Milwaukee Badgers The Milwaukee Badgers were a professional American football team based in Milwaukee , Wisconsin , that played in the National Football League from 1922 to 1926 . The team played its home games at Athletic Park , later known as Borchert Field , on Milwaukee ' s north side . The team was notable for having a large number of African - American players for the time . After the team folded following the 1926 season ( largely due to being left broke because of a $ 500 fine by the NFL for using four high - school players in a 1925 game against the Chicago Cardinals , a game arranged after the Badgers had disbanded for the season ) , many of its members played for the independent semi - pro Milwaukee Eagles . A few of the players from this team went on to play for the original Pittsburgh Pirates football team in 1933 ; the team later became the Steelers . This has led some to mistakenly believe that either the Badgers or Eagles became the Steelers . 1925 High School players scandal . In 1925 the Chicago Cardinals were in need of two easy wins to help keep up with the Pottsville Maroons and stay in the hunt of the 1925 NFL Championship . As a result , the Cardinals had planned two extra games were scheduled against the Badgers and Hammond Pros , who were both losing teams in that season . The Pros and the Badgers were both of NFL members but had disbanded for the year . The Badgers , owned by Ambrose McGuirk , agreed to a game against the Cardinals . However , McGuirk lived in Chicago , and had a tough time putting a team together to play the Cardinals . So Art Folz , a substitute quarterback for the Cardinals , convinced four players from Chicago ' s Englewood High School into joining the Badgers for the game under assumed names , thereby ensuring that the Cardinals ' opponent was not a pro caliber club . The high schoolers were reported to be W . Thompson , Jack Daniels , Charlie Richardson and J . Snyder . However NFL President Joseph Carr later learned that high school players had been used in an NFL game . He then stated that the 59 - 0 Cardinals win would be stricken from the record . However , the league had never got around to removing it . The game is still apart of the NFL records . Cardinals ' owner Chris O ' Brien was also fined $ 1 , 000 by Carr for allowing his team play the game . Meanwhile McGuirk was ordered to sell his Milwaukee franchise within 90 days . Folz , for his role , was barred from football for life . However by 1926 , Carr toned down his punishment for each party involved in the scandal . Folz ' s lifetime ban was lifted , probably to prevent him from going the first American Football League , however he chose not to return to pro football . The $ 1 , 000 fine against O ' Brien was rescinded , probably since the amount would have put the Cardinals out of business . McGuirk though had already sold his Badgers franchise to Johnny Bryan , a fullback with the Chicago Bears . The Englewood players were also forgiven , and two of them , William Thompson and Charles Richardson , earned high school all - star recognition at the end of the season . Folz reportedly told the high schoolers that the game was a " practice game " and would in no part affect their amateur status . This game would also be used to state that the Pottsville Maroons should have won the 1925 NFL Championship .