1940 was a competitive year for the top six teams:  the Bears, Packers, Lions, Redskins, Dodgers and Giants. Although the races were close, the Bears and Redskins rose to the top of the divisions.  By week five, the Bears (4-1-0) led the Packers (3-2-0) by one game, and the Redskins (5-0-0) led the Dodgers (3-2-0) by two games. Both teams would keep their leads in the divisions all the way to the end of the season. The Bears (8-3-0) would finish 1 1/2 games over the Packers (6-4-1), and the Redskins (9-2-0) would finish the season one game over the Dodgers (8-3-0). The Dodgers hired new college head coach John Sutherland of Pittsburgh to turn around the team's fortunes, and he made a dramatic difference in their performance on the field as they improved their record from 4-6-1 in 1939 to 8-3 in 1940. However, they still were unable to make the playoffs, as they were never able to keep pace with the powerful Redskins. Also in 1940, the Pittsburgh Pirates changed their name to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The NFL Championship Game would be between the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins. Based on their game earlier in the season, in which the Redskins would win 7-3, there was no reason to believe that this would not be another nail biter.  However, After Chicago lost 7-3, the Redskins coach, George Preston Marshall, told reporters that Halas and his team were “quitters” and “cry babies.” Halas used Marshalls words to galvanize his players, and the Bears scored 78 points in their next two games to set up a showdown with the Redskins in the leagues championship game on December 8, also in Washington. Less than a minute into the game, the Bears running back Bill Osmanski ran 68 yards to score the first touchdown. After the Redskins narrowly missed an opportunity to tie the game, the Bears clamped down and began to dominate,
leaving the field at halftime with a 28-0 lead. Things only got worse for the Redskins, and by the end of the second half officials were asking Halas not to let his team kick for extra points, as they were running out of footballs after too many had been kicked into the stands. The Chicago Bears would go on to trounce the Washington Redskins by a score of  73-0, the largest margin of defeat in NFL history, and lay claim to the 1940 NFL Championship.