When 2 NFL Teams Merged to Save the Season

In 1943, with World War II in full swing and the U.S. military drafting men by the millions, the NFL faced a crisis. Teams were losing players left and right to the war effort, and some clubs barely had enough men left to field a full roster. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and so the unthinkable happened: two fierce Pennsylvania rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, joined forces for one season, creating one of the strangest teams in NFL history — the Steagles.

Why Did This Happen?

By the early '40s, professional football was already competing for talent with college programs, but with WWII raging, the draft was taking nearly every able-bodied young man. The Steelers and Eagles, both struggling to fill a roster, faced the reality that neither could survive the season alone. So, in an unprecedented move, the NFL forced them to merge into one team, despite the fact that their fan bases absolutely hated each other.

The result? The Philadelphia-Pittsburgh Steagles (though the official name was just "Phil-Pitt"). A Frankenstein’s monster of a football team, this hybrid squad had to overcome not just its odd pairing but also the challenges of wartime football — players moonlighting in military jobs, coaches scrambling to adjust to shifting rosters, and a league struggling to stay relevant.

The Steagles on the Field

Despite all the weirdness, the Steagles actually weren’t bad. Coached by Greasy Neale and Walt Kiesling, they finished the season with a 5-4-1 record — the first winning season in the history of either franchise. Players like quarterback Roy Zimmerman and two-way star Jack Hinkle led the team, but the real MVP might have been the equipment managers, who had to figure out how to combine Eagles' green and Steelers' gold into something remotely presentable.

The Struggles of the Steagles

While the team won games, unity was harder to come by. Pittsburgh and Philly fans didn’t exactly warm up to each other, and neither did the players. The two squads operated separately as much as possible — practicing in different cities and only coming together for games. The Steelers’ hard-nosed, blue-collar style clashed with the Eagles’ more finesse-driven approach, making for some tense moments on the field.

And then there was the war itself. Many Steagles players were classified as “4-F” (unfit for military service) due to medical conditions, which led to some snide remarks that the team was full of guys who couldn't pass a physical. Others had to juggle their football careers with jobs in wartime industries — imagine playing a full-contact NFL game on Sunday after working 60-hour weeks in a factory.

The Legacy of the Steagles

The Steagles lasted just one season before the league realigned in 1944. The Eagles got their franchise back on its own, while the Steelers had to merge again, this time with the Chicago Cardinals. (That team, known unofficially as the “Card-Pitt,” was so bad they were nicknamed the “Carpets” because everyone walked all over them.)

But the Steagles left their mark on NFL history. They showed that the league could adapt to extreme circumstances and keep football alive, even during a world war. More importantly, their successful season helped legitimize the idea that the NFL was here to stay, proving that professional football wasn’t just a passing fad — it was a national institution.

Today, the Steagles are a quirky footnote in NFL lore, but their brief existence reminds us that football, like life, sometimes demands improvisation. And if nothing else, they gave us one of the greatest team names in sports history.

Would a Steagles-style merger ever happen again? Probably not. But for one weird, wonderful season in 1943, two bitter rivals put their differences aside and made history.

Long live the Steagles.