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The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/ZappaOMatic on 2024-07-24 18:32:58+00:00.
Original Title: [OC] In 1922, the Bears and Cardinals got into a bench-clearing brawl that fans—some with guns—joined in, and for which the Cards’ Paddy Driscoll was ejected. The Bears’ George Halas asked to let Driscoll come back but was denied, leading to another fight that caused Halas to also be thrown out.
While not exactly a rivalry these days given they’re no longer in the same division or city, the Bears and Cardinals were natural adversaries during the NFL’s early years as fellow Chicago teams in a football version of Cubs vs. White Sox. The Bears tended to have the Cardinals’ number, ultimately winning 47 times to the Cards’ 19 in the four-decade battle for Chicago.
By 1922, just their third year of playing each other, things were already getting dicey…
Buildup
The date was November 30, 1922. Thanksgiving Day was upon America, and fans in Canton, Columbus, Racine, Rochester, and of course Chicago celebrated by flocking to their home stadiums to watch their teams play. In Chicago, the Bears and Cards were set for their first meeting of the season at the latter’s Comiskey Park.
The Bears, in their first season under their current identity, entered the game with an 8–1 record while the Cardinals were sitting at 6–2. Both teams had lost to the undefeated Canton Bulldogs, the Cards in particular entering with a two-game losing streak after being swept by the eventual NFL champion. Besides trying (ultimately futilely) to catch the Bulldogs, they wanted to get a leg up in their fledgling rivalry after splitting the inaugural series in 1920 and tying in their only meeting of 1921.
In the league’s early days, scheduling was archaic as some teams played more games than others and games could be canceled altogether without penalty. Heck, the Bears and Cardinals agreed to play on Thanksgiving two days before the holiday and after months of arguing.[1][2]
According to Bears co-owner Dutch Sternaman, talks about a Thanksgiving game began in June, but fell through because the Bears wanted to play at Cubs Park while the Cards wanted it to be at Comiskey. The Bears decided to schedule the Toledo Maroons for Thanksgiving Day while playing the Cards the week before on November 23 (some reports also suggested the Bears were going to play the Packers on Thanksgiving). However, Cardinals boss Chris O’Brien insisted on a Bears/Cards game at Comiskey on Thanksgiving, and the NFL took his side in the end. Historian Joe Ziemba suggested Sternaman and O’Brien were operating on spite, the former peeved about the inconsistent scheduling while the latter was mad that the Bears tried to sign away Cards star Paddy Driscoll before the league intervened.[2]
Despite the drama that came from it, it was a pretty sensible arrangement in the big picture. The deal consisted of a home-and-home series where they would first play at Comiskey on Thanksgiving, then the Bears would host the Cards at Cubs Park on December 10. Besides filling in empty schedule slots, especially to help catch the Bulldogs, both teams did not really leave Chicago during the year. The Thanksgiving game was technically just the Bears’ third away game of the season and first since Week 2, while the second Bulldogs game was the Cards’ only road game. As neither team was exactly interested in leaving town, they figured to just enjoy the holiday from their own backyard.[1][2] The second game ended up being at Comiskey as well as the Cubs had to close their ballpark to work on the field before winter.[2]
All that aside, the game figured to be a good one between two of the league’s top contenders. Many felt a “running duel” was “promised” between Driscoll and the Bears’ Pete Stinchcomb, the latter bolstered by the recent addition of end Ed Healey from the Rock Island Independents.[2][3]
Healey, a future Pro Football Hall of Famer, had impressed Bears player/coach George Halas in the Independents/Bears games in Weeks 2 and 8. The two tangled quite a lot during their second meeting, played the week before Thanksgiving: Halas kept holding Healey by the sleeve but got away with it, prompting Healey to tell the referee, “‘I understand to start with that you’re on the payroll of the Bears. […] In the event that Halas holds me again, I am going to commit mayhem.’” When Halas did it again, Healey tried to punch him but Halas slipped on the mud, causing him to miss.[4]
