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Information about National Football League
The National Football League, or NFL, has seemingly replaced Major League Baseball as the national pastime. Its popularity seems to know no boundaries, as each year it finds a way to reach out further across the globe and expand its audience. Despite any controversies that may come and go, the dedicated fan base of the NFL makes it almost untouchable in terms of growth and popularity. Year in and year out, you can count on each weekend's NFL games being one of, if not the hottest ticket in town. It didn't always have such a rosy outlook though, for when the league first got its start, there were many who thought of it as anything but the national pastime.
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The league's roots can be traced back to the year 1920, when 11 teams helped form the American Professional Football Association. Of these 11 teams, only two of them have stood the test of time and still remain today, those two being the Bears and the Cardinals. Shortly after the APFA's inception, it changed its name to the National Football League. By the time the 1920s were through, the league had grown to include more teams spanning out over a wider area (the original 11 teams mainly consisted of teams from the Ohio/New York area). The league, which had been formed to try to rival Major League Baseball in popularity, was hardly viewed as a major sport and was not even considered to be as popular as football in the college ranks.
Because of some differences in the rules between professional and college football, however, the league started to slowly rise in popularity. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, teams in larger cities had replaced most of the small town teams. The league had finally found a large audience by the time the 1950s rolled around, and was finally broadcast on national television. However, the year 1960 would see the arrival of a new league that would rival the NFL for fans, all the while trying to steal some of the better players who were out there. The American Football League, or AFL, consisted of 8 teams spread out across the country in cities such as Buffalo (Bills), Denver (Broncos), and Houston (Oilers). The NFL originally paid very little mind to this upstart league, as it had seen several upstart rival leagues come and go without being able to stick around. The AFL, however, had begun to show signs of staying power and had also begun to sign players away from the NFL.
The two leagues reached an agreement in 1966 that would have the two winners of each league's championship game play against one another to decide who the world champion of football for each year would be. The Green Bay Packers of the NFL won the first two Super Bowls (the name given the game between each league's champions) convincingly, but in 1969 the New York Jets shocked the world by upsetting the mighty Baltimore Colts giving the AFL its first Super Bowl winner. In 1970, the two leagues officially merged and formed two separate conferences. The American Football Conference, or AFC, consisted of the former AFL teams with a few of the NFL teams agreeing to join them (the Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Colts, and Pittsburgh Steelers). The National Football Conference, or NFC, consisted of the remaining NFL teams. Divisional alignment was eventually agreed upon between the owners, and the makeup of the modern day NFL was formed.
The 1970s, 80s, and 90s saw the NFL's popularity boom. Television ratings were through the roof, and the sport had become the top spectator sport in America. The arrival of Monday Night Football brought the game to a whole new primetime audience. The Super Bowl took on a whole separate entity of its own, becoming what many consider to be a national holiday that even people who aren't necessarily fans of the game of football still feel compelled to take part in. The game had become so big that it had spread across the globe, and its star players had transcended the game itself and become bigger than life. The ever growing popularity caused the league to expand through the years, and many great rivalries were formed.
The present day NFL is as much a part of American culture as anything. NFL games are sold out on a regular basis, with tickets for regular season games, playoff games, and the Super Bowl being very much in demand. Even exhibition games sell a large amount of tickets, because of the diehard NFL fans craving that first look at their team for the upcoming season. Whether you are one of those diehard fans or just a casual fan, there is no denying the NFL its place as both a global entity and a fan friendly sport that continues to grow in popularity.
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