National Football League

National Football League
National Football League
Sport	American football
Founded	1920
CEO	Roger Goodell (Commissioner)
No. of teams	32, divided into two sixteen-team conferences, each of which consists of four four-team divisions.
Country	United States
Most recent champion(s)	Indianapolis Colts
TV partner(s)	CBS, FOX, ESPN, NBC, NFL Network
Official website	NFL.com

The National Football League (NFL) is the largest and most prestigious professional American football league, consisting of thirty-two teams from United States cities and regions. The league's 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, labeled North, South, East, and West. During the league's regular season, each team plays sixteen games over a seventeen-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 twelve-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. One week later, selected all-star players from both the AFC and NFC meet in the Pro Bowl, currently held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association and adopted the name National Football League in 1922. The NFL is one of the most popular sports leagues in the United States, and has the highest per-game attendance of any domestic professional sports league in the world, drawing over 67,000 spectators per game for its most recently completed season in 2006.

History

Total NFL championships

Team	Titles
Green Bay Packers	12
Chicago Bears	9
New York Giants	6
Indianapolis Colts	5
Pittsburgh Steelers	5
San Francisco 49ers	5
Washington Redskins	5
Dallas Cowboys	5
Cleveland Browns	4
Detroit Lions	3
New England Patriots	3
Oakland Raiders	3
Philadelphia Eagles	3
St. Louis Rams	3
Arizona Cardinals|Chicago Cardinals	2
Denver Broncos	2
Miami Dolphins	2
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	1
Minnesota Vikings	1
Baltimore Ravens	1
Further information: List of total NFL champions

Early era

File:NFL 1960.gif

National Football League logo (1960–1969)

The game of American Football was born in 1876 by Walter Camp, often referred to as the father of American Football. As time elapsed, in 1892, Yale All-America guard William (Pudge) Heffelfinger was paid $500 by the AAA to play in a game against the PAC, becoming the first person to be paid to play football, November 12. In 1899, Chris O'Brien formed a neighborhood team, which played under the name the Morgan Athletic Club, on the south side of Chicago. The team later became known as the Normals, then the Racine (for a street in Chicago) Cardinals, the Chicago Cardinals, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Phoenix Cardinals, and, in 1994, the Arizona Cardinals. The team remains the oldest continuing operation in pro football. The road to modern football was a difficult one. There were various attempts at forming the National Football League. The first such one was in 1902, and was somehwat successful. However, due to complete disorganization, players were able to move from one team to another without any restrictions. The highest bidder would earn their services. Not only this, but dramatic rising salaries and the use of players still in college conflicted with many of the goals of the league. This in turn, forced people to think about a league in which all players would be bound to similar restrictions and rules.

1920 American Professional Football Association

The American Professional Football Association was founded in 1920 at a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio. Legendary athlete Jim Thorpe was elected president. The group of eleven teams, all but one in the Midwest, was originally less a league than an agreement not to rob other teams' players. In the early years, APFA members continued to play non-APFA teams.

In 1921, however, the APFA began releasing official standings, and the following year, the group changed its name to the National Football League. The Chicago Bears of present day also came to existence in 1922. However, the NFL was hardly a major league in the 1920s. Teams entered and left the league frequently. Franchises included such colorful representatives as the Providence Steam Rollers, the Decatur Staleys, and the LaRue, Ohio Oorang Indians, an all-Native Americans in the United States outfit that also put on a performing dog show.

1926-The Rise, And Fall of the American Football League After failing to get star Red Grange a five-figure contract and a third part in ownership, Grange's manager, C.C. Pyle broke away from the National Football League and formed the American Football League (AFL). Unfortunataely, this experience fell apart as the AFL folded at season's end. In 1926, a rule was passed that prohibited a college student from signing whose class had not yet graduated.

It seemed as though football would remain an experiment, a dream in the making forever. Yet as former college stars like Red Grange and Benny Friedman began to test the professional waters, the pro game slowly began to increase in its popularity. By 1934 all of the small-town teams, with the exception of the Green Bay Packers, had moved to or been replaced by teams in big cities. One factor in the league's rising popularity was the institution of an annual National Football League championships in 1933, and the forming of two divisions to create structure in the National Football League.

1931

The Packers won an unprecedented third consecutive title, beating out the Spartans, who were led by rookie backs Earl (Dutch) Clark and Glenn Presnell.

