Your Morning Matters: The NFL turns 100

Good morning and welcome to your Morning Matters.

It's Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, and the National Football League officially turns 100 today.

It was first called the American Professional Football Association and was structured to organize what was then a myriad independent leagues and teams. As noted previously, among those teams in the pre-NFL era was the Youngstown Patricians, who claimed the world's title in 1915. A couple of years later, the Patricians were offered an NFL franchise in the new league but could not raise the funds.

The Valley, located between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, continues ties to the NFL a century later, whether it's the robust rivalry between Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers fans, the headquarters of the DeBartolo Corp. in Boardman with the San Francisco 49ers logo or even the three-day symposium focused on reducing concussions by improving NFL helmets hosted by America Makes in Youngstown earlier this year.

Then there are the legacy players with Valley ties — from Bernie Kosar to Mario Manningham to Paul Warfield to Youngstown native Danny Trevathan, a current member of America's team, the Chicago Bears. And lest we forget, Eddie DeBartolo Jr. has a yellow jacket and was enshrined in the Canton Pro Football Hall of Fame for his role in the 49ers' five Super Bowl titles.

And with Big Ten football ramping up in a month, there will be more NFL legacies to come. Let's hope they remain careful out there.

Now, here's what you need to know about the Mahoning Valley today:

More Columbus drama: A state lawmaker plans to introduce legislation to end an order declaring a state of emergency in Ohio because of COVID-19.

The "Restore Ohio Now" bill, proposed by state Rep. Diane Grendell, R-Chesterland, also aims to cancel other orders Gov. Mike DeWine issued that would expire when the state of emergency ends. The governor's office shot back: "The pandemic emergency is not over."

PANDEMIC FACTS

• In the U.S.: 6,558,526 confirmed cases; 197,285 deaths, according to infection2020.com at 10 p.m. Sept. 16.
• In Ohio: 140,518 confirmed or suspected cases; 4,555 deaths.
• In Pennsylvania: 146,990 cases; 7,903 deaths.
• In the Mahoning Valley: 2,971 confirmed or suspected cases in Mahoning County; 1,829 in Trumbull; and 1,912 in Columbiana.
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: Closed at 28,032.38, up 36.78 points, or 0.13 percent.

Other matters

Our political expert Bill "Doc" Binning promises this will be a "humdinger" of an election. And he has some advice: "As the old adage goes: If you decide you don't like where the nation is headed, and you did not vote, don't bother complaining." Mahoning Matters

A drive-thru voter registration event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the Academy of Urban Scholars on Market Street in Youngstown. The nonpartisan outdoor event will offer the following services: new voter registration, absentee ballot requests, registration information and poll worker registration. Mahoning Matters

Seven weeks before the general election, 22 percent of Trumbull County's voters who were registered as of the spring primary had requested absentee ballots for the November election. That's higher than the statewide average of 18 percent of Ohio registered voters who have requested absentee ballots thus far. WFMJ

Although Halloween is more than a month away, many area communities are already making plans. For some, that means making sure trick-or-treating is a go. WKBN

Oil and gas production in the Utica and Marcellus shale formations is expected to decrease again next month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports. The Business Journal [May require registration.]

Youngstown's income tax collection for July was $88,000 below its projections, Kyle Miasek, interim finance director, said Tuesday. The city received $3.47 million when it had budgeted $3.56 million. Miasek had anticipated collections to be about $200,000 to $225,000 short for July. The Vindicator [May encounter paywall.]

In case you missed it

Despite the many changes with the 2020-21 school year beginning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, superintendents at Valley schools said students and staff are adjusting well — so far. Mahoning Matters checked in with superintendents in Boardman, Canfield, Howland, Jackson-Milton and Western Reserve to find out how the new school year has gone so far.

Your comments matter

"Absolutely."

— Wendy Shood-Blevins, on Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost joining Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in requesting that Netflix remove the film "Cuties."

Registered readers can comment on a selection of our stories, and all readers can comment on stories on our Facebook page. Opinions published here do not reflect the views of Mahoning Matters.

Event of the day

Joseph P. Alessi, an Army veteran and current faculty member of the Department of History at Youngstown State University, will present "The First Rule of Leadership" during a YSU Alumni Lecture Series program at 7 p.m. The lecture can be viewed on the YSU Alumni Engagement Facebook page, and participants can ask questions live. There is no charge. For more information, email habelgin@ysu.edu.

To see what else is going on around the Mahoning Valley, check out Mahoning Matters' event calendar here, or click the Events tab on the top menu at mahoningmatters.com.

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This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 6:55 AM with the headline "Your Morning Matters: The NFL turns 100."