| The NFL (National Football League) is the biggest and longest enduring football league in the US. The NFL comprises of 32 teams in 2 conferences, the AFC (American Football Conference) and the NFC (National Football Conference). The winners of the 2 conferences face each other in the Super Bowl, which takes place at the end of the season.
In 1920, in the venture to become professional, it was determined that football should have more firm rules and better organization. A league was created, which would go on to become the NFL. Upon its creation, the league was known as the American Professional Football Conference (APFC). Things were still not stable, and, later, in the same year, the name was changed to the American Professional Football Association (APFA). The next year, the Association expanded to 22 teams.
The Association was still covered in confusion, as problems of eligibility requirements and other such problems came about. The league, once again, changed it’s name to the NFL in 1922, which still remains today!
It wasn’t till 1925 that the NFL drew serious attention. On Thanksgiving Day of 1925, a large crowd came to watch a pro football game. The Chicago Bears locked horns with the Chicago Cardinals, but neither team scored any points, but there was a lot of excitement in the air, and the NFL continued to gain popularity. A few days later, the Bears took to the Road, and the number of spectators that came to watch them face the NY Giants was double the record-breaking crowd for the Bears – Cardinals match.
Nearly 20 years after the NFL began, the first Commissioner, Elmer Layden, was appointed in 1941, as the acting president stepped down. A decade down the line, the NFL Championship was broadcast on TV, coast to coast. Nearly a decade after that, Pete Rozelle was named the Commissioner of the NFL. The AFL (American Football League) came onto the scene, but was merged with the NFL after the 1969 season.
The NFL discovered that more competition was around the block in 1973 with the announcement of the WFL (World Football League). However, any concerns regarding it vanished as the WFL went under 2 years later.
Super Bowl XVI made history in 1982 by becoming the most watched sporting event on CBS, and, the next year, the Super Bowl was the most watched live program on TV. There was no doubt that NFL revolutionized TV viewing on Sundays, Monday nights and during a week in January. Any doubts that may have been raised regarding its popularity was set aside in 1986 when Super Bowl XX smashed records by being the most highly rated program of any type, with over 120,000,000 viewers. The Chicago Bears gave viewers great delight as they beat the New England Patriots by 46 points to 10.
The 1990s were full of broken records by pro football, and, with the turn of the century, ticket sales records were also being broken. In 2000, a special reunion was conducted for NFL Hall of Fame legends, and more than 100 of them were present at the occasion to celebrate it. |
