The National Football League (NFL) is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league globally. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing its name to the National Football League in 1922. The league currently consists of thirty-two teams from the United States. The league is divided evenly into two conferences – the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference
(NFC), and each conference has four divisions that have four teams
each, for a total of 16 teams in each conference. The NFL is an
unincorporated association, a federal nonprofit designation comprising its 32 teams.
The headquarters of the National Football League at 345 Park Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, USA.
The regular season is a seventeen-week schedule during which each team plays sixteen games and has one bye week. The season currently starts on the Thursday night in the first full week of September and runs weekly to late December or early January. At the end of each regular season, six teams from each conference (at least one from each division) 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 NFL is the most attended domestic sports league in the world by average attendance per game, with 66,960 fans per game in 2010–11. Although not as frequently as the other major professional sports leagues in the United States, the NFL still is not immune to labor disputes, such as the players' strikes of 1982 and 1987, and more recently a lockout in 2011, though the latest did not result in the cancellation of any regular-season games.
Some of the major rules differences include:
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. Several lawsuits have been brought by fans, against the policy of including exhibition games in season-ticket packages at regular season prices, but none have so far been very successful.
This chart displays an application of the NFL scheduling formula. At the end of the 2008 season, the Browns (in green) finished in fourth place in the AFC North. Thus the Browns in 2009
had to play all the other AFC North teams (in blue) twice; all the AFC
West teams (another division within its own conference) once; all the
NFC North teams (a division in the other conference) once; and the Bills
and the Jaguars, who also finished in fourth place in their respective
AFC divisions during that previous season.
The league uses a scheduling formula to per-determine which teams plays whom during a given season. Under the current formula since 2002, each of the thirty-two teams' respective 16-game schedule consists for the following:
The NFL Playoffs. Each of the four division winners is seeded 1–4 based
on their W-L-T records. The two Wild Card teams (labeled Wild Card 1 and
2) are seeded fifth and sixth (with the better of the two having seed
5) regardless of their records compared to the four division winners.
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 usually either indoors or in a warm-weather locale. The designated "home team" alternates year to year between the conferences. In odd-numbered Super Bowls, the NFC team is the designated "home team", with the AFC team serving as the home team for even-numbered games.
The NFL is the only one out of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States to use a single-elimination tournament in its playoffs; Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League all use a "best-of" format instead.
However, the 2010 Pro Bowl was played at Sun Life Stadium, the home stadium of the Miami Dolphins and host site of Super Bowl XLIV, on January 31, the first time ever that the Pro Bowl was played before the championship game. The game returned to Honolulu in 2011 and 2012, though both games were still played before the Super Bowl.
On April 26, 2012, Chris Mortensen of ESPN reported that the Pro Bowl was likely to be suspended for the 2012 season and beyond. According to league sources, Commissioner Roger Goodell was dissatisfied with the lack of competitive effort by players in that game, although he did not bear any ill will toward the players due to safety issues. Mortenson also reported that if the game is shelved, a Pro Bowl balloting process will continue because many player contracts include incentive clauses that are triggered by Pro Bowl selections.
Current season or competition: 2012 NFL season |
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 |
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| Sport | American Football |
|---|---|
| Founded | August 20, 1920 in Canton, Ohio, United States |
| Commissioner | Roger Goodell |
| Inaugural season | 1920 |
| No. of teams | 32 |
| Country(ies) | United States |
| Most recent champion(s) | New York Giants (8th title) |
| Most titles | Green Bay Packers (13 titles) |
| TV partner(s) | CBS Fox NBC ESPN NFL Network |
| Official website | NFL.com |
The regular season is a seventeen-week schedule during which each team plays sixteen games and has one bye week. The season currently starts on the Thursday night in the first full week of September and runs weekly to late December or early January. At the end of each regular season, six teams from each conference (at least one from each division) 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 NFL is the most attended domestic sports league in the world by average attendance per game, with 66,960 fans per game in 2010–11. Although not as frequently as the other major professional sports leagues in the United States, the NFL still is not immune to labor disputes, such as the players' strikes of 1982 and 1987, and more recently a lockout in 2011, though the latest did not result in the cancellation of any regular-season games.