1933 was also the year that black players disappeared from the NFL, just after the acceptance into the league of Boston Braves owner George Preston Marshall, who effectively dissuaded other NFL owners from employing black players until the mid-forties, and who kept blacks off his team (which eventually became the Washington Redskins) until he was forced to integrate by the Kennedy administration in 1962.

1939- The Birth of the Bowl

1939 marked the existence of the Pro Bowl. The Pro Bowl is a game to honor the league's All-Star players who have performed at the highest level. Initially, it was a game featuring the championshpis team against a group of the league's best individual players. The first Pro Bowl game took place at Wrigley Field, Los Angeles, on January 15, 1939. The title winners, New York Giants, defeated the Pro Bowl All-Stars 13-10.

An NFL game was televised for the first time when NBC broadcast the Brooklyn Dodgers-Philadelphia Eagles game from Ebbets Field to the approximately 1,000 sets then in New York.

Green Bay defeated New York 27-0 in the NFL Championship Game, December 10 at Milwaukee. NFL attendance exceeded 1 million in a season for the first time, reaching 1,071,200.

By the end of World War II, pro football began to rival the college game for fans' attention. The spread of the T formation led to a faster-paced, higher-scoring game that attracted record numbers of fans. In 1945, the Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles, California, becoming the first big-league sports franchise on the West Coast. In 1950, the NFL accepted three teams from the defunct All-America Football Conference, expanding to thirteen clubs.

In the 1950s, pro football finally earned its place as a major sport. The NFL embraced television, giving Americans nationwide a chance to follow stars like Bobby Layne, Paul Hornung, Otto Graham, and Johnny Unitas. The 1958 NFL championship played in Yankee Stadium but blacked out by league policy in New York City drew record TV viewership and made national celebrities out of Unitas and his Baltimore Colts teammates.

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The rise of professional football was so fast that by the mid-1960s, it had surpassed baseball as Americans' favorite spectator sport in some surveys. When the NFL turned down Lamar Hunt's request to purchase either an existing or expansion NFL franchise, he formed the rival American Football League (AFL), in 1960. He encouraged, wheedled, and cajoled seven other like-minded men to form this new league. The group of the eight founders of the AFL teams was referred to as the "Foolish Club." One of them, fellow Texan Bud Adams of Houston, Texas, had likewise tried but failed to be granted an NFL franchise. Hunt's goal was to bring professional football to Texas and to acquire an NFL team for the Hunt family.

The AFL introduced features that the NFL did not have, such as wider-open passing offenses, players' names on their jerseys, and an official clock visible to fans so that they knew the time remaining in a period (the NFL kept time by a game referee's watch, and only periodically announced the actual time). The newer league also secured itself financially after it established the precedents for gate and television revenue sharing between all of its teams, and network television broadcasts of all of its games. While the NFL virtually ignored small and historically black colleges as a source of player talent, the AFL actively recruited from such schools and AFL teams installed blacks at positions from which they were tacitly excluded in the NFL, such as quarterback[1] and middle linebacker[2].

The AFL also forced the NFL to expand: The Dallas Cowboys were created to counter Hunt's AFL Dallas Texans (AFL) franchise. The Texans moved the franchise to Kansas City as the Chiefs in 1963; the Minnesota Vikings were the NFL franchise given to Max Winter for abandoning the AFL; and the Atlanta Falcons franchise went to Rankin Smith to dissuade him from purchasing the AFL's Miami Dolphins.

The ensuing costly war for players between the NFL and AFL almost derailed the sport's ascent. By 1966, the leagues agreed to AFL-NFL Merger as of the 1970 season. The ten AFL teams joined three existing NFL teams to form the NFL's American Football Conference. The remaining thirteen NFL teams became the National Football Conference. Another result of the merger was the creation of an AFL-NFL Championship game that for four years determined the so-called "World Championship of Professional Football". After the merger, the then-renamed Super Bowl became the NFL's championship game.

Modern era

In the 1970s and 1980s, the NFL solidified its dominance as America's top spectator sport and its important role in American culture. The Super Bowl became an unofficial national holiday and the top-rated TV program most years. Monday Night Football, which first aired in 1970 brought in high ratings by mixing sports and entertainment. Rules changes in the late 1970s ensured a fast-paced game with lots of passing to attract the casual fan.

