The regular season is a seventeen-week schedule during which each team has one bye week and plays sixteen games. This schedule includes six games against a team's divisional rivals, as well as several inter-division and inter-conference games. The season currently starts on the Thursday night in the first full week of September (the Thursday after Labor Day) and runs weekly to late December or early January.

At the end of each regular season, six teams from each conference play in the NFL playoffs, a twelve-team single-elimination tournament that culminates with the championship game, known as the Super Bowl. This game is held at a pre-selected site which is usually a city that hosts an NFL team. The following week, selected all-star players from both the AFC and NFC meet in the Pro Bowl, held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The NFL has the highest per-game attendance of any domestic professional sports league in the world, drawing over 67,000 spectators per game for each of its two most recently completed seasons in 2006 and 2007. However, the NFL's overall attendance is only approximately 20% of that of Major League Baseball, due to MLB's much longer schedule, currently 162 games per team with 81 home games each, plus playoffs.

History

Total NFL Titles Team Titles

Green Bay Packers 12
Chicago Bears 9
New York Giants 7
Dallas Cowboys 5
Pittsburgh Steelers 5
San Francisco 49ers 5
Washington Redskins 5
Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts* 5
Cleveland Browns 4
Detroit Lions 4
New England Patriots 3
Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders** 3
Philadelphia Eagles 3
St. Louis Rams 3
Arizona Cardinals 2
Denver Broncos 2
Miami Dolphins 2
Baltimore Ravens 1
Kansas City Chiefs 1
Minnesota Vikings 1
New York Jets 1
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1
*won four titles in Baltimore, one in Indianapolis
**won one title in Los Angeles, two in Oakland

The American Professional Football Association was founded in 1920 at a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio. The eleven founding teams initially struck an agreement over player poaching and the declaration of an end-of-season champion. Legendary athlete Jim Thorpe of the Canton Bulldogs was elected president. Only four of the founding teams finished the 1920 schedule and the undefeated Akron Pros claimed the first championship. Membership of the league increased to 22 teams in 1921, but throughout the 1920s the membership was unstable and the league was not a major national sport.

Two charter members, the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals) and the Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears), are still in existence. The Green Bay Packers (founded in 1919) is the oldest team not to change locations, but did not begin league play until 1921.

By 1934 all of the small-town teams, with the exception of the Green Bay Packers, had moved to or been replaced by teams in big cities. An annual championship game was instituted in 1933, and the annual draft of college players was first held in 1936. It was during this era, however, that the NFL became segregated: no African Americans played pro football between 1933 and 1945. One prominent franchise, George Preston Marshall's Washington Redskins, remained all-white until forced to integrate by the Kennedy administration in 1962. See also Black players in American professional football

College football was the bigger attraction, but by the end of World War II, pro football began to rival the college game for fans' attention. Rule changes and innovations such as the T formation led to a faster-paced, higher-scoring game. The league also expanded out of its eastern and midwestern cradle; in 1945, the Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles, becoming the first big-league sports franchise on the West Coast (not counting the various teams in ice hockey's PCHA, which was a rival to the NHL in the 1910s and 1920s). In 1950, the NFL accepted three teams from the defunct All-America Football Conference, expanding to thirteen clubs. In the 1950s, with the league broadcast on national television, pro football finally earned its place as a major sport.

The AFL


In 1960, after being refused entry to the NFL as an owner, Lamar Hunt led seven other men (including another snubbed by the NFL, Bud Adams) to establish the rival American Football League. Although other rival leagues had come and gone in the early years of professional football, the new AFL was able to capitalize on the ever-rising popularity of the sport. Hunt's initial goal was to bring professional football to Texas, which was home to two of the new teams. The AFL secured a television contract with ABC and filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL in 1960, but this was dismissed in 1962. The AFL led the way in sharing of television and gate revenues across its franchises, thus securing itself financially.

