NFL Football Information
NFL National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is the largest
professional American football league, consisting of
thirty-two teams from American cities and regions. The
league was formed in 1920 as the American Professional
Football Association, which adopted the name "National
Football League" in 1922. The NFL is one of the major
professional sports leagues of North America.
Prior to the 1960s, the most
popular version of American football was played
collegiately. After the 1958 NFL Championship Game
(which went into overtime), the NFL's greatest spurt
in popularity came in the 1960s and 1970s with the
merger of the rival American Football League, or AFL
(1960-1969).
Currently, the league's 32 teams are divided into two
conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC)
and the National Football Conference (NFC). Each
conference is then further divided into four divisions
consisting of four teams each. The divisions are
labeled East, West, North, and South; the teams do not
consistently follow geographic boundaries as the NFL
wanted to keep certain rivalries intact.
During the league's regular season, each team plays 16
games over a 17-week period generally from September
to December. At the end of each regular season, six
teams from each conference play in the NFL playoffs, a
12-team single-elimination tournament that culminates
with the NFL championship, the Super Bowl. This game
is held at a pre-selected site which is usually a city
that hosts an NFL team or a popular college stadium.
One week later, selected all-star players from both
the AFC and NFC meet in the Pro Bowl, currently held
in Hawaii.
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| AFC | East | North | South | West |
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| NFC | East | North | South | West |
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