In the days before they made $44.2 million a year, NFL commissioners scratched out an existence any way they could. Elmer Layden, who held the job from 1941 to ’45, pushed Jockey long johns. “Lengthen your shorts,” he said in a newspaper ad, “and you’ll lengthen your years of activity.”

An even more elaborate ad ran in the Oct. 27, 1941, issue of Life magazine.