NFL Empires: 1943

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

Due to World War II, Cleveland went on hiatus. Their land has been distributed to the neighbor with the nearest capital. Also, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh merged teams for one season (known by fans as the "Steagles"). Philadelphia had no land to start the season, but any territory gained by the team was split evenly between the two. Victorious opponents could take land from either. Only eight teams participated in the 1943 NFL season, the second and last time the league reached that nadir.

This season was the first year of free substitutions, due to depleted rosters. Before 1943, players played both offense and defense, but from this year forward, specialization became the name of the game. Also in 1943, helmets became mandatory.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1943 season:

Despite all the league changes, not much changed on the map. The Chicago Bears (light blue) continued to dominate. They took more land and won the championship over Washington (gold). Green Bay (light green) came in second in the West while New York (dark blue) came in second in the East (losing a tie-breaking playoff with Washington). The three teams with losing records had no land.

Here is the map before the season started:

Bear with a football, run run run!