However, after Bovard's article, all mention of the new league disappeared from the papers. Comiskey's decision to take part in organizing a new professional football league based on the 1902 NFL was never made public. All interest in the story died by April 1917, when the country entered into World War I. At war's end, a flu pandemic swept the world, and virtually all of the professional football teams in the country shut down or drastically scaled back operations.http://www.profootballresearchers.com/archives/Website_Files/Coffin_Corner/14-01-449.pdf The modern National Football League, formed as a confederation of the existing professional football clubs and with no baseball backing, was established three years later in 1920.
