One might say that the most important team in the National Football League (NFL) is the Chicago Bears. Not necessarily because the club is located in the nation’s third-largest city, but because of its longtime player/coach/owner George S. Halas.
The Bears are a charter member of the league. It began as a company sports teams just like someone may play for the softball team for their establishment or factory where they worked. Halas was hired by the A.E. Staley cornstarch company of Decatur, Illinois as the head of the corporation’s athletic department to which he was head baseball and football coach.