3. Professional sports were impacted by blue laws for decades
For the first three decades of the 20th century, professional sports were not allowed to be played in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on Sundays. The law presented scheduling difficulties for both professional baseball and football. In 1931 the Philadelphia Athletics, which had won the World Series in 1929 and 1930, used the threat of leaving the city unless the law was changed. Pennsylvania amended the law allowing professional baseball only to be played that year. It was the crack of the door needed by a man named De Benneville Bell, who somewhat understandably preferred to be called Bert. Bert Bell wanted a National Football League franchise in Philadelphia.
The NFL couldn’t change its scheduling to accommodate Pennsylvania’s blue law prohibiting play on Sunday. Saturday play would have competed with college football for most of the season, and the college game was much bigger than the professional in terms of fan support at the time. Bell lobbied hard for the law to be overturned, and in 1933 both the Pittsburgh Pirates (who later changed their name to the Steelers) and the Philadelphia Eagles entered the NFL. For the first season, both teams played Sundays on the road until the voters overturned the law, in November 1933.