In 1946, co-owner and partner Dan Topping (1912–1974) pulled the Tigers team out of the old NFL and placed it in the newly established rival professional league – the All-America Football Conference, which shortly lasted until 1949, until three teams from the AAFC merged with and entered a reorganized NFL in 1950.

The team began play in 1930 after two Brooklyn businessmen bought the Dayton Triangles for $2,500 and moved the NFL franchise to Ebbets Field.

These two individuals were Bill Dwyer, a past owner of the New York Americans and Pittsburgh Pirates of the National Hockey League, and Jack Depler, a player-coach for the NFL's Orange Tornadoes.

The Dodgers finished fourth in the NFL with a 7–4–1 record, a massive improvement upon the Triangles' disastrous final seasons in Dayton.

The 1932 season started off promising with wins over the Staten Island Stapletons and the new Boston Braves (later renamed the Redskins).

The Dodgers were then purchased by two former New York Giants players, Chris Cagle and John Simms Kelly for $25,000.

Cap McEwen, a successful college football coach, was then brought in to replace Friedman, who would continue to play tailback for the Dodgers through half of the upcoming season.

He returned to play for Brooklyn for the next seven seasons and scored every Dodgers point in their last six games as they finished with a 4–7 record.

Several of the star players to wear a Dodgers uniform during this time included Harold "Bunker" Hill, Bob Wilson, and Bill Lee.

He is best known for hitting a home run his first time at bat as a pinch hitter, becoming the first player in American League history to do so.

That day, at Ebbets Field, the Dodgers played the Philadelphia Eagles in the first NFL game shown on television.

During this time, Dodger staples Mike Gussie All American from West Virginia University, Dick Cassiano and Ben Kish, who played for Sutherland at Pitt; George Cafego and Banks McFadden were signed by the team.

Beginning in 1942, the team went into a steep decline, as World War II caused a shortage of players and fans.

In 1944, Dan Topping chose Tom Gallery to run the team while he was serving in the armed forces.

The merged team played four home games in Boston and one in New York, but fans from neither city cared as they finished with a 3–6–1 record.

The sequence of events begun by the demise of the Brooklyn Dodgers NFL team eventually resulted in the creation of what is now the Indianapolis Colts.

The Dodgers are the only defunct franchise to send a player to the Pro Bowl/All-Star Game multiple times apart from the New York Yanks' Brad Ecklund.