Background
Since the NFL's first season in 1920, every league title had been awarded to the team with the best regular season record, based on winning percentage, with ties omitted. Four of the first six championships were disputed, but only once (the 1921 NFL season) did two teams ever finish tied atop the standings. In that year, the two teams disputing the title had played each other, splitting a two-game series, but league officials used a tiebreaker to give the Bears (then known as the Staleys) the title over the Buffalo All-Americans.
In the 1932 NFL season, the Spartans and the Bears tied for first place (6-1). (Standings were based on winning percentage, with ties excluded from the calculation. Therefore, the Spartans and Bears each finished the regular season with identical .857 winning percentages, ahead of the Green Bay Packers' .769 (10 wins, 3 losses) winning percentage. Had either pure win-loss differential or the post-1972 method of calculating winning percentage--counting ties as half-a-win, half-a-loss--been used at that time, the Packers' 10-3-1 (.750, +7) record would have won the league, ahead of the Spartans' 6-1-4 (.727, +5) and Bears' 6-1-6 (.692, +5).) Further complicating matters, the Spartans and Bears had tied each other twice during the regular season, rendering the league's only tiebreaker useless. So, for the first time, the league arranged for what amounted to a replay game to determine the NFL champion. Because the game counted in the final standings, the loser would finish third, behind Green Bay. The league had to make a rule change to allow the game, since they had banned the practice in 1924.
The game was set to be played at Wrigley Field, the Bears' home stadium. But because of severe blizzards and sub-zero wind chill throughout the week, the game was moved indoors to Chicago Stadium.
Because of the limited dimensions of the indoor arena, special rules were adopted for the game. The dirt-covered field itself was only 80 yards long and 10 yards narrower. The sidelines were butted up against the stands. The goal posts were moved from the endlines to the goal lines. The ball was automatically moved back to the 20-yard line every time one team crossed midfield. For the first time, all plays would start with the ball on or between the hash marks, which were ten yards from the sidelines.
Read more about this topic: 1932 NFL Playoff Game
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