The founding of the United States Football League in the early 1980s was the biggest challenge to the NFL in the post-merger era. The USFL was a well-financed competitor with big-name players and a national television contract. However, the USFL failed to make money and folded after three years.

In recent years, the NFL has expanded into new markets and ventures. In 1986, the league began holding a series of pre-season exhibition games, called American Bowls, held at international sites outside the United States. Then in 1991, the league formed the World League of American Football, (now NFL Europa), a developmental league now with teams in Germany and the Netherlands. The league played a regular-season NFL game in Mexico City in 2005 and intends to play more such games in other countries. In 2003, the NFL launched its own cable-television channel, NFL Network.

The NFL proper has announced that there will be a regular season game between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants for the first time ever, this game will be held in Wembley Stadium, the new 90,000-seat stadium in London. It is expected to be a great success with nearly 40,000 tickets already sold. This game is to be played on October 28, 2007. It is also expected to be one of the most watched regular season games in history, due to it being the first regular season game away from North America.

Franchise relocations and mergers

In the early years, the league was not stable and teams moved frequently. Franchise mergers were popular during World War II in response to the scarcity of players.

Franchise moves became far more controversial in the late 20th century when a vastly more popular NFL, free from financial instability, allowed many franchises to abandon long-held strongholds for perceived financially greener pastures. While owners invariably cited financial difficulties as the primary factor in such moves, many fans bitterly disputed these contentions, especially in Cleveland (the Rams and the Browns), Baltimore (the Colts), Houston (the Oilers) and St. Louis (the Cardinals), each of which eventually received teams some years after their original franchises left (the Browns, Ravens, Texans and the Rams respectively). However, Los Angeles, the second-largest media market in the United States, has not had an NFL team since 1994 after both the Raiders and the Rams relocated elsewhere.

Additionally, with the increasing suburbanization of the U.S., the building of new stadiums and other team facilities in the suburbs instead of the central city became popular from the 1970s on, though at the turn of the millennium a reverse shift back to the central city became somewhat evident.

Season structure

As of 2006, The NFL season features:

• A 4-game National Football League exhibition season (or preseason) running from early August to early September
• A 16-game, 17-week regular season running from September to December or early January
• A team does not win a championship or any trophy for having the best record during the regular season, but the league does recognize a champion for each of the 8 divisions.
• A 12-team NFL Playoffs beginning in January culminating in the Super Bowl in early February.
• The winner of the Super Bowl is the NFL Champion.

Exhibition season

Summers see most NFL teams playing four exhibition games (referred to by the NFL as "pre-season games"; the league discourages the use of the term "exhibition game") from early August through early September. Two "featured" pre-season games, the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game and American Bowl, do not count toward the normal allotment of four games, so the four teams playing in those games each end up playing five exhibition games.

The games are useful for new players that are not used to playing in front of very large crowds. Management often uses the games to evaluate newly signed players. Veteran starters will generally play only for about a quarter of each game so they can avoid injury.

Playoffs

The NFL Playoffs. Each of the 4 division winners is seeded 1–4 based on their W-L-T records. The two Wild Card teams (labeled Wild Card 1 and 2) are seeded 5th and 6th (with the better of the two having seed 5) regardless of their reords compared to the 4 division winners.

The season concludes with a 12-team tournament used to determine the teams to play in the Super Bowl. The brackets are made up of six teams from each of the league's two conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), following the end of the 16-game regular season:

• The four division champions from each conference (the team in each division with the best regular season won-lost-tied record), which are seeded 1 through 4 based on their regular season won-lost-tied record.
• Two Wild card qualifiers from each conference (those non-division champions with the conference's best won-lost-tied percentages), which are seeded 5 and 6.

The 3 and the 6 seeded teams, and the 4 and the 5 seeds, face each other during the first round of the playoffs, dubbed the Wild Card Playoffs (the league in recent years has also used the term Wild Card Weekend). The 1 and the 2 seeds from each conference receive a bye in the first round, which entitles these teams to automatically advance to the second round, the Divisional Playoff games, to face the Wild Card survivors. In any given playoff round, the highest surviving seed always plays the lowest surviving seed. And in any given playoff game, whoever has the higher seed gets the home field advantage.

The two surviving teams from the Divisional Playoff games meet in Conference Championship games, with the winners of those contests going on to face one another in the Super Bowl.