History
Main article: History of the National Football League
In 1920 representatives of several professional American football
leagues and independent teams founded the American Professional Football
Conference, soon renamed the National Football League. The first
official championship game was held in 1933; before then, there was no
playoff system, and instead the team that finished with the best regular
season record was awarded the league title. By 1958, when that season's
NFL championship game became known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played",
the NFL was on its way to becoming one of the most popular sports
leagues in the United States. In 1965, football supplanted baseball as
the most popular televised sport in America.The merger with the American Football League, agreed to in 1966 and completed in 1970, greatly expanded the league and created the Super Bowl, which has become one of the most watched sporting events in the world, and is second to association football (soccer)'s UEFA Champions League final as the most watched annual sporting event worldwide.Official rules and notable rule distinctions
See also: American football rules and List of NFL nicknames#Rules named after NFL figures
Although rules for NFL, college, and high school American football
games are generally consistent, there are several differences. In
addition, the NFL frequently makes rule changes because of exploits on
the field by a single coach, owner, player, or referee.Some of the major rules differences include:
- A pass is ruled complete if both of the receiver's feet are inbounds at the time of the catch. In college and high school football, only one foot is required to be inbounds.
- In the NFL, a player is considered down when he is tackled or forced down by a member of the opposing team (also known as "down by contact"). In college football, a player is automatically ruled down when any part of his body other than the feet or hands touches the ground or when the ball carrier is tackled or otherwise falls and loses possession of the ball as he contacts the ground with any part of his body.
- NFL players in certain positions are normally ineligible to catch passes. As an aid for game officials to enforce this rule, players wear uniform numbers based on the position they play. (see below)
- Unlike college and high school, the NFL has a two-minute warning, an automatic time-out that occurs when two minutes of game time remain on the game clock in each half or OT of a game.
- Also unique to the NFL, the game clock never stops after the offense completes a first down in order to reset the first down chains.
- Two-point conversion tries are attempted from the two-yard line, whereas in college football they are attempted from the three-yard line.
- In college football, the defensive team may score two points on a point-after touchdown attempt by returning a blocked kick, fumble, or interception into the opposition's end zone. The NFL does not allow this, and instead a conversion attempt is automatically ruled as "no good" when the defending team gains possession of the football.
- There are several differences in enforcing penalties. For example, defensive pass interference results in the ball being placed at the spot of the foul. In college football, the same penalty is capped at maximum of 15 yards.
- In the NFL, overtime is decided by a 15-minute sudden-death quarter during regular season games and can still end in a tie if a tie remains. Starting with the 2012 season, each team gets one possession to score unless one of them scores a touchdown on its first possession. Sudden death rules apply if both teams have had their initial possession and the game remains tied. During college football's overtime, each team is given one possession from its opponent's twenty-five yard line with no game clock. The team leading after both possessions is declared the winner. If the two college teams remain tied, additional overtime periods are played.
- For instant replay, NFL teams are given two replay challenges per game, and can be awarded a third one if the other two are successful. Replays of scoring plays, the final 2:00 of each half and all overtime periods are instead initiated by the official in the replay booth. Also, as of the 2012 season, all turnovers will be reviewed by the replay official. In college football, teams are only originally allocated one replay challenge (and can get a second one if successful), and the replay official can initiate reviews of all plays.
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 single-elimination playoff beginning in January, culminating in the Super Bowl in early February.
Exhibition season
Main article: National Football League preseason
Following mini-camps in the spring and officially recognized training camp in July–August, NFL teams typically play four exhibition games from early August through early September. Each team hosts two games of the four. The exhibition season begins with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, so those two teams play five exhibition games each. Historically, the American Bowl(s) were played prior to the NFL scheduling regular season games abroad and those teams faced this similar predicament.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. Several lawsuits have been brought by fans, against the policy of including exhibition games in season-ticket packages at regular season prices, but none have so far been very successful.
Regular season
Main article: National Football League regular season
Following the preseason, each of the thirty-two teams embark on a
seventeen-week, sixteen-game schedule, with the extra week consisting of
a bye
to allow teams a rest sometime in the middle of the season (and also to
increase television coverage). The regular season currently begins the
Thursday evening after Labor Day with a prime time "Kickoff Game" (NBC
currently holds broadcast rights for that game). According to the
current scheduling structure, the earliest the season could begin is
September 4 (as it was in the 2008 season), while the latest would be September 10 (as it was in the 2009 season, due to September 1 falling on a Tuesday). The regular season ends no later than January 3, in any given year.The league uses a scheduling formula to per-determine which teams plays whom during a given season. Under the current formula since 2002, each of the thirty-two teams' respective 16-game schedule consists for the following:
- Each team plays the other three teams in their 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 the previous season, not counting the division they were already scheduled to play: one at home, one on the road (two games).
Playoffs
Main article: National Football League playoffs
The season concludes with a twelve-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 one through four based on their regular season won-lost-tied record (tie-breaker rules may apply).
- 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 five and six.
