Full disclosure: Along with writing columns here, I’m working on a book about the early decades of the National Football League, focusing on the founding fathers who shepherded it through some lean years when few fans cared.
It’s an exciting project that has led me to interview descendants of historic figures such as the Bears’ George Halas, the Steelers’ Art Rooney and the Giants’ Tim Mara, whose families still run the teams they founded.
After I spoke to Virginia Halas McCaskey, George’s daughter, who is 94 and owns the Bears, someone said to me, “Wow, that’s like talking to George Washington’s daughter.