Media

Television

The television rights to the NFL are the most lucrative and expensive rights not only of any American sport, but of any American entertainment property. With the fragmentation of audiences due to the increased specialization of broadcast and cable TV networks, sports remain one of the few entertainment properties that not only can guarantee a large and diversified audience, but an audience that will watch in real time.

Annually, the Super Bowl often ranks among the most watched shows of the year. Four of Nielsen Media Research's top ten programs are Super Bowls. Networks have purchased a share of the broadcasting rights to the NFL as a means of raising the entire network's profile.

Under the current television contracts, which began during the 2006 season, regular season games are broadcast on five networks: CBS, Fox Broadcasting Company, NBC, ESPN, and the NFL Network. Regionally shown games are broadcast on Sundays on CBS and FOX, carrying the AFC and NFC teams respectively (the traveling team deciding the broadcast station in the event of inter-Conference games). These games generally air at 1:00 p.m. ET and 4:00 p.m. or 4:15 p.m. ET. Nationally televised games include NBC Sunday Night Football, ESPN Monday Night Football, the Thursday night NFL Kickoff Game, the annual Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day games, and, as of 2006, select Thursday and Saturday games on the NFL network, a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Football League.

Additionally, satellite broadcast company DirecTV offers NFL Sunday Ticket, a subscription based package, that allows most Sunday daytime regional games to be watched. This package is exclusive to DirecTV in the USA. In Canada, NFL Sunday Ticket is available on a per-provider distribution deal on both cable and satellite.

Radio

Each NFL team has its own radio network and employs its announcers. Nationally, the NFL is heard on the Westwood One Radio Network, Sports USA Radio Network and in Spanish on Univision Radio and the United Stations Radio Network. Westwood One carries Sunday and Monday Night Football, all Thursday games, two Sunday afternoon contests and all post-season games, including the Pro Bowl. Sports USA Radio broadcasts two Sunday afternoon games every Sunday during the regular season.

The NFL also has a contract with Sirius Satellite Radio, which provides news, analysis, commentary and game coverage for all games, as well as comprehensive coverage of the draft and off-season on its own channel, Sirius NFL Radio.

Internet radio broadcasts of all NFL games are managed through FieldPass, a subscription service. Radio stations are, by rule, prohibited from streaming the games for free from their Web sites; however, there are numerous stations that break this rule. The NFL on Westwood One and the NFL on Sports USA Radio are not available on FieldPass.

Demographics of the NFL

As of the beginning of the 2005 season, the players of the NFL were as follows:

• African American 1,107 or 64.1%,
• White American 590 or 34.2%,
• Other Race 31 or 1.8%.

As of the beginning of the 2006 season, the players of the NFL were as follows:

• African American 1,137 or 65.8%,
• White American 559 or 32.3%,
• Other Race 32 or 1.9%.

The NFL Draft

Every year during April, each NFL franchise seeks to add new players to its roster through a collegiate draft known as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting", which is more commonly known as the NFL Draft.

Teams are ranked in inverse order based on the previous season's record, with the worst record picking first, and the second worst picking second and so on. The two exceptions to this order are made for teams that appeared in the previous Super Bowl; the Super Bowl champion always picks 32nd, and the Super Bowl loser always picks 31st.

The draft proceeds for 7 rounds. Rounds 1–3 are run on Saturday of draft weekend, rounds 4–7 are run on Sunday. Teams are given a limited amount of time to make their picks. If the pick is not made in the allotted time, subsequent teams in the draft may draft before them. This happened in 2003 to the Minnesota Vikings.

Teams have the option of trading away their picks to other teams for different picks, players, cash, or a combination thereof. While player-for-player trades are rare during the rest of the year (especially in comparison to the other major league sports), trades are far more common on draft day. In 1989, in arguably the most famous draft day trade ever, the Dallas Cowboys traded running back Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for five veteran players and six draft picks over 3 years. The Cowboys would use these picks to leverage trades for additional draft picks and veteran players. As a direct result of this trade, they would draft many of the stars that would help them win 3 Super Bowls in the 1990s, including Emmitt Smith, Russell Maryland and Darren Woodson.

The first pick in the draft is often taken to be the best overall player in the rookie class. This may or may not be true, since teams often select players based more on needs than on overall skill. Plus, comparing players at different positions is difficult to do. Still, it is considered a great honor to be a first-round pick, and a greater honor to be the first overall pick. The very last pick in the draft is known as Mr. Irrelevant, and is the subject of a dinner in his honor in Newport Beach, California.

