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Combining rival teams sounds far-fetched, doesn't it? But in 1943, amidst World War II, organizers of professional football merged the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers together in order to field a team with enough players to get through that season. Naturally, the players and coaches fought with one another, but eventually this group of men chose to put aside their differences for the benefit of an entire nation that had turned to them as a reason to hope that better days were still ahead. Not only did the NFL and the Steagles provide the United States with an optimistic outlook on the future, but a reason to believe that professional football could survive even in its darkest hours.