Professional Football
While a member of the New York Giants, Mathewson played professional football in the first National Football League (NFL) in 1902. He played as a fullback for the Pittsburgh Stars. However, Mathewson disappeared from the team in the middle of their season. Some historians speculate that the Giants got word that their star pitcher was risking his life and baseball career for the Stars and ordered him to stop, while others feel that the Stars' coach got rid of Mathewson because he felt that, since the fullback's punting skills were hardly used, he could replace him with local resident Shirley Ellis.
Read more about this topic: Christy Mathewson
Famous quotes containing the words professional and/or football:
“... a supportive husband is an absolute requirement for professional women.... He is something she looks for, and when she finds him, she marries him.”
—Alice S. Rossi (b. 1922)
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)