Drafted players may only negotiate with the team that drafted them (or to another team if their rights were traded away). The drafting team has one year to sign the player. If they do not do so, the player may reenter the draft and can be drafted by another team. Bo Jackson famously sat out a season in this way.

Steroid policy

The NFL steroid policy has been acclaimed by some [3] and criticized by others[4], but the policy is the longest running in professional sports, beginning in 1987. [5] The current steroid policy of the NFL suspends players without pay who test positive for banned substances as it has since 1989: four games for the first offense (a fourth of the regular season), eight games for a second offense (half of the regular season), and 12 months for a third offense. [6] The suspended games may be either regular season games or playoff games. [7]

In comparison to the steroid policies of Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League, the NFL has long been the most strict. While recently MLB and the NHL decided to permanently ban athletes for a third offense, they have long been resistant to such measures, and random testing is in its infancy. [8] [9]

Since the NFL started random, year-round tests and suspending players for performance enhancing drugs it has caught many more players using drugs. By April 2005, 111 NFL players had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, and of those 111, the NFL suspended 54. Only two NFL players have ever tested positive more than once, and they both retired. [10]

A new rule has been put into effect due to Shawne Merriman. Starting the 2007–2008 season, the new rule prohibits any player caught using performance enhancing drugs from being able to play in the Pro Bowl that year.^{[citation needed]}

Teams

Current NFL teams

Template:NFL Labelled Map There are 32 NFL teams. Each club is allowed a maximum of 55 players, though nearly every team keeps only 53 on their final roster in case of injury, during the regular season. Unlike Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, the league has no teams in Canada largely because of the historical existence of the Canadian Football League.

Most major metropolitan areas in the United States have an NFL franchise; the notable exception is the Los Angeles area, from which both the Raiders and Rams relocated following the 1994 season. The NFL is able to utilize the possible relocation of a franchise to Los Angeles as leverage, for example when trying to persuade local governments to contribute to the cost of new stadiums for its other franchises. The Washington Redskins are the most lucrative sports team of all U.S. professional teams, valued at approximately $1.4 billion.

Since the 2002 season, the teams have been aligned as follows:

American Football Conference

American Football Conference
Division	Team	Stadium	City/Area
AFC East	Buffalo Bills 1	Ralph Wilson Stadium	Orchard Park (town), New York
	Miami Dolphins 7	Dolphin Stadium	Miami Gardens, Florida
	New England Patriots 2	Gillette Stadium	Foxborough, Massachusetts
	New York Jets 3	Giants Stadium	East Rutherford, New Jersey
AFC North|North	Baltimore Ravens	M&T Bank Stadium	Baltimore, Maryland
	Cincinnati Bengals 8	Paul Brown Stadium	Cincinnati, Ohio
	Cleveland Browns	Cleveland Browns Stadium	Cleveland, Ohio
	Pittsburgh Steelers	Heinz Field	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
AFC South	Houston Texans	Reliant Stadium	Houston, Texas
	Indianapolis Colts	RCA Dome*	Indianapolis, Indiana
	Jacksonville Jaguars	Jacksonville Municipal Stadium	Jacksonville, Florida
	Tennessee Titans 4	LP Field	Nashville, Tennessee
AFC West	Denver Broncos 1	Invesco Field at Mile High	Denver, Colorado
	Kansas City Chiefs 5	Arrowhead Stadium	Kansas City, Missouri
	Oakland Raiders 1	McAfee Coliseum	Oakland, California
	San Diego Chargers 6	Qualcomm Stadium	San Diego, California

• ¹ Original American Football League (AFL) franchise
• ² Original American Football League, as the Boston Patriots
• ³ Original American Football League, as the New York Titans
• ⁴ Original American Football League, as the Houston Oilers
• ⁵ Original American Football League, as the Kansas City Chiefs|Dallas Texans
• ⁶ Original American Football League, as the Los Angeles Chargers
• ⁷ American Football League expansion franchise (1966)
• ⁸ American Football League expansion franchise (1968)
• Colts are expected to move into the Lucas Oil Stadium in 2008.