A number of innovations distinguished the AFL and helped it maintain its legitimate rivalry to the NFL. A stadium game clock for the spectators (the NFL relied only on time announcements from the officials on the field), players' names on their jerseys, and a playing style geared to the attractive and flashy passing game. The AFL was inclusive of black players and actively recruited from colleges with black players historically shunned by the NFL. AFL teams further installed blacks at positions from which they were tacitly excluded in the NFL, such as quarterback and middle linebacker. In January 1965 there was a player boycott of the 1964 AFL All-Star Game in New Orleans, over discrimination of black players by some of the hotels and businesses in the city. This was a seminal civil-rights action and is commemorated at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The AFL also forced the NFL to expand: The Dallas Cowboys were created to counter Hunt's AFL Dallas Texans franchise. The Texans moved the franchise to Kansas City as the Chiefs in 1963; the Minnesota Vikings were the NFL franchise given to Max Winter for abandoning the AFL; and the Atlanta Falcons franchise went to Rankin Smith to dissuade him from purchasing the AFL's Miami Dolphins.

The Merger

The rivalry between two successful professional leagues became damaging for the sport in the mid-1960s as the two leagues escalated player payments. With both leagues conducting college drafts for the same players, the bidding war was out of control. In 1965, in the most high profile such contest and a major fillip for the AFL, University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath signed with the New York Jets in preference to the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals for a then-record $427,000. In 1966, the AFL Commissioner Al Davis embarked on a campaign to sign players away from the NFL, especially quarterbacks, but behind the scenes a number of team owners began action to end the detrimental rivalry.

In an agreement brokered by AFL founder Lamar Hunt, and Dallas Cowboys General Manager Tex Schramm, on 8 June 1966 the two leagues announced their merger deal. The leagues would henceforth hold a combined draft, and an end-of-season title game (later known as the Super Bowl) would be played between the two league champions. In 1970, the leagues would become fully merged under the name National Football League, divided into two conferences of an equal number of teams each. There was also a financial settlement, with the AFL paying $18 million over 20 years. Finally, the monopoly which would be created had to be legitimized by a special Federal law (which was eventually enacted by Congress).[citation needed]

Modern era

In the 1970s and 1980s, the NFL solidified its dominance as America's top spectator sport and its important role in American culture. The Super Bowl became an unofficial national holiday and the top-rated TV program most years. Monday Night Football, which first aired in 1970, brought in high ratings by mixing sports and entertainment. Rule changes in the late 1970s ensured a fast-paced game with lots of passing to attract the casual fan.

The founding of the United States Football League in the early 1980s was the biggest challenge to the NFL in the post-merger era. The USFL was a well-financed competitor with big-name players and a national television contract. However, the USFL failed to make money and folded after three years. The USFL filed a successful anti-trust lawsuit against the NFL, but the remedies were minimal.

In recent years, the NFL has expanded into new markets and ventures. In 1986, the league began holding a series of pre-season exhibition games, called American Bowls, held at international sites outside the United States. Then in 1991, the league formed the World League of American Football, later known as NFL Europe and still later as NFL Europa, a developmental league that had teams in Germany and the Netherlands when the NFL shut it down in June 2007. 2001 saw the rise of the XFL, an attempt by Vince McMahon and NBC, which had lost the NFL broadcast rights for that year, to compete with the league; the XFL folded after just one season. In 2003, the NFL launched its own cable-television channel, NFL Network.

The league played a regular-season NFL game in Mexico City in 2005 and intends to play more such games in other countries. On October 28, 2007, a regular season game between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants was held outside of North America. This game was held in Wembley Stadium, the new 90,000-seat stadium in London. It was a financial success with nearly 40,000 tickets sold within 90 minutes of the start of sales, and a game-day attendance of over 80,000. Starting next season in 2008-09, the Buffalo Bills will play an annual home game in Toronto's Rogers Centre, and the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers will mark the NFL's return to Wembley Stadium.

On August 31, 2007, a story in USA Today unveiled the first changes to the league's shield logo since 1970, which will take effect with the 2008 season. The redesign reduces the number of stars in the logo from 25 (which were found not to have a meaning beyond decorative) to eight (for each of the league's divisions), the logo's football repositioned in the manner of the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and the NFL letters in a straight serifed font (which resembles the current typeface used in other NFL logos). The redesign was created with television and digital media, along with clothing, in mind. The shield logo dates to the 1940s.

Franchise relocations and mergers


In the early years, the league was not stable and teams moved frequently. Franchise mergers were popular during World War II in response to the scarcity of players.

