National Football League (NFL) is the major professional football league in the United States. The NFL consists of 32 teams. The teams are divided into the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference. Each conference has four divisions.
Teams play a regular season of 17 games. The four division champions and the next three teams in each conference with the best win-loss records advance to the playoffs. A series of playoff games determines the two conference champions. These teams then play for the NFL championship in the Super Bowl, which has become the most popular one-day event in American sports.
The NFL has been in operation as a professional league since 1920. That year, the American Professional Football Association was founded. In 1922, the association was renamed the National Football League. It had 18 teams. In 1933, the NFL split into divisions. Later that year, the Chicago Bears, the Western Division champion, defeated the New York Giants, the Eastern Division champion, for the first world professional football title.
In 1950, three teams from a professional league called the All-America Football Conference merged with the NFL to create a 13-team league.
The creation of the American Football League (AFL) in 1960 meant new competition for the NFL. To eliminate bidding wars for players between the two leagues, the AFL and NFL established a common draft in 1966. As an outgrowth of this agreement, the first Super Bowl was played in 1967, with the NFL champion Green Bay Packers defeating the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs. After continuing to operate separately until 1969, the leagues reached a merger agreement. Under the agreement, all AFL teams entered the NFL in 1970. The expanded NFL consisted of two 13-team conferences.
Under the leadership of Pete Rozelle, NFL commissioner from 1960 to 1989, the league added several more teams. Its popularity and income increased enormously because of television exposure.
See also Football.