National Football Conference

National Football Conference
Division	Team	Stadium	City/Area
NFC East	Dallas Cowboys	Texas Stadium*	Irving, Texas*
	New York Giants	Giants Stadium	East Rutherfeild, New jerseey
	Philadelphia Eagles	Lincoln Financial Field	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
	Washington Redskins	FedEx Field	Landover, Maryland
NFC North	Chicago Bears	Soldier Field	Chicago, Illinois
	Detroit Lions	Ford Field	Detroit, Michigan
	Green Bay Packers	Lambeau Field	Green Bay, Wisconsin
	Minnesota Vikings	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome	Minneapolis, Minnesota
NFC South	Atlanta Falcons	Georgia Dome	Atlanta, Georgia
	Carolina Panthers	Bank of America Stadium	Charlotte, North Carolina
	New Orleans Saints	Louisiana Superdome	New Orleans, Louisiana
	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Raymond James Stadium	Tampa, Florida
NFC West	Arizona Cardinals	University of Phoenix Stadium	Glendale, Arizona
	St. Louis Rams	Edward Jones Dome	St. Louis, Missouri
	San Francisco 49ers	Monster Park	San Francisco, California
	Seattle Seahawks	Qwest Field	Seattle, Washington

*The Dallas Cowboys will move into the New Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX by 2009.^{[citation needed]}

Video games

Electronic Arts publishes an NFL video game for current video game consoles and for PCs each year, called Madden NFL, being named after former coach and current football commentator John Madden, who commentates the game along with Al Michaels. Prior to the 2005–2006 football season, other NFL games were produced by competing video game publishers, such as 2K Games and Midway Games. However, in December 2004, Electronic Arts signed a five-year exclusive agreement with the NFL, meaning only Electronic Arts will be permitted to publish games featuring NFL team and player names. This prompted video game developer Midway Games to release a game in 2005 called Blitz: The League, with fictitious teams such as the "Washington Redhawks", and make references to NFL players such as the Washington Redhawks left-handed QB "Michael Vick#Ron Mexico controversy|Ron Mexico", alluding to Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons, who allegedly used the alias at a walk-in clinic. In August 2006, Madden 07 was released with Seattle running back Shaun Alexander on the cover. In August 2007, Madden NFL 08 will be released with Vince Young on the cover.

Commissioners and presidents

1. President Jim Thorpe (1920–1921)
2. President Joseph Carr (1921–1939)
3. President Carl Storck (1939–1941)
4. Commissioner Elmer Layden (1941–1946)
5. Commissioner Bert Bell (1946–1959)
6. Interim President Austin Gunsel (1959–1960, following death of Bell)
7. Commissioner Alvin "Pete" Rozelle (1960–1989)
8. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue (1989–2006)
9. Commissioner Roger Goodell (2006–present)

Main league offices

• Canton, Ohio (1920–1921)
• Columbus, Ohio (1921–1941)
• Chicago (1941–1946)
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1946–1960)
• New York City (1960–present)

Uniform numbers

In the NFL, players wear uniform numbers based on the position they play. The current system was instituted into the league on April 5, 1973, as a means for fans and officials (referees, linesmen) to more easily identify players on the field by their position. Players who were already in the league at that date were grandfathered, and did not have to change their uniform numbers if they did not conform. Since that date, players are invariably assigned numbers within the following ranges, based on their primary position:

• Quarterbacks, placekickers and punters: 1–19
• Wide receivers: 10–19, 80–89
• Running backs and defensive backs: 20–49
• Offensive linemen: 50–79
• Linebackers: 50–59 and 90–99
• Defensive linemen: 50–79 and 90–99
• Tight ends: 80–89, or 40–49 if all are taken

Prior to 2004, wide receivers were allowed to only wear numbers 80–89. The NFL changed the rule that year to allow wide receivers to wear numbers 10–19 to allow for the increased number of players at wide receiver and tight ends coming into the league. Prior to that, players were only allowed to wear non-standard numbers if their team had run out of numbers within the prescribed number range. Perhaps most familiar to fans, Keyshawn Johnson began wearing number 19 in 1996 because the New York Jets had run out of numbers in the 80s.

Occasionally, players will petition the NFL to allow them to wear a number that is not in line with the numbering system. Brad Van Pelt, a linebacker who entered the NFL in the 1973 NFL season with the New York Giants, wore number 10 during his 11 seasons with the club, despite not being covered by the grandfather clause. In 2006, New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush petitioned to the NFL to let him keep the number 5 which he used at University of Southern California. His request was later denied. Former Seattle Seahawks standout Brian Bosworth attempted such a petition in 1987 (to wear his collegiate number of 44 at the linebacker position), also without success.

