The Cardinals Are the League’s Oldest Franchise—Depending on What You Count

The Arizona Cardinals are generally recognized as the oldest current NFL franchise by organizational lineage, with roots in Chicago dating to the late 1890s. The Pro Football Hall of Fame calls the Cardinals the “oldest continuously operating organization in pro football history.”

That answer needs one qualification. Arizona and the Chicago Bears share the earliest league-entry year among active franchises, while the Green Bay Packers have the strongest claim when “oldest” means the oldest active franchise still in its original market. The answer therefore depends on whether age is measured from organizational origin, entry into the league or continuity in one place.

The short answer: the Arizona Cardinals

For a general question about the NFL’s oldest team, the best concise answer is the Arizona Cardinals. Their recognized organizational lineage predates both the NFL and the association from which it developed.

The franchise began as an independent Chicago-area organization commonly traced to the Morgan Athletic Club. It later entered the American Professional Football Association, or APFA, in 1920. The association did not adopt the National Football League name until 1922.

That sequence matters. The Cardinals were not originally created as an NFL expansion franchise. An organization that already existed became part of the new professional association in 1920, then continued through multiple names and cities into the modern NFL.

Arizona is therefore uniquely oldest when pre-league organizational history is counted. It is not uniquely first by league entry. The Cardinals and the predecessor of the Bears were both represented during the APFA’s organization in 1920, so neither current franchise has an earlier first league season than the other.

The careful answer is:

• Oldest organizational lineage: Arizona Cardinals
• Earliest league entry among active franchises: Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears, tied
• Oldest active franchise still in its original market: Green Bay Packers

These are not competing corrections to the same fact. They are answers to three different historical questions.

Three definitions of the NFL’s oldest team

“Oldest NFL team” can refer to when an organization first existed, when it entered the league’s direct predecessor or whether it has remained in its original market.

Definition	Team or teams	Relevant date	Explanation
Oldest organizational lineage	Arizona Cardinals	Late 1890s	The Cardinals’ recognized predecessor existed before the APFA
Earliest league membership among active franchises	Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears	1920	Both current franchise records begin with the APFA era
Oldest active franchise still in its original market	Green Bay Packers	Organized 1919; joined APFA 1921	Green Bay existed before joining the league and remained in its original market

The Cardinals rank ahead of the Bears only under the first definition. They do not rank ahead because they entered the league earlier. A statistical record of active professional-football franchises begins both the Cardinals’ and Bears’ histories in 1920 and the Packers’ in 1921.

A franchise’s organizational origin and its first league season are not necessarily the same date. The Packers illustrate that distinction especially clearly: the team was organized before it entered the APFA. Conversely, a statistical database that begins the Cardinals’ franchise record in 1920 is documenting league results, not determining when the pre-league organization first formed.

Geographic continuity is another independent measure. The Cardinals’ lineage passed through Chicago, St. Louis and Arizona. The Bears’ predecessor moved from Decatur to Chicago. Green Bay’s claim rests not on being first into the APFA, but on remaining in the market where the team was organized.

Historical record books can also recognize one franchise through changes of name and city. That convention connects today’s Arizona Cardinals with their Chicago and St. Louis predecessors. It should not be stretched into an unsupported claim that every legal, corporate or ownership feature remained unchanged throughout the organization’s history.

How the Cardinals’ lineage reached Arizona

The current Arizona identity did not exist in the 19th century. The conventional lineage instead runs through a sequence of organizational names and locations:

3. Chicago Cardinals
4. St. Louis Cardinals
5. Phoenix Cardinals
6. Arizona Cardinals

The early “Racine” name is a frequent source of confusion. It referred to Chicago’s Racine Avenue, where the club played at Normal Park, rather than to Racine, Wisconsin. Early meeting minutes nevertheless identified the club with the Wisconsin city of the same name.

The Racine Cardinals were represented at the APFA organizational meeting in Canton, Ohio, on September 17, 1920. The Decatur Staleys, predecessors of the Bears, were represented as well, according to the Hall of Fame’s chronology of the 1920 association.

The franchise later competed as the Chicago Cardinals before moving to St. Louis. It subsequently became the Phoenix Cardinals and then the Arizona Cardinals. Standard football records treat those identities as stages of one continuing franchise rather than as unrelated teams.

That convention explains how a club now based in Arizona can have organizational roots in Chicago. “Same franchise” in this context describes the recognized sporting lineage: records, names and relocations are connected across time. It does not mean that nothing about the organization changed.

Relocation and renaming can still make the word “continuity” less intuitive. A fan may reasonably associate a team with its city, colors or current identity, while a league record book follows the franchise through a move. The oldest-team question uses the latter convention when it identifies Arizona as the descendant of the early Chicago organization.

This is also why calling the Cardinals “Arizona’s oldest professional team” would not express the same historical idea. The claim concerns the lineage of the organization now called the Arizona Cardinals, not the age of that name or the length of time the club has played in Arizona.

Why the Bears share the 1920 distinction

The Chicago Bears are just as old as the Cardinals when age means the first season in the league’s direct predecessor.

The Racine Cardinals and Decatur Staleys were both represented during the APFA’s organization in 1920. Their current franchise records consequently begin in the same year. Under that measure, the Cardinals and Bears are tied rather than ranked first and second.

