1953 National Football League season
NFL teams:
West,
East
The
1953 NFL season
was the 34th
regular season
of the
National Football League
. The names of the American and National conferences were changed to the Eastern and Western conferences.
The season ended on December 27 with the
NFL championship game
in which the
Detroit Lions
defeated the
Cleveland Browns
for the second year in a row.
Draft
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The
1953 NFL Draft
was held on January 22, 1953, at
Bellevue-Stratford Hotel
in
Philadelphia
. With the first pick, the
San Francisco 49ers
selected defensive end
Harry Babcock
from
Georgia
.
Major rule changes
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The definition of illegal motion was clarified so that a player moving directly forward at the snap was to be considered illegally in motion.
Enfranchisement of the Baltimore Colts
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A
Baltimore, Maryland
, group headed by
Carroll Rosenbloom
was granted an NFL team, and was awarded the holdings of the defunct
Dallas Texans
organization. The new team was named the
Baltimore Colts
, after
the unrelated previous team
that folded after the
1950
season. While the first Colts franchise used a green and silver color scheme, the new Colts franchise retained the blue and white color scheme used by the Texans.
The 12 teams of this NFL season continued for the rest of the decade of the 1950s. These would become known as "old-line" teams as they predated the
1960
launch of the
American Football League
(AFL).
Conference races
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For 1953, the former American and National Conferences of the previous three seasons were renamed the Eastern and Western Conferences, respectively. The Western race saw the Rams beat the Lions twice, in Detroit (October 18) and in L.A. (November 1), and at the midway point in
Week Six
, the Rams were a full game ahead in the race. In
Week Seven
(November 8), the 49ers beat the Rams 31?27, and the Lions won their game, to put all three teams at 5?2?0. In
Week Eight
, the Lions beat Green Bay 14?7, while the Rams were tied 24?24 by the Cards, and the 49ers lost 23?21 to the Browns. As both teams won their remaining games, San Francisco was always a game behind Detroit.
In the Eastern, the Cleveland Browns won their first eleven games and led wire-to-wire, clinching a playoff spot by week 10. Their shot at a 12?0?0 regular season was spoiled by a 42?27 loss in the finale on December 13, and tarnished further by the championship game loss to the Lions two weeks later.
Week
|
Western
|
Record
|
Eastern
|
Record
|
1
|
4 teams
|
1?0?0
|
Tie (Cle, Was)
|
1?0?0
|
2
|
Tie (Det, SF)
|
2?0?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
2?0?0
|
3
|
Detroit Lions
|
3?0?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
3?0?0
|
4
|
3 teams
|
3?1?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
4?0?0
|
5
|
Tie (Det, LA)
|
4?1?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
5?0?0
|
6
|
Los Angeles Rams
|
5?1?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
6?0?0
|
7
|
3 teams
|
5?2?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
7?0?0
|
8
|
Detroit Lions
|
6?2?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
8?0?0
|
9
|
Detroit Lions
|
7?2?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
9?0?0
|
10
|
Detroit Lions
|
8?2?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
10?0?0
|
11
|
Detroit Lions
|
9?2?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
11?0?0
|
12
|
Detroit Lions
|
10?2?0
|
Cleveland Browns
|
11?1?0
|
Final standings
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Note:
Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.
|
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NFL Championship Game
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Detroit 17, Cleveland 16 at
Briggs Stadium
in
Detroit
, on December 27, 1953
Attendance
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A total of 2,164,585 fans attended the 72 regular season league games held in the 1953 season.
[1]
Another 54,577 attended the league championship game, for a total attendance of 2,219,162, or 30,399 per game.
[1]
Eleven of the 12 teams in the league reported profitable financial operations, with only the
Chicago Cardinals
losing money ? with this franchise said to have reduced its red ink "drastically" from its 1952 operations.
[1]
League leaders
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Awards
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Coaching changes
[
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Offseason
[
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In-season
[
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Stadium changes
[
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References
[
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]
- ^
a
b
c
Harry MacNamara, "National Pro League," in
Street & Smith's 1954 Football Pictorial Yearbook.
New York: Street & Smith Publications, 1954; p. 107.
Additional sources
[
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]
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Early era
(1920?1969)
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Modern era
(1970?present)
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Italics
indicate future seasons
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