The Nesser Brothers: Forgotten NFL Pioneers

The Pro Football Time Machine is part of the Sports History Network - The Headquarters For Sports Yesteryear.EPISODE SUMMARYBack in the prehistoric days of professional football, a family of rugged, tough as steel brothers, the Nessers, ruled pro football gridirons throughout the Midwest. The Nesser brothers competed against celebrated pioneers of the game, notably Jim Thorpe and brought professional football to thousands of fans, helping to ensure the success of the early NFL. Yet, the Nessers never received Pro Football Hall of Fame consideration and are forgotten pioneers today.THE PRO FOOTBALL TIME MACHINE BACKGROUNDPRO FOOTBALL TIME MACHINE WEB PAGEEvery two weeks, you’ll take a trip with me and Zo-Zo the cat to discover events and people who contributed, each in their own way, to building a league that has become the king of professional sports. Sometimes we will visit an event or star player, but to hopefully bring to light something that has always flown under the radar that is an important part of their story.More often though, we’ll find events and people who’ve been missed by documentaries and books but have stories that need telling. Those are the destinations that are the most fun to discover.Join me, Tom Pollin, and Zo-Zo the cat as we have fun on our journeys.HOST - TOM POLLIN BIOI grew up in the Chicagoland area, Waukegan to be specific and now make my home in Chicago. I’ve been a fan of football, and the Chicago Bears, since I first became aware of the existence of both. Of course, in those years the Bears dwelled at the bottom of the NFL standings but I grew to love the team more as I began to read everything about their storied history that I could get my hands on.The diving into the Bears history spread into a need to know more about the NFL from the times before its birth, through its formation and growing pains, to the present day.Writing and talking about pro football history is a labor of love for me. Since I began writing about the NFL in 2011, I’ve written hundreds of articles on teams, games and opinion pieces but the pieces I’ve written about teams, games and players gone by have been the most satisfying of the work I’ve published.