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NFL Football Betting
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History of American football - NFL
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is the largest professional American football league, consisting of thirty-two teams from American cities and regions. The league was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, which adopted the name "National Football League" in 1922. The NFL is one of the major professional sports leagues of North America.
Prior to the 1960s, the most popular version of American football was played collegiately. The NFL's greatest spurt in popularity came in the 1960s and 1970s, after the 1958 NFL Championship Game (which went into overtime) and with the merger of the rival American Football League (1960-1969) which introduced major on- and off-the-field innovations that were eventually adopted by the NFL.
Currently, the league consists of 32 teams that are divided into two conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). Each conference is then further divided into 4 divisions consisting of 4 teams each.
At the end of each season, 6 teams from each conference play in the NFL playoffs, a 12-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 Hawaii.
In recent decades, the NFL regular season had traditionally started on Labor Day Weekend and lasted through Christmas week. However, declining television ratings on Labor Day have pushed the start of the regular season ahead one week. This is where scheduling currently stands, with the first game of the season being played on the Thursday after Labor Day (the remaining Week 1 games are played three to four days later).
Professional football dates at least to 1892, when an athletic club in Pittsburgh paid William "Pudge" Heffelfinger $500 to take part in a game. Over the next few decades, while most attention was paid to football at elite colleges on the East Coast, the professional game spread widely in the Midwest.
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 11 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, the APFA began releasing official standings, and the following year, the group changed its name to the National Football League. However, the NFL was hardly a major league in the 20s. Teams entered and left the league frequently. Franchises included such colorful representatives as the Orange Indians, an all-Native American outfit that also put on a performing dog show.
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