• Every one of the fourteen games involved at least one of these teams: Bears, Giants, Packers, or Redskins.
• The only interlopers were the Detroit Lions in 1935 and the 1945 Cleveland Rams.

So imagine the shock waves in the pro football world when the 1947 title game involved two franchises that had never come close to winning division titles.

First, rules changes for 1947:

1. In recognition of the growth of the passing game, the officiating crew now included a fifth official, the Back Judge.
2. Officials will not notify a team that has less than 11 players on the field prior to a snap or kick.
3. A defensive player who uses his hands to block the vision of a pass receiver behind the line of scrimmage will be called for illegal use of hands.
4. During an unsuccessful extra point attempt, the play becomes dead as soon as failure is obvious.
5. Roughing the kicker does not apply if the kicker recovers a loose ball on the play.

In the West, Chicago produced the division champion yet again.

• But this time it was the Windy City's "other team," the Cardinals, that wore the crown. A charter member of the NFL, the Cards won the 1925 championship but had finished over .500 just twice since then.
• The Cardinals' fortunes reached a low ebb during World War II when the team merged with the Steelers for the 1944 season. "Chi-Pitt" lost all ten games, causing writers to rename them the "CarPitts" since the other teams walked all over them.
• One of the rare winning seasons came in 1946 when new coach Jimmy Conzelman began assembling a championship contender. Conzelman had coached the Providence Steamroller to the NFL title in 1928.
  
  The colorful James Gleason Dunn Conzelman from the Irish section of St. Louis had been about everything in his life - author, boxer, sculptor, song writer, actor, baseball executive, piano player, newspaper publisher, radio commentator, band leader, and a gifted after-dinner speaker who could be both funny and inspiring. In fact, one of his talks at West Point during World War II had become required reading for each class of Cadets.
  One of Jimmy's stories, probably aprocryphal, was recounted by Charles Einstein, International News Service sports writer:
  After the last game of a recent season, ... Conzelman boarded a train for his native St. Louis. The Cards had lost in peculiarly uproarious fashion that day, and Jimmy, lost in his thoughts, failed to notice he was in a railroad coach reserved for inmates of a mental hospital who were being returned to the asylum after a day at a concert in town. The train got under way and the patients' superintendent started down the aisle of the car, counting noses to be sure all his charges were there.
  "One, two, three, four, five ..."
  He came to Conzelman.
  "Who are you?"
  Conzelman looked up brightly. "I'm the coach of the Chicago Cardinals."
  The keeper nodded sympathetically.
  "... six, seven, eight, nine, ..."
• The Cardinals were built around what became known as the "Dream Backfield" composed of four former All-Americans: QB Paul Christman, FB Pat Harder, RH Elmer Angsman, and LH Marshall Goldberg.
• The result was a 6-5 record achieved by defeating the two Bullies of the West, the Packers and Bears, the last two Sundays.
• For 1947, Conzelman added a fifth All-American in Georgia's triple-threat back Charlie Trippi.
• You can't have a successful team without strength of front. E Mal Kutner, T Stan Mauldin, and G Buster Ramsey made multiple All-Pro teams in '47.
• Dedicating their season to Charles Bidwell Sr., the team's owner from 1933 until his death in April, 1947, the Cardinals didn't lead the league in a single category except one - wins (9). They intercepted four Sid Luckman passes to defeat their crosstown rivals, the Bears, 30-21 at Wrigley Field on the last Sunday of the season to cop the division by one game.
• No back gained as many as 425y but three topped 350: Angsman (412), Trippi (401), and Harder (371). Christman threw for 2,191y and 17 TD.
  
  Some Cardinal receivers complained that Christman threw the ball too hard in practice. So Paul cured them by delivering the ball one count too soon, plunking them in the back of their helmets. The receivers got the message.

Cardinals' backs

L-R: Paul Christman, Pat Harder, Marshall Goldberg, Charlie Trippi

In the East, the Pittsburgh Steelers enjoyed the best season in the franchise's history despite trading star TB Bill Dudley to Detroit.

• Johnny Clement performed admirably in Bullet Bill's place, leading the Jock Sutherland's team in both passing and rushing.
• A six-game winning streak in the middle of the season enabled the Steelers to tie another upstart, the Philadelphia Eagles, for first place in the East with 8-4 records. Oddly, the two teams' fortunes had been at such a low ebb in 1943 that the teams merged into the "Steagles."
• Pittsburgh hosted the playoff on December 21 at Forbes Field. Longtime owner Art Rooney, Sr., saw his championship hopes die as the Eagles dominated, 21-0, to win their first East Division title.
• Philadelphia had sported winning records every season since 1944 when they made Greasy Neale their coach after the inglorious merger year: 7-1-2 in '44, then 7-3, 6-5, and now 8-4.
  
