The National Football League grew to 22 teams in 1926, with newcomers including the Brooklyn Lions, Hartford Blues,Los Angeles Buccaneers, and the Louisville Colonels, with the Racine Tornadoes re-entering.
Offsetting the torrent of first-time teams, the Cleveland Bulldogs sat out the season, the Rock Island Independents defected to the upstart American Football League, and the Rochester Jeffersons suspended operations for the final time (eventually folding in early 1928).
The Buccaneers, Eskimos, Colonels and Buffalo Rangers were "showcase teams," the first efforts for the league to reach beyond the northeast and midwest.
Three of the four teams only lasted one season; the Buccaneers and Colonels both folded while the Rangers reverted to their previous status as the Bison, with only the Eskimos returning for 1927.
[1] In January 1927, an owners' meeting was held in New York City at which tentative plans were made to reorganize the NFL into two classes, "A" and "B", with weaker teams demoted to the second division.