28 Facts About NFL

The NFL is one of the major North American professional sports leagues and the highest professional level of American football in the world.

NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season.

The NFL has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States.

The NFL is the wealthiest professional sports league by revenue and the sports league with the most valuable teams.

Fan interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL, beginning in 1933, to split into two divisions with a championship game to be played between the division champions.

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NFL was always the largest professional football league in the United States; it nevertheless faced numerous rival professional leagues through the 1930s and 1940s.

The game, the Super Bowl, was held four times before the merger, with the NFL winning Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II, and the AFL winning Super Bowl III and Super Bowl IV.

Today, the NFL is the most popular sports league in North America - with much of the league's growth and popularity attributable to former Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who led the league from 1960 to 1989.

The league's licensing wing, NFL Properties earns the league billions of dollars annually; Rozelle's tenure marked the creation of NFL Charities and a national partnership with United Way.

These actions are among many the NFL is taking to reduce concussions and improve player safety.

From 1920 to 1934, the NFL did not have a set number of games for teams to play, instead setting a minimum.

The NFL went to a 14-game schedule in 1961, which it retained until switching to a 16-game schedule in 1978.

In March 2021, the NFL officially adopted a 17-game schedule after gaining the agreement of the National Football League Players Association.

NFL operated in a two-conference system from 1933 to 1966, where the champions of each conference would meet in the NFL Championship Game.

Instead of just evening out the conferences by adding the expansion New Orleans Saints to the seven-member Western Conference, the NFL realigned the conferences and split each into two four-team divisions.

NFL gave up the tax-exempt status in 2015 following public criticism; in a letter to the club owners, Commissioner Roger Goodell labeled it a "distraction", saying "the effects of the tax-exempt status of the league office have been mischaracterized repeatedly in recent years… Every dollar of income generated through television rights fees, licensing agreements, sponsorships, ticket sales, and other means is earned by the 32 clubs and is taxable there.

The commissioner can issue sanctions up to and including a lifetime ban from the league if an individual connected to the NFL has bet on games or failed to notify the league of conspiracies or plans to bet on or fix games.

Each NFL club is granted a franchise, the league's authorization for the team to operate in its home city.

Each NFL member has the exclusive right to host professional football games inside its Home Territory and the exclusive right to advertise, promote, and host events in its Home Marketing Area.

NFL preseason begins with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, played at Fawcett Stadium in Canton.

Each NFL team is required to schedule three preseason games.

NFL games are not normally played on Fridays or Saturdays until late in the regular season, as federal law prohibits professional football leagues from competing with college or high school football.

NFL recognizes a number of awards for its players and coaches at its annual NFL Honors presentation.

In 2017, the NFL games occupied the top three rates for a 30-second advertisement: $699, 602 for Sunday Night Football, $550, 709 for Thursday Night Football, and $549, 791 for Thursday Night Football (CBS).

The NFL announced in March 2015 that it would suspend its blackout policy for at least the 2015 season.

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NFL finished the new contract negotiation for the media rights deal worth over $110 billion on March 18, 2021.

On February 9, 2022, as part of efforts to increase the sport's international reach, the NFL announced that Munich will host its first regular-season game in Germany in 2022.

NFL operates several other drafts in addition to the NFL draft.