The Bears’ documented name sequence shows how that franchise developed:

• 1920: Decatur Staleys
• 1921: Chicago Staleys
• 1922 onward: Chicago Bears

The move and name changes do not alter the 1920 starting point used in the Bears’ active franchise record. In the same way, the Cardinals’ later moves and names do not erase their 1920 APFA record.

The difference between the two clubs appears only when the comparison reaches further back than league membership. The Cardinals’ recognized organizational roots extend into the late 1890s, before the Staleys’ documented predecessor. That pre-league history is why Arizona usually receives the broad “oldest franchise” label.

It would nevertheless be inaccurate to say that the Cardinals entered the NFL before the Bears. Both predecessors participated in the APFA’s founding era in 1920. It would also be anachronistic to say that they joined an organization already called the NFL, because the National Football League name was not adopted until 1922.

“Founding franchise” can introduce another ambiguity. Many clubs participated in the APFA’s first period, but most did not survive as current NFL franchises. The Cardinals and Bears are the two present-day organizational lines represented at the September 1920 meeting. That shared survival is a different distinction from having the oldest pre-league origin.

The simplest way to reconcile the usual descriptions is to keep the measurements separate: the Bears and Cardinals are tied by first league season, while the Cardinals lead by recognized organizational lineage.

The APFA, the NFL and the Packers’ separate claim

The Green Bay Packers fit into the early timeline in a different way:

• 1919: The Packers were organized.
• 1920: The APFA was organized.
• 1921: Green Bay joined the APFA.
• 1922: The association adopted the National Football League name.

Green Bay therefore existed before it became a league member. It nevertheless entered the APFA after the Cardinals and Staleys, whose active franchise records begin in 1920.

The Packers’ strongest “oldest” title is narrower. They are commonly described as the oldest active franchise still based in its original market, a distinction reflected in accounts that separate the club’s 1919 organization from its 1921 first league season and emphasize its location continuity (Oldest.org).

That description should retain the original-market qualification. Without it, saying simply that the Packers are the oldest NFL franchise would disregard the earlier organizational lineage of the Cardinals and the 1920 league records of both the Cardinals and Bears.

Green Bay’s history also shows why “founded” and “joined the league” cannot be used interchangeably. A team could operate independently or in another football setting before entering the APFA. Its organizational age may therefore be greater than the length of its league record.

The four-date chronology resolves what can otherwise look like a contradiction. The Packers were organized before the APFA existed, but they did not join it in its first year. The Cardinals had older organizational roots and entered the APFA in 1920. Each statement describes a different part of the record.

Geography produces the third result. Arizona cannot claim uninterrupted residence in its original city because the Cardinals moved from Chicago to St. Louis and later to Arizona. The Bears’ predecessor began in Decatur before moving to Chicago. Green Bay, by contrast, supplies the original-market answer.

Why sources disagree between 1898 and 1899

The precise founding year of the Cardinals’ predecessor is not settled consistently even within the institutional histories available online.

One Pro Football Hall of Fame account says Chris O’Brien formed the Morgan Athletic Club in 1898. A separate Hall of Fame chronology dates the club’s formation to 1899.

Those accounts differ by only one year, but the conflict should not be concealed by presenting either date as uncontested. Without a contemporary underlying record that resolves the discrepancy, the most defensible phrasing is that the Cardinals’ lineage dates to the late 1890s.

That bounded wording preserves what the sources agree about. Under either Hall of Fame date, the organization existed well before the APFA was formed in 1920 and before the documented predecessor of the Bears. The uncertainty therefore affects the exact year, not the central ranking by organizational lineage.

A separate Family Tree Magazine timeline begins the Cardinals’ genealogy with the Racine Cardinals in 1913. That source does not explain why the 1913 starting point should replace the earlier Morgan Athletic Club lineage recognized by the Hall of Fame. It is therefore useful as evidence that published timelines use different starting conventions, but not as a sufficient basis for declaring 1913 the definitive founding year.

The distinction is methodological. A timeline may begin with a particular team name, while an organizational history may trace a predecessor farther back. Unless the source explains why an earlier organization should be excluded from the lineage, the later date cannot automatically displace it.

The definition-aware conclusion remains straightforward: Arizona is the oldest current franchise by organizational lineage; Arizona and Chicago are tied as the earliest active league members from the 1920 APFA; and Green Bay holds the original-market distinction. The clearest historical answer names the measure before naming the team.

Does “oldest NFL team” ever mean the team with the oldest roster?

Yes. In current sports coverage, “oldest team” may refer to the average age of the players on a roster rather than the age of the franchise.

Roster age is a time-sensitive statistic. Signings, releases, injuries, practice-squad moves and roster cutdowns can change the result, sometimes through a single transaction. Rankings may also differ according to when the data were collected, which players were included and whether the calculation used a mean or another measure.

A roster-age comparison therefore needs a date and a stated methodology. It does not establish which franchise has the oldest organizational lineage, and it does not by itself indicate team quality or competitive strength.

What is the newest NFL franchise?

The Houston Texans are the newest current NFL franchise. They began play in 2002, according to FOX Sports’ chronological list of NFL franchises.

That answer uses the beginning of the current franchise rather than the age of its city’s professional-football history. Just as with the oldest-team question, the unit being measured must be clear.