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 usually either indoors or in a warm-weather locale. The designated "home team" alternates year to year between the conferences. In odd-numbered Super Bowls, the NFC team is the designated "home team", with the AFC team serving as the home team for even-numbered games.
The NFL is the only one out of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States to use a single-elimination tournament in its playoffs; Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League all use a "best-of" format instead.
Pro Bowl
The Pro Bowl, the league's all-star game, has been traditionally held on the weekend after the Super Bowl. The game was played at various venues before being held at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii for 30 consecutive seasons from 1980 to 2009.However, the 2010 Pro Bowl was played at Sun Life Stadium, the home stadium of the Miami Dolphins and host site of Super Bowl XLIV, on January 31, the first time ever that the Pro Bowl was played before the championship game. The game returned to Honolulu in 2011 and 2012, though both games were still played before the Super Bowl.
On April 26, 2012, Chris Mortensen of ESPN reported that the Pro Bowl was likely to be suspended for the 2012 season and beyond. According to league sources, Commissioner Roger Goodell was dissatisfied with the lack of competitive effort by players in that game, although he did not bear any ill will toward the players due to safety issues. Mortenson also reported that if the game is shelved, a Pro Bowl balloting process will continue because many player contracts include incentive clauses that are triggered by Pro Bowl selections.
Calendar
Though the NFL only plays in the late summer, fall, and early winter, the extended off season often is an event in itself, with the draft, free agency signings, and the announcement of schedules keeping the NFL in the spotlight even during the spring, when virtually no on-field activity is taking place. A typical calendar of league events is as follows, with the dates listed being those for the 2012 NFL season:- February 22 – Pro Football Hall of Fame Game opponents announced.
- February 24 – March 2—NFL Scouting Combine: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Ind.
- February 25—Deadline for Clubs to designate Franchise and Transition players.
- March 13—Veteran Free Agency signing period begins. Trading period begins.
- March 26–28—NFL Annual Meeting: Dana Point, Calif. Usually accompanied by announcement of scheduling and opponents for first game and opening-weekend night games.
- Early April: Teams begin voluntary workouts.
- April 17: 2012 schedule announced.
- April 26–28 – NFL Draft: New York City.
- May 21–23—NFL Spring Meeting: Chicago, Ill.
- June 24 – June 27—NFL Rookie Symposium, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
- Mid-July (varies by team, fifteen days before first preseason game)-- Training camps open.
- August 5 – Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, Canton, Ohio, including Hall of Fame Game.
- August 9–13—First full Preseason weekend.
- August 28—Roster cut down from 80 to maximum of 75 players.
- September 1—Roster cut down from 75 to maximum of 53 players.
- September 5–10 – Kickoff 2012 Weekend (Week 1 of regular season)
- October 28 – International Series game (Wembley Stadium, London).
- November – Pro Bowl balloting and flexible scheduling for NBC Sunday Night Football begin.
- November 22 – Thanksgiving games.
- December 30, 2012—End of regular season.
- January 5, 2013 – Playoffs begin.
- January 20 – AFC Championship Game and NFC Championship Game.
- January 27 – Pro Bowl.
- February 3 – Super Bowl.
Teams
Current NFL teams
BillsDolphinsPatriotsJetsRavensBengalsBrownsSteelersTexansColtsTitansBroncosChiefsRaidersChargersCowboysGiantsEaglesRedskinsBearsLionsPackersVikingsFalconsPanthersSaintsBuccaneersJaguarsCardinalsRams49ersSeahawks
The NFL consists of thirty-two clubs. Each club is allowed a maximum of fifty-three players on their roster, but may only dress forty-five to play each week during the regular season. Reflecting the population distribution of the United States as a whole, most teams are in the eastern half of the country; seventeen teams are in the Eastern Time Zone and nine others in the Central Time Zone.
Most major metropolitan areas in the United States have an NFL franchise, although Los Angeles, the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, has not hosted an NFL team since 1994.
Further information: History of the National Football League in Los AngelesThe Rams and the Raiders called the Los Angeles area home from 1946–1994 and 1982–1994 respectively. On August 9, 2011, the LA City Council approved plans to build Farmers Field which could be home to an NFL team. It is unknown which team, if any, will move to the venue.
Unlike Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, the league has no full-time teams in Canada, although the Buffalo Bills play one game per year in Toronto. There has been discussion of possibly bringing the NFL to Toronto, the largest city in Canada. In addition, as of 2012, the St. Louis Rams will begin hosting one of its regular season games in London, England as part of the International Series, making the NFL the first U.S.-based sports league to have one of its teams establish a home stadium outside North America.
