Main Event
Short-Term Impact
The draft was a success and there has been one every year since 1936. A number of things have changed since the first draft. One thing that changed was the number of rounds, there have been many changes to this, but today the league has settled on seven rounds. The draft was deemed a success by local newspapers in America. At this time, the NFL was not a popular league so this draft brought in more fans. One negative was that only 24 of the 81 players drafted decided to go into the NFL.
Tom Fears diving for a football
This was a problem for the league. Organizations needed to pay players enough money to stay in the league and needed to advertise more to bring in that money. In the 1930s, advertising was done in newspapers and not TV. The first ad for the NFL aired in a newspaper informing the audience of a new sport to come. The league’s use of advertising made the NFL what it is today.