This goes out to those sports fans amongst us. I’ve tried to find a website that would have the complete NFL payer register, that is, the names of all the players who have played in the NFL It has to exist somewhere, but I’ve had no luck finding it.
I love Pro Football Reference (the second link which KneadtoKnow listed), but even they don’t seem to have complete records going all the way back to the first years of the NFL.
It’s important to remember that, in the early years of the league, it was a shoestring operation, and recordkeeping wasn’t always as formal as it is today. In addition, many of the teams from the early years folded, and their records (such as player rosters) may or may not have been preserved. The first link which KneadtoKnow gives is an NFL site, and lists players from the 1920s, but I’m not sure if the list is complete.
BTW, I’m flagging this thread for a move to The Game Room (where sports questions live), and maybe a change to a more descriptive title.
Moved to the Game Room from General Questions.
samclem, Moderator
Yeah, record-keeping wasn’t a priority for the early NFL, it was busy struggling to stay in business from year to year. This a well-known problem. You won’t find the football equivalent of baseball-reference.com online because the records don’t exist in the offline world either.
Not sure if the NFL Evolution represents any new interest in the NFL in preserving their distant past or not.
Well, in one sense, you will, because pro-football-reference.com (linked to above) is, in fact, the sister site to baseball-reference.com. But, as far as having complete lists of rosters (or stats, for that matter) going back to the league’s founding in 1920, you’re right.
Holy crap, did I provide an actual useful and more-or-less correct answer to a football question?
I should put this in my monthly report!
Thank you," knead to know." The first link was what I was looking for. I have googled “NFL player registry” a hundred ways and could never find what that link offers.
Happy to help, steveo1!