  Alfred Earle Neale, the best all-around athlete in West Virginia in his youth, played the outfield for the Cincinnati Reds in the 1919 World Series against the Chicago White Sox. Curly's close friend Steve Owen, coach of the New York football Giants, kidded him. The only time in his life that Greasy ever hit as high as .357 was in the 1919 World Series - the one that was fixed.
  Since the Reds wouldn't permit Neale to play pro football in the off-season, his name never appeared on a pro roster. But the name of Foster did. In fact, Foster looked enough like Neale to be his twin brother - or Neale himself.
• The undisputed star of the team was RB Steve Van Buren, whose injury in '46 that caused him to miss three games may have cost them the championship. Steve led the league in '47 in rushing attempts and yards (217/1008), becoming the first man to run for over 1,000y since Beattie Feathers of the Bears in 1934 (1,004). Steve also topped the NFL in TDs (14) and kickoff return average (29.4).
• Such a player took the pressure off the passing attack as the Eagles threw only 223 passes compared to 474 rushing attempts. QB Tommy Thompson compiled efficient numbers: 106-for-201 (52.7%) for 1680y and 16 TD with 15 INTs.
  Neale had to convince owner Lex Thompson that Tommy was the right QB for the Eagles offense. The owner and many players preferred Roy Zimmerman. But Greasy traded Zimmerman to the Lions before the '47 season, and Tommy rewarded his coach's faith with a fine season. I'd take Thompson over any QB, including Baugh and Sid Luckman, crowed Greasy. He can stand up under pressure, and he thinks clearly when the going is toughest. You can knock him down a hundred times, and he still comes back for more. He has more courage on a football field than any man I know.
• Rookie E Pete Pihos, "The Golden Greek," led the team in receptions (23) and receiving yards (382).
• The mainstay of the forward wall was "The Big Ox," T Al Wistert, a Steagles veteran who earned first string all-pro status on four different '47 all-star teams.
  A great trap blocker, Wistert regularly opened holes for Van Buren. One of three brothers who were All-America tackles at Michigan, Al played all 60 minutes almost every week. On defense, Neale took advantage of Wistert's speed by sometimes assigning him to shadow a back in motion.

Video on 1947 Eagles

The Eastern playoff game pushed the championship game back to December 28 at Comiskey Park in Chicago, the latest playing date in NFL history to that point.

• The Cardinals beat the Eagles 38-21 in a preseason game and also trampled Philly 45-21 in The City of Brotherly Love the second-to-last game of the regular season.
• For that reason and because the Cards got a week off while the Eagles played the Steelers, oddsmakers established Chicago as the favorite by 12 points.
• The Western champs would play without T Caleb Martin, hospitalized by injuries suffered in the Eagles game and E Frank "Pop" Ivy, who suffered a shoulder separation in the finale against the Bears. Reserve E Clarence Esser would also miss the game, but G Buster Ramsey, out of action six weeks because of an injured leg, was ready for action.
• The only Eagle who wouldn't play was rookie back Noble Doss, nursing broken ribs from the December 7 meeting with the Cards.
• Since the teams finished second and third (behind the Bears) in points scored in the league, a high-scoring game was anticipated.
• Eagles coach Curly Neale, whose serious demeanor caused Arthur Daley of the New York Times to consider him the perfect straight man for vaudeville comic Conzelman, exuded confidence. The way we are going, we're likely to beat anybody.
• Conzelman adopted a more cautious approach. There is no doubt about our job. We've got to play our best football to win. One slight letdown against players like Thompson and Van Buren would be fatal. No doubt about it, they're the class of the East. They are rough and tough and will be hard to stop. But I'm sure we'll be up for this one.
• Intent on pressuring Christman to blunt his passing, Neale decided to mass his defense at the line of scrimmage. The strategy would backfire on him though.

The Comiskey Park field had been covered all week by eighteen tons of straw and a huge tarpaulin.

• Delayed by a snowstorm, the Philly squad arrived in the Windy City three hours late but seemed no worse for the wear.
• When the Eagles arrived to work out the day before the game, they had to do it on an uncovered area behind the bench.
• During their practice, the grounds crew removed the tarp to line the field and prepare it for the big game. Then they left it uncovered.
  Eagles captain Al Wistert couldn't believe what he was seeing. I asked the crew chief what was going on. The guy said, "We have to take it off now because we won't be here tomorrow." I said, "What do you mean you won't be here? This is the championship game." He said, "Tomorrow is Sunday. We'd have to pay double time and a half." I was so angry, I couldn't see straight.
• The coaches agreed the game should be a close, exciting, wide-open struggle in which anything might happen. Conzelman: You have to throw out the exhibition and then recall that two of our touchdowns in the other contest were the result of interceptions and another resulted from a recovered fumble.
• 30-year-old Cardinal B Marshall Goldberg, a seven-year NFL veteran, might be playing his last game, having expressed a desire to retire and devote all his time to business. Conzelman had discussed the matter with the former Pittsburgh Panther and said the Cardinals would be hard pressed to replace him. Goldberg is the best man on pass defense I have ever seen. He did not play at all in two of our losing games, and in another he played only six or seven minutes.
• The forecast for Sunday called for a temperature around the freezing mark but no snow or rain for the 1:05 PM kickoff.
• The Cardinals hoped to attract a crowd of at least 40,000 in their 48,000-seat park.
• The NFL announced that the teams would enter a sudden death overtime if the regulation contest ended in a tie.
• The game was broadcast nationwide with Harry Wismer doing play-by-play and all-time great Red Grange providing color commentary.