possible.<ref name="S26;RPW248"/>

On the eve of the [[1946 NFL Championship Game|1946 championship game]], Bell was notified that [[Merle Hapes]] and [[Frank Filchock]] of the [[New York Giants]] had been implicated in a bribing scandal.<ref>{{cite news |title=Merle Hapes, 75, Ex-Giant Fullback |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/21/obituaries/merle-hapes-75-ex-giant-fullback.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 21, 1994}}; cf. Coenen: 127, Peterson: 159–160, MacCambridge 2005: 48, Pervin: 15, Lyons: 130</ref> Filchock was sanctioned by Bell to play in the game but Hapes was suspended.<ref>Lyons: 130–131; cf. Pervin: 16, Davis 2005 p. 207</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/87058195/ex-commissioners-justice-was-clear-as-a/ |title=Ex-commissioner's justice was clear as a bell |first=Kevin Paul |last=Dupont |newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]] |page=C2 |date=September 21, 2014 |access-date=October 13, 2021 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> At the next NFL owners' meeting, Bell was worried the repercussions from this event would lead to his firing.<ref name="NYTH">{{cite news | first = Al | last = Hirschberg | title = He Calls the Signals in Pro Football | date = November 23, 1958 | work = [[The New York Times Magazine]] | pages = 23+}}</ref> However, he was pleasantly surprised to learn that his contract would be elevated to five years at $30,000 per year.<ref name="LY129">Lyons: 129</ref> Reinvigorated with renewed support, he persuaded the owners to allow him to put sudden-death overtime into the playoffs.<ref>Lyons: 289; cf. DeVito: 83, Willis: 301, Maule: 242</ref>

Subsequently, he wrote an anti-gambling resolution into the league constitution,<ref>Lyons: 131–132; cf: [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=byY_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=M08MAAAAIBAJ&pg=3053,1968248 Bell Planning Campaign to Kill Gambling]</ref> which empowered him with the ability to permanently ban any NFL associated personnel for betting on a game or for withholding information on a game being possibly fixed.<ref>Lyons: 203–204; cf. MacCambridge 2005: 48–49</ref> Furthermore, to obstruct gamblers from getting inside information, he secreted the names of officials he would assign to games,<ref name="NYTH"/> and he directed each team to promulgate a precursory injury report which listed anyone who might not participate in a game.<ref>Lyons: 134–135; cf. MacCambridge 2005: 48–49</ref> Eventually, he lobbied to get every state in the US to criminalize the fixing of sporting events<ref name="Lyons_a">Lyons: 142</ref> and put employees on the payroll of the NFL to investigate potential betting scams.<ref>Yost: 60; cf. Daley: 193</ref>