Which football franchise is the oldest and predates the NFL?

Answer 1

The Arizona Cardinals were founded in 1898 as a club team by a Chicago builder named Chris O'Brien. They were known as the Morgan Athletic Club. The Chicago Cardinals were a charter member of the American Professional Football Association (renamed National Football League in 1922) in 1920. The Cardinals moved to St. Louis in 1960 and to Arizona in 1988.

* It should be noted that although they were founded in 1898, they experienced several periods of inactivity, including one that ended at the end of 1918. I could not find any historical records of the 1918 or 1919 seasons for the Cardinals. The Green Bay Packers were founded shortly after, in 1919, and although they didn't join the APFA (American Professional Football Association) until 1921, they were continuously playing football since 1919. The APFA was the forerunner to the NFL. Unless records of games are found for the Cardinals in 1918 or 1919, then the oldest continuously running NFL franchise would be the Packers.

However, if you want to get technical, the Green Bay Packers would actually be the oldest, as they can trace their lineage back to 1896 to semi-professional teams that played in Green Bay.