After Rock Island shut down midseason due to financial issues, Healey was recruited by the Packers before Halas swooped in and paid him $100 (about $1,870.09 today) a game to come to Chicago. Halas initially offered $75 ($1,402.57) per game but Healey demanded more and he acquiesced. Officially, Healey was described as being “loaned” to the Bears, which was reinforced with a clause that allowed him to return to Rock Island in 1923 if they wanted him back; since this never happened even though the Independents resumed play the following season, Healey instead became the first player to be sold entirely to another team. Ziemba also noted an interesting quirk of the transaction: Halas technically paid $200 ($3,740.18) for Healey because in addition to the $100 to him personally, he gave Rock Island owner Walt Flanigan another $100 to help him pay off his debts.[2]
Being so new to the Bears, Healey started the game on the bench. However, he quickly made an impact in a rather unique way…
The First Half
Kickoff was at 11 AM “so that the fans can get home to Thanksgiving dinner,” as local news remarked.[3] Weather was also below freezing, but 14,000 showed up for the largest fan turnout in Cards history at that point.[2]
Despite the pre-game hype about a battle of rushing attacks, neither offense could get going in the cold. Although not as muddy as their scoreless tie in 1921, the field was extremely slippery and resulted in two fumbles early on: Driscoll lost the ball shortly after the game began, only for Sternaman to miss a 40-yard field goal, then Joey Sternaman muffed a punt that the Cards recovered on the Bears’ 16. Driscoll shanked an ensuing drop kick.[5]
In the second quarter, a strong punt by Driscoll pinned the Bears on their 5, which set the Cardinals offense up in good field position after the Bears struggled then botched a punt of their own. Switching to a more pass-oriented strategy, the Cards drove downfield before Driscoll converted a 20-yard drop kick to break the tie.[2][5] The Bears tried to respond with their own passing attack but was picked off by Arnold Horween (who was playing under the alias “A. McMahon” because he didn’t want his mom to find out he was playing pro football, which was frowned upon by many at the time).[5][6] Driscoll then missed another field goal.[5]
The Bears seemed to have their break on a Sternaman interception returned for 30 yards, but they couldn’t score before halftime.[5]
Cardinals 3, Bears 0.
Then things got out of hand.
The Second Half
Halfway through the third quarter, Driscoll broke free around the left tackle when Halas and Sternaman came in to tackle him… by picking him up then throwing him headfirst to the ground. Though woozy, Driscoll, “mad as a hatter,” got up and immediately punched Sternaman in the face multiple times. He then went after Halas, causing players from both teams to run onto the field to break up the fight (or join in).[2][7]
To make matters worse, roughly “a hundred excited fans” who wanted a closer look (or join in) poured onto the field. Three to four police officers followed to try to break them up.[2][7]
“Paddy Driscoll made a good run, reaching our 20,” Halas began.[2] “Joe Sternaman and I thought that must not be allowed to happen again. On the next play, Driscoll set off with the ball. Joe and I brought him down with all the force we could muster, which was considerable. Paddy was down but not out. He pulled himself to his feet, wobbled toward Joe and started pummeling him with both fists. That is when the thugs came out. So did reserve players. So did fans from both stands. The police came out too, wielding sticks and blowing whistles and shouting.”
But then again, some of the folks on the field weren’t exactly the typical fans. Also in the fracas were gangsters from Chicago’s most notorious criminal organizations, including associates of Al Capone and Ragen’s Colts, and they were armed. Ragen’s Colts were even partly connected to the Cardinals, having started as an athletic club that rivaled the Cards’ predecessor Morgan Athletic Club while some of its members later joined the team. Healey recalled:[2][4]
Driscoll was one of my dear friends—I had a lot of friends on the Cardinals team—but I was going in to give him an affectionate enclosure, don’t you know? I was going to make him secure.
And then, holy cow! Out from the Cardinals bench poured a group of men with rods [handguns] on! They were going out here to protect their idol, Paddy Driscoll. As you may recall, the vogue at that time was that all the gangsters in the world were functioning in Chicago. You had Ragen’s Colts from back in the yards (various Cardinals used to be members of this gang). You had the O’Donnell crowd. You had the Al Capone crowd. So here came that bunch of South Side rooters, flowing out from the bench with rods on.
Immediately, I stopped in my tracks. I stood there in amazement. All I could think of was that a coupl…
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