National Football League

The largest professional American football league is the National Football League (NFL). It comprises 32 teams from various cities in America. The teams in the league are separated into two conferences, and each conference is itself split into four divisions. Each of these four divisions has four teams.

During regular seasons, every team under the NFL gets to play 16 matches in less than two month’s time. This takes place some time between September and December. By the end of the season, 6 teams from each of the two conferences plays in the NFL playoffs. This ends in a twelve-team single-elimination competition, which is the Super Bowl. This competition is hosted at a location that is pre-decided. However, this location is usually one that hosts an NFL team. A week after this, all-star players that are selected from the NFC and AFC converge at the Pro Bowl. It is presently hosted in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 1920, the NFL was established in Canton, Ohio, at a Hupmobile dealership. It was initially known as the American Professional Football Association, but in 1922 it was renamed the National Football League. Jim Thorpe, a legendary athlete was elected as president of the association. This association that consisted of 11 teams was hardly a league. It could be better described as an agreement among all member teams not to rob other teams' players.

By 1921, the APFA started releasing official ratings. The next year, when the APFA was changed to the National Football League, it could hardly be described as a major league. The 1920s was a notable period that saw many players entering and leaving the league frequently. However, wit the passage of time, as development took place within the league things began to settle down. The NFL, after its early days, now stands as one of the main professional sports leagues functioning in North America.

NFL football has descended from rugby football, which came to North America from Canada [1874]. Professional football played in the United States can be traced back to 1892. This was around the time when an athletic club in Pittsburgh had paid William "Pudge" Heffelfinger $500 to participate in a match. Over a period of time, the concept of paying players to participate in matches spread to the Midwest. It spread mainly in Ohio, and in this same place, the Massillon Tigers paid four Pittsburgh professionals to play on their team in their season-culminating match versus Akron [1903].

Modern Era:
By the 1970s and 1980s, the NFL was a reinforced body. It became a dominant spectator sport, carving for itself a significant role in American culture. The Super Bowl has even developed as an unofficial national holiday. It is also a highly rated-rated TV program for most years. Monday Night Football brought a mixture of sport and entertainment to many homes, and this brought in top ratings. Further, in the 1970s, rules were modified to attract the casual fan. The sport developed into a quicker-paced game with a lot of passing.

In the 1980s, the NFL faced a major challenge when the United States Football League was established. Being a well-financed competitor with many big performers, it could have troubled the NFL. However, within three years, due to failing to make much money, it fell apart.

Since the mid 1980s, the NFL spread into newer markets. It started hosting a series of pre-season exhibition matches that were referred to as the American Bowls. These matches were held at sites outside the United States. A few years later, in 1991, the league established the World League of American Football, which is now called NFL Europa. It is fundamentally a developmental league with teams in the Netherlands and Germany too. This league played a regular-season NFL game in Mexico City [2005]. It plans to play more of these kinds of matches in other countries. Another significant step alongside the formation of the NFL Europa, is the cable-television channel, NFL Network that the NFL has setup.

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