It should be noted that this NFL numbering system is based on a player's primary position. Any player wearing any number may play at any position on the field at any time (though players wearing numbers 50–79 must let the referee know that they are playing out of position by reporting as an "ineligible number in an eligible position"). Normally, only players on offense with eligible numbers are permitted to touch the ball by taking a snap from center, receiving a hand-off or catching a pass. It is not uncommon for running backs to line up at wide receiver on certain plays, or to have a large lineman play at fullback or tight end in short yardage situations. Also, in preseason games, when teams have expanded rosters, players may wear numbers that are outside of the above rules. When the final 53-player roster is established, they are reissued numbers within the above guidelines.

Awards

• Vince Lombardi Trophy
• AFC Championship Game (Lamar Hunt Trophy)
• NFC Championship Game (George S. Halas Trophy)
• NFL Most Valuable Player Award
• NFL Coach of the Year Award
• NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award
• NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award
• NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Award
• NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award
• Super Bowl MVP
• NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award
• Walter Payton Man of the Year Award
• Pro Bowl MVP

External links

• Official NFL website
• Official NFL players website
• Official Super Bowl website
• NFL History - Champion and Award Lists
• Harris Poll on popularity of the NFL and each individual team
• NFL Franchise Valuations
• NFL Digest of Rules
• ESPN.com's NFL Section
• NFL on NBC

Further information

• "NFL Scores Nearly $18 Billion in TV Rights", by Stefan Fatsis and Kyle Pope, 14 January 1998, The Wall Street Journal (p. B1) [11]
• 2006 NFL Record and Fact Book. Time Inc. Home Entertainment. ISBN 1-933405-32-5. 
• Total Football II: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League. Harper Collins. ISBN 1-933405-32-5. 
• NFL's Economic Model Shows Signs of Strain
• Professional Football Researchers Association - detailed descriptions of why many of the rules named after players were enacted.
• Process of game-time decisions will eliminate TV duds, create chaos by Michael Hiestand, USA Today, April 5, 2006 (Last accessed April 5, 2006)
• Pro Football Reference - Historical stats of every team, player and coach in the NFL.
• Five NFL teams worth over $1 billion

The National Football League (2007)
AFC	East	North	South	West
	Buffalo Bills	Baltimore Ravens	Houston Texans	Denver Broncos
	Miami Dolphins	Cincinnati Bengals	Indianapolis Colts	Kansas City Chiefs
	New England Patriots	Cleveland Browns	Jacksonville Jaguars	Oakland Raiders
	New York Jets	Pittsburgh Steelers	Tennessee Titans	San Diego Chargers
NFC	East	North	South	West
	Dallas Cowboys	Chicago Bears	Atlanta Falcons	Arizona Cardinals
	New York Giants	Detroit Lions	Carolina Panthers	St. Louis Rams
	Philadelphia Eagles	Green Bay Packers	New Orleans Saints	San Francisco 49ers
	Washington Redskins	Minnesota Vikings	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Seattle Seahawks
NFL seasons (by team) • NFL playoffs • AFC Championship Game • NFC Championship Game • Super Bowl • Super Bowl Champions • Pro Bowl NFL Championship History: AFL Championship Game (1960–1969) • NFL Championship Game (1920–1969) • One-Game Playoff • Playoff Bowl
Owners • Stadiums • Past stadiums  • Records: Individual | Team • Lore • Television • Kickoff • Thanksgiving Classic • Monday Night Football • NFL Draft NFLPA • AFL • AFL-NFL Merger • NFL Europa • NFL in Los Angeles • Defunct franchises • Hall of Fame • Hall of Fame Game • American Bowl • NFL player conduct controversy

National Football League seasons

Early Era (1920-1969)
1920 • 1921 • 1922 • 1923 • 1924 • 1925 • 1926 • 1927 • 1928 • 1929 1930 • 1931 • 1932 • 1933 • 1934 • 1935 • 1936 • 1937 • 1938 • 1939 1940 • 1941 • 1942 • 1943 • 1944 • 1945 • 1946 • 1947 • 1948 • 1949 1950 • 1951 • 1952 • 1953 • 1954 • 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1959 1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969
Modern Era (1970-present)
1970 • 1971 • 1972 • 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979 1980 • 1981 • 1982 • 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 1990 • 1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 2000 • 2001 • 2002 • 2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • 2009

Template:Profootball

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