‘The great American crapshoot’: How Bert Bell saved the NFL with the draft

The NFL draft, which starts on Thursday, has become a spectacular, three-day, wall-to-wall TV blowout watched by millions. But Upton Bell insists that its basic appeal has not changed all that much since the first draft was held 86 years ago.

“It’s the great American crapshoot,” Bell tells the Guardian from his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, referring to the uncertain future of any draftee – or the team that drafts him.

Upton Bell, a pro football executive for years, is the 84-year-old son of the late De Benneville Bell, who was known to everyone as Bert and served as NFL commissioner from 1946 until 1959, when he suffered a fatal heart attack at a Philadelphia Eagles home game.

Thirteen years before he became commissioner, Bell was the co-owner (and later head coach) of the Eagles, then a new NFL team. The Eagles struggled on the field and at the gate in their first few seasons, and Bell was frustrated that the best college players were scooped up by the bigger pro teams.

Bell had placed a telephone call in 1933 to a talented fullback and linebacker from the University of Minnesota named Stanley Kostka. Bell told Kostka that he was willing to offer him more money than every other NFL team. Kostka said he was interested.

But Kostka “hemmed and hawed,” Bell told the Associated Press years later, because the NFL’s Brooklyn Dodgers (yes, the Brooklyn Football Dodgers) had offered him $3,500 a year. Bell offered $4,000 (worth around $87,000 today). Kostka wanted to see if the Dodgers would make a counteroffer, but claimed he could not reach them by phone.

When Bell offered $6,000, Kostka balked again. Bell took the offer off the table and went home. Kostka signed with the Dodgers, probably because he felt that, as an