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It may seem hard to believe, but the NFL started as a primitive operation.
Yes, it is now the North American sport the rest are measured by, but 100 years ago, players played at tiny high-school-caliber fields for relative peanuts compared to the entity the NFL has become.
Still, there are original NFL franchises that exist from the league’s founding in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association APFA, even though other clubs have moved or even folded over the 100-plus years.
Here’s a crash course into the oldest NFL teams and history of NFL expansion.
Oldest NFL Teams
The NFL has a long and storied history, with over 100 years of action behind it. Despite the fleeting nature of some of the founding NFL members, some still remain today.
Arizona Cardinals, 1898
The oldest team still playing in the NFL is the Cardinals. The Cardinals were founded in Chicago in 1898 as Morgan Athletic Club.
A founding NFL charter member, they joined the league in 1920. After 40 seasons in Chicago, they moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1960 until 1987.
But despite their rich history, the Cardinals have long been a doormat in the NFL, winning just two NFL championships in 105 seasons and only reaching the Super Bowl once – Super Bowl XLIII against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Cardinals have the second-lowest win percentage in NFL history and are the only NFL franchise with 800-plus losses – only one team, the Lions, has more than 700 defeats.
Despite joining the NFL when the league was founded, the Cards rank 10th in wins in league history and have the fourth-fewest playoff appearances (11) in league history.
That fact is particularly dumbfounding considering they were founded more than 70 years before the only three teams that trail them, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans.
Chicago Bears, 1919
Founded as the Decatur Staleys in 1919 before moving to Chicago and eventually becoming the Bears in 1922, they were an original NFL team when the league rebranded from the APFA.
One of the oldest NFL teams, Green Bay was coached by Hall of Famer George Halas, who won 318 games – still the third-most in NFL history.
Chicago boast six league championships in 40 seasons while playing mainly at Wrigley Field before moving into Soldier Field full-time in 1971.
Unlike the Cardinals, who have wallowed as one of the league’s also-rans throughout their existence, the Bears are a powerful and historic NFL team. Chicago ranks second in wins (793) and championships (9) and is fourth in all-time win percentage (.556).
The Bears have just one title since 1963. Chicago has also only reached the Super Bowl twice since 1966-67 and has finished in last place in the NFC North five times in the past 10 seasons while winning the division just once.
Green Bay Packers, 1919
One of the oldest and most successful football teams in the entire sport. The Packers is actually the NFL’s oldest ‘brand’, since the Green Bay Packers have been known as such since their original days, a year before the Chicago Staleys became the Bears.
Plus, Green Bay leads the NFL in all-time wins and championships (13) while being led by legendary coaches like Curly Lambeau, Vince Lombardi and Mike Holmgren.
Lambeau had 209 wins and won six NFL championships as Green Bay’s coach, which is why the Packers home stadium is now named for him.
Lombardi then took the reins for 122 games and won and won five titles, including the first two Super Bowls, which is why the NFL championship trophy is named after him.
Holmgren then led the Packers back to prominence in the 1990s, keyed by Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, reaching the Super Bowl in consecutive seasons and winning Super Bowl XXXI.
Part of Green Bay’s success has been legendary quarterback play. Over the past three decades where it has had Favre, Aaron Rodgers, who features in the most touchdowns in the NFL record books, and now Jordan Love calling signals.
Green Bay, one of the oldest NFL teams, is +1800 to win Super Bowl LIX in 2025 at the best online sportsbooks, extending their supremacy at the top of the championships leaderboard.
New York Giants, 1925
The Giants are celebrating their centenary and are only surpassed by the Packers and Bears in terms of championships, with eight championships in total.
The Giants have fallen on hard times the past decade, winning just one playoff game since their most recent Super Bowl win in 2012.
But the Giants are tied with the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts for 11th-best winning percentage in NFL history, which is why they have 14 retired numbers and almost 50 members of their Ring of Honor.
Detroit Lions, 1930
Detroit was founded as the Portsmouth Spartans before moving from Southern Ohio to the Motor City in 1934 and are one of the oldest NFL teams. Lions may be kings of the jungle, but Detroit has been far from the top cat in the NFL.
The Lions are one of a handful of teams to never reach the Super Bowl — they haven’t played for the NFL title since winning it in 1957 — and have the second-most losses in league history, trailing only the Cardinals with 707.
The Lions have had all-time greats like Barry Sanders, Calvin Johnson along with old-timers like Bobby Layne and Doak Walker, but that has not translated to postseason success.
Detroit is just 9-14 all-time in the postseason and won more playoff games in 2023 (2) than it had in from 1958-22 combined (1).
However, Detroit is one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl this year at the best NFL betting sites, around +1200 with most sportsbooks.
Newest NFL Teams
Throughout the over 100-year history of the NFL, teams have come and gone. However, there hasn’t been a new team added to the roster of clubs in the last two decades.
The most recent expansion saw just one franchise join the league in 2002.
