NFL: How Old Is The National Football League?

103 years old!

The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league composed of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football League (NFC) and the American Football League (AFC). NFL is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America. It is the world’s highest professional American football league, the richest professional sports league by income, and the sports league with the most valuable team. The NFL’s 18-week regular season lasts from early September to late December. Each team has to play 17 games and have a week of byes. After the regular season, 7 teams in each division (4 division champions and 3 wild card teams) advance to the playoffs. This is a single elimination game that ends in the Super Bowl, usually in the first place in February. Held every Sunday, and between the championships of NFC and AFC. The headquarters of the alliance is located in New York City.

The NFL was founded in 1920, formerly known as the American Professional Football Association (APFA), and then renamed the National Football League in the 1922 season. After initially determining the championship through the end-of-season rankings, the playoffs system was implemented in 1933 and reached its climax in the NFL championship game before 1966. According to the NFL and rival American Football League (AFL) merger agreement, the Super Bowl was first held in 1967 to determine the championship between the best teams in the two leagues. Today, the NFL has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world (67,591) and is the most popular sports league in the United States. The Super Bowl is also one of the largest club sports events in the world. Among the highest-rated TV shows in the history of the United States, individual events occupy the top 5 highest-rated TV shows in Nielsen’s history.

The Green Bay Packers have 13 NFL championships, winning 9 championships before the Super Bowl era, and then 4 subsequent Super Bowl championships. Since the creation of the Super Bowl, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots both have the most at six titles.

On August 20, 1920, representatives of the Akron Pro, Canton Bulldogs, Cleveland Indians, and Dayton Triangle teams held a meeting in the Jordan and Hupmobile showrooms in Canton, Ohio. This meeting led to the establishment of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC). According to the Guangzhou Evening News database, the organization aims to “raise the standards of professional football in every possible way, eliminate rival clubs and ensure that Cooperation in terms of timetable”.

Another meeting was held on September 17, 1920 with representatives from four states: Akron, Canton, Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio; Hammond Pros and Muncie Flyers from Indiana; Rochester Jeffersons from New York; And Rock Island Independents, Decatur Staleys and Racine (Chicago) Cardinals from Illinois. The league was renamed the American Professional Football Association (APFA). The league elected Jim Thorpe as its first chairman, consisting of 14 teams (Buffalo All-Americans, Chicago Tigers, Columbus Panhandle and Detroit Pioneers joined the league this year). The Massillon Tigers from Massillon, Ohio also participated in the September 17 meeting, but did not form a team in 1920. There are only two teams remaing from this group, Decatur Staley (now the Chicago Bears) and the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals). Akron Professional Players won the first APFA in 1920 (NFL) Championship.

Although the league did not maintain an official ranking in the first season of 1920, and the team’s schedule included non-league opponents, APFA relied on their 8-0-3 (8 wins, 0 losses and 3 relationships) record. [16] The first incident occurred on September 26, 1920, when the Rock Island Independence team defeated the non-league Sao Paulo Ideal team 48-0 at Douglas Park. On October 3, 1920, the league began its first full week. In the following season, the Chicago Staleys won the Buffalo National Team championship in a controversial way. On June 24, 1922, APFA was renamed the National Football League (NFL).

In 1932, at the end of the season, the Chicago Bears (6-1-6) and Portsmouth Spartans (6-1-4) tied for first place in the league. At that time, the teams were ranked on a table, and the team with the highest winning percentage at the end of the season (excluding draws and not counting into the standings) was declared the champion; the only tiebreaker was if the two teams were There were two draws in a season, then the result of the second game determined the championship (the source of the controversy in 1921). This method has been in use since the league was founded in 1920, but it has never encountered a situation where two teams tied for first place. The league quickly decided that it needed a playoff game between Chicago and Portsmouth to determine the league’s championship. The team originally planned to play the playoffs at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The official regular season will be counted in the regular season standings, but the combination of heavy snow and extreme cold forced the game to move indoors to Chicago Stadium. There is no prescribed size football field. . In order to adapt to a smaller playing field, the Bears changed the rules of the game and won the game 9-0, thus winning the championship. Fans’ interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL to be divided into two divisions starting in 1933, with a championship game between division champions. The 1934 season was also the first of 12 seasons in which African Americans missed the league. The de facto ban was lifted under public pressure in 1946, just as Major League Baseball lifted a similar ban.

The NFL has always been the largest professional football league in the United States; nevertheless, in the 1930s and 1940s, it faced many professional leagues with rivals. Competing leagues include at least three independent American Football Leagues and the National Football League (AAFC), in addition to various regional leagues at different levels. The history of the three NFL teams can be traced back to these rival leagues, including the Los Angeles Rams (from the American Football League in 1936), the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers (the last two teams are from the AAFC). By the 1950s, the NFL effectively monopolized professional football in the United States; its only game in North America was the Professional Canadian Football Tour, which officially became the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 1958. Because Canadian football is different from American football, the CFL has established a niche market in Canada and still exists as an independent league.

A new professional league, the fourth American Football League (AFL), began playing in 1960. The upstart AFL began to challenge the established NFL in popularity, won a lucrative TV contract, and started a bidding war with the NFL for free agent and draft picks. The merger of the two alliances was announced on June 8, 1966, and it became fully effective in 1970. At the same time, the league will hold a common draft and championship game. The Super Bowl games were held four times before the merger. The NFL won Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II, and the AFL won Super Bowl III and Super Bowl IV. After the merger of the league, it was reorganized into two conferences: the National Football League (NFC), which consisted of most of the NFL teams before the merger, and the American Football League (AFC), which included all AFL teams and three mergers Former NFL team.

Today, the NFL is the most popular sports league in North America; most of its growth is attributed to former commissioner Pete Rozelle, who led the league from 1960 to 1989. The total number of viewers increased from 3 million at the beginning of his tenure to 17 million at the end of his tenure, and 400 million viewers worldwide watched Super Bowl XXIII in 1989. The NFL established NFL Properties in 1963. NFL Properties, the authorized department of the league, earns billions of dollars for the league each year; Rozelle’s tenure also marks the creation of the NFL charity and a national partnership with United Way. Paul Tagliabue was elected as commissioner to succeed Rozelle; his 17-year term ended in 2006, marked by a substantial increase in TV contracts and the addition of four expansion teams, and the league’s initiative to increase The number of minorities in the league and team management roles. The current commissioner of the league, Roger Goodell, mainly uses fines or suspensions for players who violate the rules to reduce the number of illegal shots and make this Sports are safer. These actions are one of many actions taken by the NFL to reduce concussions and improve player safety.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League

About herculesking 608 Articles
Working to get better every day.