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time near for Maroons title Starting today, the owners of The National Football League will meet in Chicago and the Maroons are on their agenda. The owners are expected to decide Thursday whether the Maroons should have a claim to the 1925 NFL championship that was stripped away after the team violated territorial rights. On Monday night, the Maroons again rolled off the lips of announcers John Madden and Al Michaels during the end of the "Monday Night Football" game between the Miami Dolphins and the San Diego Chargers. Madden remarked that he had received a shirt from someone regarding the Maroons' championship quest. The two also mentioned one of the Maroons' victories that year. Much has been made about the Maroons in the media. Several weeks ago, a writer from Washington, D.C., searching for a uniquely American story found one in Schuylkill County. Intrigued by the story of how the 1925 Pottsville Maroons were stripped of their championship title, Louis A. Jacobson spent several days looking for some answers to one of the coal region's most heart-breaking tales. Jacobson, a freelance writer for the London-based Economist magazine, was sent to Pottsville to tell the Maroons story. That story also popped up on "Monday Night Football" two weeks ago when Madden and Michaels discovered that the '27 Maroons gave up the most safeties in NFL history. After some head-scratching, they found a map and showed America the location of Pottsville. Within 1 hours, the pottsvillemaroons.com website was shut down due to excessive traffic, webmaster Andrew McGovern said. Last May, Gov. Edward G. Rendell and Mayor John D.W. Reiley asked NFL owners to address the Maroons reinstatement, and since then, the team has been profiled by sportswriters from around the nation. Sports Illustrated mentioned the upcoming vote in their June 2 issue. When the Maroons celebrated their 75th anniversary in 2000, they were profiled in many newspapers around the country. The Denver Post, Newsday, which titled its piece, "Raw Deal," the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Baltimore Sun all had written on the Maroons story. NFL Films came to Pottsville to record a short documentary that aired that year and subsequent years that brought the Maroons their largest audience to date. More recently, ESPN did a segment on the Maroons in May for its investigative news program called "Outside the Lines." One filmmaker wants to turn the moribund Maroons into a full-length moving picture. "When I heard the story, I could feel my heart beating with excitement," said Alexander H.F. Emmert of Invictus Films. Emmert, a native of Valley Forge, heard about the story from the NFL Films documentary and was instantly absorbed by the historical drama he has imagined. "It's a story of
David vs.Goliath and I think a lot of people can relate to that,"
said Emmert, who has tentatively titled the film "Deep Red,"
and is seeking backing. ©The REPUBLICAN & Herald 2004
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