--- description: Celebrate the NFL season's kick-off with these vintage pictures title: This Was First NFL Play To Appear on the Cover of TIME image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce9502f00716ebdb/6986a0f1adae4465b4544b27/pro-football-time-cover-01.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Here's the First Professional Football Player to Appear on the Cover of TIME  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 4, 2014 11:00 AM CUT  Nov. 29, 1954: Bobby Layne, Detroit Lions Nov. 29, 1954: Bobby Layne, Detroit LionsTIME  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 4, 2014 11:00 AM CUT This year’s football season kicks off with the Sept. 4 game between the Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers. For decades, professional football teams faced off across the country, but they were largely ignored by TIME. It wasn’t until 1954 that a professional player landed on the cover of the publication (31 years after the magazine’s founding and decades after professional football leagues first formed). The first football player to appear on the cover of TIME was [Red Grange](http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19251005,00.html "undefined"), in 1925\. Back then, even though the NFL existed, football was largely a college affair. Grange, the most famous player of the time, was a halfback for the University of Illinois. He would go on to play professionally, but his fame came as an amateur. For decades, that “college first, professional second” ranking continued. [In 1934,](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,748148,00.html "undefined") the magazine had to use the Rose Bowl as a reference point so that readers would understand the importance of the NFL championship. By 1940, thanks in part to celebrities like Grange deciding to keep playing after college, things had begun to change: a writer [noted](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,764624,00.html "undefined") with astonishment that the New York Giants no longer had to give away free tickets to get people to come to games. And then, in 1954, Bobby Layne of the Detroit Lions became the first-ever professional football player to appear on the cover of TIME magazine, for a cover story declaring that the pros had finally come out on top: --- > “” --- In the decades to follow, that declaration would hold true, as famous names from Joe Namath to Joe Montana followed in Layne’s footsteps. [_Time subscribers: read the full 1954 story about the growth of the NFL here, in TIME’s archives._](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,857740,00.html "undefined")  Nov. 29, 1954: Bobby Layne, Detroit Lions TIME  Nov. 30, 1959: Sam Huff, New York Giants TIME  Nov. 26, 1965: Jimmy Brown, Cleveland Browns TIME  Jan. 17, 1972: Roger Staubach, Dallas Cowboys, and Bob Griese, Miami Dolphins TIME  Oct. 16, 1972: Joe Namath, New York Jets TIME  Dec. 8, 1975: Ernie Holmes, Joe Green, L.C. Greenwood and Dwight White, Pittsburgh Steelers TIME  Jan. 25, 1982: Joe Montana, San Francisco 49ers TIME  Jan. 27, 1986: "Refrigerator" Perry and Walter Payton, Chicago Bears TIME ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3181923/time-football-covers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3181923/time-football-covers/"},"headline":"Here's the First Professional Football Player to Appear on the Cover of TIME","datePublished":"2014-09-04T11:00:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:49.375Z","description":"Celebrate the NFL season's kick-off with these vintage pictures","url":"https://time.com/3181923/time-football-covers/","keywords":["Sports topic","History","Football","NFL","National Football League","photography","gallery"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce9502f00716ebdb/6986a0f1adae4465b4544b27/pro-football-time-cover-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltce9502f00716ebdb/6986a0f1adae4465b4544b27/pro-football-time-cover-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"pro-football-time-cover-01","caption":"Nov. 29, 1954: Bobby Layne, Detroit Lions","creditText":"TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3181923/time-football-covers/","name":"Here's the First Professional Football Player to Appear on the Cover of TIME"}}]}] ```