Franchise moves became far more controversial in the late 20th century when a vastly more popular NFL, free from financial instability, allowed many franchises to abandon long-held strongholds for perceived financially greener pastures. While owners invariably cited financial difficulties as the primary factor in such moves, many fans bitterly disputed these contentions, especially in Cleveland (the Rams and the Browns), Baltimore (the Colts), Houston (the Oilers) and St. Louis (the Cardinals), each of which eventually received teams some years after their original franchises left (the Browns, Ravens, Texans and the Rams respectively). However, Los Angeles, the second-largest media market in the United States, has not had an NFL team since 1994 after both the Raiders and the Rams relocated elsewhere.

Additionally, with the increasing suburbanization of the U.S., the building of new stadiums and other team facilities in the suburbs instead of the central city became popular from the 1970s on, though at the turn of the millennium a reverse shift back to the central city became somewhat evident, as with the move by the Detroit Lions from the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan to Ford Field in downtown Detroit.

Season structure

Since 2002, The NFL season features the following schedule:

* a 4-game exhibition season (or preseason) running from early August to early September;
* a 16-game, 17-week regular season running from September to December or early January; and
* a 12-team playoff tournament beginning in January, culminating in the Super Bowl in early February.

Traditionally, American High school football games are played on Friday, American College football games are played on Saturday, and most NFL games are played on Sunday. Because the NFL season is longer than the college football season, the NFL schedules Saturday games and Saturday playoff games outside the college football Saturdays. The ABC Television network added Monday Night Football in 1970. Thursday night NFL games were added in the 1980s.

Exhibition season

Following mini-camps in the spring and officially recognized Training Camp in July-August, NFL teams typically play four exhibition games (referred to by the NFL as "pre-season games;" the league discourages the use of the term "exhibition game") from early August through early September. Each team hosts two games of the four. The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game and American Bowl are held at neutral sites, so the four teams in those games play five exhibition games each.

The games are useful for new players who are not used to playing in front of very large crowds. Management often uses the games to evaluate newly-signed players. Veteran starters will generally play only for about a quarter of each game to minimize the risk of injury.

Regular Season

Following the preseason, each of the 32 teams embark on a 17 week, 16 game schedule, with the extra week consisting of a bye to allow teams a rest sometime in the middle of the season. Each of the 32 teams' schedules are organized in the following way:

* Each team plays the other three teams in its division twice: once at home, and once on the road (six games).
* Each team plays the four teams from another division within its own conference once on a rotating three-year cycle: two at home, and two on the road (four games).
* Each team plays the four teams from a division in the other conference once on a rotating four-year cycle: two at home, and two on the road (four games).
* Each team plays once against the other teams in its conference that finished in the same place in their own divisions as themselves, not counting the division they were already scheduled to play: one at home, one on the road (two games).

Playoffs

The season concludes with a 12-team tournament used to determine the teams to play in the Super Bowl. The tournament brackets are made up of six teams from each of the league's two conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), following the end of the 16-game regular season:

* The four division champions from each conference (the team in each division with the best regular season won-lost-tied record), which are seeded 1 through 4 based on their regular season won-lost-tied record.
* Two wild card qualifiers from each conference (those non-division champions with the conference's best record, i.e. the best won-lost-tied percentages, with a series of tie-breaking rules in place in the event that there are teams with the same number of wins and losses), which are seeded 5 and 6.

The 3 and the 6 seeded teams, and the 4 and the 5 seeds, face each other during the first round of the playoffs, dubbed the Wild Card Playoffs (the league in recent years has also used the term Wild Card Weekend). The 1 and the 2 seeds from each conference receive a bye in the first round, which entitles these teams to automatically advance to the second round, the Divisional Playoff games, to face the winning teams from the first round. In any given playoff round, the highest surviving seed always plays the lowest surviving seed. And in any given playoff game, whoever has the higher seed gets the home field advantage (i.e. the game is held at the higher seed's home field).

The two surviving teams from the Divisional Playoff games meet in Conference Championship games, with the winners of those contests going on to face one another in the Super Bowl in a game located at a neutral venue that is either indoors or in a warm-weather locale. The designated "home team" alternates year to year between the conferences. In Super Bowl XLII the AFC team (New England Patriots) were "home". In Super Bowl XLIII the NFC team will be the home team.