How is it that the Bears have played 34 more games in the NFL than the Packers? The Packers joined the league one year after the Bears.
There was no set league schedule in the early years. Teams scheduled their own games, and it was basically easier for the Bears to do so because other teams could make more money playing in Chicago than in Green Bay or at home in some cases against an opponent other than Green Bay.
In 1920, the first year of the American Professional Football Association (now the NFL), the Decatur Staleys played 13 games. In 1921, they played 11, while the Packers played six in what was their maiden season in the APFA.
That year, the Packers had difficulty scheduling games and didn’t play their first league game until Oct. 23, almost a month after the league opener. At the end of that season, the Staleys – renamed the Chicago Bears in 1922 – scheduled additional…