Houston Texans, 1999
Established in 1999 and playing their first NFL season in 2002, the Texans are the newest team in the league.
The team took the place of the city’s former NFL franchise, the Houston Oilers, who played from 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Nashville and eventually becoming the Tennessee Titans.
Like most expansion teams, the Texans have struggled to find their footing in the brave new NFL world, posting the fewest playoff wins (5) and fourth-lowest win percentage in NFL history (.430).
Houston has hosted a pair of Super Bowls at NRG Stadium, which is two more than Houston fans have seen their teams play in between the Oilers and Texans combined.
Houston hasn’t even played for the AFC title, but it has high hopes with quarterback C.J. Stroud, who lifted the Texans to the postseason in his first campaign, 2023.
Baltimore Ravens, 1996
The Ravens officially are the youngest NFL team to ever win the Super Bowl, but that fact comes with an asterisk.
Baltimore, which lost the Colts after they famously moved to Indianapolis in the middle of the night in 1984, got back into the NFL when Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns southeast to the Charm City in 1995.
They moved to Baltimore with a roster intact. This is unlike every other NFL franchise move/rebrand where the franchise histories move, the Ravens are an expansion team in the history of the NFL since Cleveland retained the Browns brand and history when they reformed in 1999.
The Ravens have been a force in the NFL throughout their existence, despite being one of the newest NFL teams. Baltimore boasts the third-best winning percentage in NFL history (.569) and has won both Super Bowls in which it has played.
Crab cakes and football really are what Maryland does best. Baltimore is one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl this time around, with bettors fancying their chances at +1100.
The team is led by Lamar Jackson, a superstar quarterback who is one of the highest paid NFL players thanks to a $260 million contract.
Jacksonville Jaguars, 1993
The Jaguars have since become one of the NFL’s most futile organizations that it’s easy to forget how successfully they started.
Jacksonville won 49 of its first 80 regular-season games, made the playoffs four times and twice played in the AFC Championship over its first five seasons.
However, Jacksonville has only reached the playoffs four times since the turn of the century, though it did reach the AFC Championship Game in 2017 but fell to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
The Jaguars have the third-worst winning percentage in NFL history (.424), a remarkable fact due to their success early on.
Jacksonville, like Cleveland, Detroit and Houston, has never reached the Super Bowl, and the Jaguars and rival Texans are the only NFL teams to never play for the league championship.
But Jaguars fans hope their time will come soon with 2021 first-overall pick Trevor Lawrence, who won the 2018 national championship.
Carolina Panthers, 1993
Like the Jaguars, the Panthers joined the NFL in 1995 then ran all the way to the conference championship game in Year 2. Unlike Jacksonville, Carolina has reached the Super Bowl, twice, in its 30-season NFL existence.
Yet, also like Jacksonville, the Panthers have not yet won the NFL championship. They fell 32-29 to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII, which ironically was held in Houston, then dropped Super Bowl 50 to Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, 24-10.
Aside from their two big-game appearances, and four final-four appearances, the Panthers have had a tough time competing.
Of late, Carolina has a sub-.500 win percentage and has not won more than seven games in a season since 2017. They just one of the many newest NFL teams to struggle.
The franchise is owned by David Tepper one of the top five richest NFL owners.
First NFL Season Standings
The NFL was technically founded in 1922, even though the AFPA started operation in 1920. The Cardinals, Packers and Bears were all already in business.
Here are the standings from the NFL’s first season in 1922:
- Canton Pros 10-0-2
- Chicago Bears 9-3
- Chicago Cardinals 8-3
- Toledo Maroons 5-2-2
- Rock Island Independents 4-2-1
- Racine Legion 6-4-1
- Dayton Triangles 4-3-1
- Green Bay Packers 4-3-3
- Buffalo All-Americans 5-4-1
- Akron Pros 3-5-2
- Milwaukee Badgers 2-4-3
- Oorang Indians 3-6
- Louisville Brecks 1-3
- Minneapolis Marines 1-3
- Hammond Pros 0-5-1
- Evansville Crimson Giants 0-3
- Rochester Jeffersons 0-4-1
- Columbus Panhandles 0-8
Much has changed since 1922, including the cities and team names.
Best NFL Winning Percentage
Here are the top-5 most successful NFL franchises of all-time by regular-season winning percentage:
- Dallas Cowboys .576
- Green Bay Packers .572
- Baltimore Ravens .569
- Chicago Bears .556
- New England Patriots .555
Most NFL Championships
Most successful teams in NFL history in terms of all-time league championships:
- Green Bay Packers, 13 (4 Super Bowls)
- Chicago Bears, 9 (1 Super Bowl)
T3. New York Giants, 8 (4 Super Bowls)
T3. Cleveland Browns, 8 (0 Super Bowls)
T5. New England Patriots, 6 (6 Super Bowls)
T5. Pittsburgh Steelers, 6 (6 Super Bowls)
