Old School Heroes of the NFL: John Kinport "Sal" Brallier

John Brallier is one of those players. Born in 1876, just outside of Indiana ,Pennsylvania, Sal (as many would call him) started playing football for his public school at 12 years of age as a quarterback and halfback. By the time he had started playing for a college team (Indiana Normal) he was still in public school and was considered a star athlete. Which continued until 1895 when Brallier graduated and began searching for colleges.

While awaiting college Brallier was approached by the Latrobe Football Club and asked to quarterback their team the Latrobe YMCA against their next opponent the Jeanette Athletic Club. At first John refused because he was supposed to play a baseball game the same day, but was later enticed by an offer of $10 plus expenses to quarterback the team. He accepted and led the Latrobe YMCA to a 12-0 victory and so began the official hiring of professional players.

While Brallier was considered the first professional football player and deemed a national icon for many years, it wasn't until after his death (1960) and before the Pro Football Hall of Fame was introduced that evidenced proved John Kinport "Sal" Brallier was not in fact the first professional football player, but merely the first one to openly admit he was paid. In the waking moment of the news Latrobe, Pennsylvania was no longer the birthplace of pro football in which that right was moved to Allegheny, Pennsylvania and the William "Pudge" Heffelfinger became considered the first professional player.

Interestingly enough, the Allegheny Athletic Club was investigated before the 1895 season due to allegations that players were accepting money to play. Ben "Sport" Donnelly, Peter Wright, James Van Cleve, and Oliver W. Rafferty were all found in the research to have been paid dating back to 1892 with Heffelfinger. Which now leaves Brallier as only the seventh player to be paid (Lawson Fiscus in 1894 was the other).

Brallier finished his career in 1907 and was considered as one of the best players of his era right along side Pudge Heffelfinger. He was a smaller, feisty player that teams didn't want to face and while quarterbacks were not allowed to make forward passes during this era his game was entailed as true leadership. As the long time Alabama football coach Bear Bryant said years later "Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a quarterback is bad luck". Latrobe may not have known how lucky they were to have John Brallier.

***Old School Heroes of the NFL will be an ongoing series of articles***