CBS became the first network to televise some regular season games across the nation. Meanwhile, the league started to use a natural leather ball with white end stripes, instead of the white ball with black stripes, for night games. The Cards started the season strong but could not keep pace with the powerful Giants, as they would go on to clinch the Eastern Conference in part because of a 28–14 win over Washington on December 2. The Western race came down to the Bears and Lions. In Week Ten (December 2), the Lions hosted the Bears and won 42–10, to take the lead. When both teams won the following week, the trip to the championship came down to December 16, the last game of the season, which would have the 9–2 Detroit Lions visiting the 8–2–1 Chicago Bears, who hadn't forgotten the earlier
drubbing. The game at Wrigley Field was marked by numerous fights, including a fourth quarter melee involving players, fans, and the police, and a vicious hit well behind the play by the Bears' Ed Meadows that knocked Detroit quarterback Bobby Layne out of the game with a concussion. So, the Bears exacted their revenge with a 38–21 victory. After the game Lions' coach Buddy Parker appealed to the commissioner to punish what the Lions felt was the dirty play of George Halas's Bears, but no ruling was forthcoming. In the 1956 NFL Championship Game played at Yankee Stadium in New York City on December 30, 1956, the New York Giants hammered the Chicago Bears 47–7, and would lay claim the NFL Championship.