For several years prior to the 2010 founding of the Tri-County Youth Football League, the five founding programs, Kinnelon, Franklin Lakes, Glen Rock, Pequannock, and Pompton Lakes were part of the North Jersey Junior Football League.  The NJJFL had grown to a league of sixteen teams, comprised of two divisions and a mix of large and small programs.

The larger towns like Ridgewood, the two Wayne teams and Mahwah dwarfed the smaller towns in population and participating players and made it impossible to compete consistently.  All attempts at rule changes to level the playing field failed.  So, in 2010 a few of the towns, led by Bob Lull, Ted Bielen, Dave Shafer, Kevin O'Connor and George Douglas, representing the founding programs began to organize a new league that would be comprised of towns with populations of less than fifteen thousand persons.

It was felt that limiting the size of the programs to these levels would encourage parity within the league, leaving the success of any given team contingent on program management and athletic skill.  And that philosophy has proven successful to date, as illustrated by the variety of champions among the TCYFL programs over the years since its founding.

Today, the TCYFL includes ten teams, judiciously adding programs meeting the population and fair play standards that are valued by its members.  The league will continue to invite like programs to join its membership going forward as that expansion best serves the needs of the member programs and the betterment of competition and development of the participating athletes.