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History of the NFL
American football first became a professional sport in 1892, when Pudge Heffelfinger and Ben "Sport" Donnelly each received a gigantic sum of cash to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association of the Western Pennsylvania Senior Independent Football Conference. Throughout the 1890s and the early part of the 20th century, professional football was primarily a regional sport, with most informal circuits centered around one state or region with only limited play outside the state lines.