The Dallas Cowboys are the highest valued American football franchise, valued at approximately $1.6 billion and one of the most valuable franchises in all of professional sports worldwide, currently third behind the Los Angeles Dodgers of MLB, sold in March 2012 for $2 billion, and English soccer club Manchester United, which has an approximate value of $1.8 billion at current exchange rates. Since the 2002 season, the teams have been aligned as follows:
Division Team City/Area Stadium Founded Joined Head Coach Owner American Football Conference East Buffalo Bills Orchard Park, NY Ralph Wilson Stadium 1 Oct 28, 1959 1970 Chan Gailey Ralph Wilson Miami Dolphins Miami Gardens, FL Sun Life Stadium Aug 16, 1965 1970 Joe Philbin Stephen M. Ross New England Patriots Foxborough, MA Gillette Stadium Nov 22, 1959 1970 Bill Belichick Robert Kraft New York Jets E. Rutherford, NJ MetLife Stadium Aug 14, 1959 1970 Rex Ryan Woody Johnson North Baltimore Ravens Baltimore, MD M&T Bank Stadium Feb 9, 1996 1996 2 John Harbaugh Steve Bisciotti Cincinnati Bengals Cincinnati, OH Paul Brown Stadium May 23, 1967 1970 Marvin Lewis Mike Brown Cleveland Browns Cleveland, OH Cleveland Browns Stadium June 4, 1944 1950 2 Pat Shurmur Randy Lerner Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh, PA Heinz Field July 8, 1933 1933 Mike Tomlin Dan Rooney South Houston Texans Houston, TX Reliant Stadium Oct 6, 1999 2002 Gary Kubiak Bob McNair Indianapolis Colts * Indianapolis, IN Lucas Oil Stadium Jan 23, 1953 1953 Chuck Pagano Jim Irsay Jacksonville Jaguars Jacksonville, FL EverBank Field Nov 30, 1993 1995 Mike Mularkey Shahid Khan Tennessee Titans * Nashville, TN LP Field Aug 14, 1959 1970 Mike Munchak Bud Adams West Denver Broncos Denver, CO Sports Authority Field at Mile High Aug 14, 1959 1970 John Fox Pat Bowlen Kansas City Chiefs * Kansas City, MO Arrowhead Stadium Aug 14, 1959 1970 Romeo Crennel Clark Hunt et al. Oakland Raiders * Oakland, CA O.co Coliseum Jan 30, 1960 1970 Dennis Allen Mark Davis et al. San Diego Chargers * San Diego, CA Qualcomm Stadium Aug 14, 1959 1970 Norv Turner Alex Spanos National Football Conference East Dallas Cowboys Arlington, TX Cowboys Stadium Jan 28, 1960 1960 Jason Garrett Jerry Jones New York Giants E. Rutherford, NJ MetLife Stadium Aug 1, 1925 1925 Tom Coughlin J. Mara & S. Tisch Philadelphia Eagles Philadelphia, PA Lincoln Financial Field July 8, 1933 1933 Andy Reid Jeffrey Lurie Washington Redskins * Landover, MD FedEx Field July 9, 1932 1932 Mike Shanahan Daniel Snyder North Chicago Bears * Chicago, IL Soldier Field Sep 17, 1920 3 1920 Lovie Smith V. Halas McCaskey Detroit Lions * Detroit, MI Ford Field 1929 1930 Jim Schwartz Bill Ford Green Bay Packers Green Bay, WI Lambeau Field Aug 11, 1919 1921 Mike McCarthy Incorporated Minnesota Vikings Minneapolis, MN Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Jan 28, 1960 1961 Leslie Frazier Zygi Wilf South Atlanta Falcons Atlanta, GA Georgia Dome June 30, 1965 1966 Mike Smith Arthur Blank Carolina Panthers Charlotte, NC Bank of America Stadium Oct 26, 1993 1995 Ron Rivera Jerry Richardson New Orleans Saints New Orleans, LA Mercedes-Benz Superdome Nov 1, 1966 1967 Sean Payton Tom Benson Tampa Bay Buccaneers Tampa, FL Raymond James Stadium April 24, 1974 1976 Greg Schiano Malcolm Glazer West Arizona Cardinals * Glendale, AZ University of Phoenix Stadium 1898 1920 Ken Whisenhunt Bill Bidwill St. Louis Rams * St. Louis, MO Edward Jones Dome1 1936 1937 Jeff Fisher Stan Kroenke San Francisco 49ers San Francisco, CA Candlestick Park June 4, 1944 1950 Jim Harbaugh Jed York Seattle Seahawks Seattle, WA CenturyLink Field June 4, 1974 1976 Pete Carroll Paul Allen
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