national football league
In 1920, eleven football teams across the United States came together to form a football association in an effort to streamline the game, the rules and further the sport as a great American pastime. This was the precursor to What we know today as the National Football League, or more commonly, the NFL. Originally, it was named the American Professional Football Association, later becoming the American Professional Football League in 1921 and finally settling on its current name in 1922.
There are two divisions of the National Football League, the AFC (American Football Conference) and the NFC (National Football Conference). Each conference has four divisions with 4 teams in each division. The purpose of the National Football League is to set up each teams schedule against the other teams to reach a playoff and ultimately the annual Super Bowl.
Each team is on a 17-week schedule, where they will play 16 games against teams in their conference each week and have one week off. The regular season normally begins on the first Thursday after Labor Day (September 1) and will end in late December or early January. At the conclusion of the regular season, the six top teams from each conference (AFC and NFC) will play in a single elimination tournament, known as the playoffs. The 2 winning teams of the playoff games will graduate to the Super Bowl.
The National Football League is the exclusive owner of all rights to the Super Bowl and sets rules and guidelines for merchandising, ticketing and any related business, including selecting the stadium where the Super Bowl will be held each year. That task is accomplished through a bidding process in which a host city will make a proposal to the National Football League for the Super Bowl to be held in their city.
In addition to the many guidelines reqired by the National Football League, the stadium’s seating capacity is an important consideration. This is the reason many cities have built or rebuilt their stadiums in recent years. Another important requirement is the impact a super bowl might have on the local infrastructure. For example, when Jacksonville hosted their first Super Bowl in 2005 (Super Bowl XXXIX), they had several problems that put a strain on local resources, one of which was the enormous amount of people using the public bathrooms that caused an unanticipated strain on the local wastewater plant.
Nevertheless, The National Football League, as a governing body, has been instrumental in bringing Football into the home of millions of Americans as well as making it as popular as the great American pastime of Baseball.