National Football League From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search "NFL" redirects here. For other uses, see NFL (disambiguation). For other leagues of the same name, see National Football League (disambiguation). National Football League Current season or competition: Super Bowl XLVII Formerly American Professional Football Association (1920-1922) Sport American football Founded September 17, 1920[1] Commissioner Roger Goodell Inaugural season 1920 No. of teams 32 Country(ies) United States Most recent New York Giants (8th title) champion(s) Green Bay Packers (13 titles[2][3]) Most titles – NFL Green Bay Packers (11 titles) Championships (1920–1969) – Super Bowls Pittsburgh Steelers (6 titles) (Post-1970 merger) TV partner(s) CBS Fox NBC ESPN NFL Network Official website NFL.com The headquarters of the National Football League at 345 Park Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, US.[4] 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 in the world.[5] 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. Its merger with the American Football League, agreed to in 1966 and completed in 1970, created the Super Bowl, the NFL's championship game since the merger, which has become one of the most watched sporting events in the world. 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 501(c)(6) association,[6][7][8] a federal nonprofit designation,[9] comprising its 32 teams.[10][11] 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 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 (16 a season), with 67,394 fans per game in 2011–12.[12] Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Official rules and notable rule distinctions 3 Season structure o 3.1 Pre season o 3.2 Regular season o 3.3 Playoffs o 3.4 Pro Bowl o 3.5 Calendar 4 Teams o 4.1 Current NFL teams o 4.2 Former NFL teams 5 Media o 5.1 Television o 5.2 Radio o 5.3 Internet and new media 6 Player contracts and compensation o 6.1 Salaries o 6.2 Salary cap 7 NFL Draft 8 Free agency o 8.1 General o 8.2 Restricted free agent o 8.3 Unrestricted free agent o 8.4 Franchise tag 9 Banned substances policy 10 Video games 11 Management o 11.1 Franchise owners 12 Uniform numbers 13 Awards o 13.1 Discontinued awards 14 Cheerleading 15 Concussions and brain safety 16 See also o 16.1 Regular seasons o 16.2 Postseasons o 16.3 Records o 16.4 Related football leagues 17 References o 17.1 Notes o 17.2 Bibliography 18 External links History Main article: History of the National Football League In 1920, representatives of several professional football leagues and independent teams met in Canton, Ohio, and 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, after which that season's NFL championship game became known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played", Professional Football was on its way to becoming one of the most popular sports in the United States. A new league, the American Football League, began play in 1960, and its expanded market and offense-oriented style of play had the result that by 1965, Professional Football supplanted Major League Baseball as the most popular televised sport in America.[13] The NFL's merger with the American Football League, agreed to in 1966 and completed in 1970, further expanded the sport 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.[14] 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 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) 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 neither team scores during this extra period; if the score remains tied during a playoff game, however, additional overtime periods are played. Each team gets at least one possession to score unless a team scores a touchdown or safety on the first possession. Sudden death rules then 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; a college football game cannot end in a tie. 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, and overtime during the regular season (the timing rules of overtime during the regular season is similar to the fourth quarter, while overtime periods in the playoffs are timed like regulation). 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 a maximum of 15 yards. 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 and scoring plays, the final 2:00 of each half, and all overtime periods are instead initiated by the official in the replay booth. 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. Traditionally, American high school football games are played on Friday nights, American college football games are played on Thursday nights and Saturdays, 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 season. The ABC Television network added Monday Night Football in 1970, and Thursday night NFL games were added in the 1980s. Pre 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 pre season games (exhibition games) from early August through early September.