Sunday sporting events were not usually played until the early 20th century. In North America, they were prohibited due to blue laws at first, but then cities like Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati later decided to legalize them. Other cities such as New York City and Philadelphia had intense political and court battles to legalize the games. Nowadays, professional sports leagues schedule games on Sundays in the United States, though this practice continues to be opposed by some Christian denominations upholding first-day Sabbatarian doctrine.

Because of Christian religious orthodoxy, it was considered offensive to work on Sunday, which was expected to be a day of worship and rest from servile labor. Many governments instituted blue laws to limit activities that could be pursued on a Sunday, including such recreational pursuits as sports and games. In 1794, the Pennsylvania Assembly restricted activities on Sunday by passing what they called "an Act for the prevention of vice and immorality, and of unlawful gaming, and to restrain disorderly sports and dissipation".

In England, association football was historically banned on Sunday. However, in 1974, The Football Association appealed to the Home Office to allow Sunday football to counter the ban on using floodlights due to the three day week which was granted. Due to the Sunday Observance Act, clubs were banned from charging admission but they exploited a loophole in the law and stipulated that, while admission would be free, the purchase of a programme (equivalent to the usual price of a ticket) would be required to enter. In Northern Ireland, the Irish Football Association retained a total ban on Sunday football until 2008 when the rules were relaxed to allow them only if both teams agreed and that no player could be punished for refusing to play on Sunday. Further relaxations allowed for Sunday matches if Northern Irish clubs had European matches during the week and to avoid matches clashing with major national events.

Lobbying efforts by baseball team owner Connie Mack influenced Pennsylvania governor Gifford Pinchot to modify the state's blue law on 25 April 1933 "so that local jurisdictions could choose whether to allow baseball or football games to be played on Sunday."

In Pittsburgh, Steelers football team founder Art Rooney faced opposition as the city's blue laws prevented him from holding football games on Sundays. Realizing that a large number of the city's residents who supported blue laws were planning to protest the upcoming Pittsburgh Pirates vs. New York Giants game, Rooney "hurried down to city hall to get some answers", where the Director of Public Safety, Harmar Denny, informed him that only two people held the authority to stop the sporting event from happening, one being himself and the other being Franklin McQuaide, the superintendent of police. Denny said that he would be out of town on that Sunday. As such, Rooney stopped at McQuaide's office and invited him to sit at the 50-yard line, an offer that McQuaide accepted, which resulted in the football game not being shut down.

In 1902, Sunday baseball games were legalized in Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati.

In 1907, New York City Democrats introduced two bills in Albany, New York that attempted to legalize Sunday baseball. State Assemblyman Al Smith spoke out against the ban of Sunday baseball, arguing that it was better for young men to be playing baseball than to "be driven to places where they play Waltz Me Around Again, Willie." However, both bills were unsuccessful.

In 1911, Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack expressed a desire for the Athletics to play on Sunday. The main driving force behind his interest in playing on Sunday was to earn money. The Athletics were not a wealthy baseball club, and Athletics vice-president John Shibe estimated that the team would make $20,000 for each Sunday game that they played in Philadelphia. Mack thought that, for the team, it was financially necessary to play on Sundays, explaining that "we [the Athletics] cannot meet our payrolls playing on seventy-seven weekdays at home". Many Pennsylvania politicians and religious groups opposed Shibe and Mack's effort for Sunday baseball, claiming that playing on that day was a "breach of peace" and that the games would be "a disturbance to persons in that neighborhood desirous of preserving the peace and quiet of Sunday so that they may in such peace and quiet pursue their religious worship and meditation". Unfortunately for the Athletics, Philadelphia's other baseball team, the Phillies, took no public position on the subject, undermining the Athletics' case.