1944 NFL season
The 1944 NFL season was the league’s 25th. Ten teams each played a 10-game schedule, for a total of 50 games. The season ended with the Championship Game at the Polo Grounds in New York City on December 17, 1944, where the Green Bay Packers defeated the New York Giants 14–7.
New teams and major changes
- The Boston Yanks joined the NFL as an expansion team.
- The Brooklyn Dodgers shortened their name to the Brooklyn Tigers for one season before merging with Boston in 1945.
- The Cleveland Rams and the Philadelphia Eagles resumed play after wartime pauses. The Pittsburgh Steelers joined with the Chicago Cardinals to form Card-Pitt, playing games in both Pittsburgh and Chicago.
- The 1944 draft was held on April 19 at Philadelphia’s Warwick Hotel. Boston Yanks’ first pick was Angelo Bertelli, a quarterback from Notre Dame.
Two winless teams and other notes
- The season featured two winless teams, Hammond Pros and Louisville Colonels, both going 0–4—the first and only time this happened since 1926.
- The Brooklyn Tigers and Card-Pitt both finished 0–10.
- Since 1944, only five teams have had winless seasons: the 1960 Dallas Cowboys (0–11–1), the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0–14), the 1982 Baltimore Colts (0–8–1), the 2008 Detroit Lions (0–16), and the 2017 Cleveland Browns (0–16).
- The Colts’ season was shortened by a players’ strike; the Cowboys and Buccaneers were expansion teams.
Season story lines
- The Packers dominated the Western Division by winning their first six games.
- In the Eastern Division, Washington and Philadelphia were unbeaten after nine weeks. After Week 10, the Eagles were 5–0–2, but by Week 11 the Giants and Redskins had pulled ahead to 6–1–1.
- Week 12 featured a big crowd at the Polo Grounds for Giants vs. Redskins; Washington led 13–10 before New York won 16–13.
- In Week 13, the Eagles beat the Rams to finish 7–1–2, while the Giants finished 7–1–1 after beating Washington 31–0 in a rematch, securing the division and the right to host the championship.
Championship
- Green Bay Packers 14, New York Giants 7, at the Polo Grounds, New York City, December 17, 1944.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 10:13 (CET).