An NFL football game begins with a coin toss and players taking the field wearing uniforms approved by the league. Furthermore, all equipment approved for player safety must also meet these guidelines.
This year, many games will only be available if you subscribe to certain subscription streaming services – like NBC’s Peacock service and Netflix, who will show a Black Friday game on Nov. 28.
Origins
NFL Football began as an offshoot of elite American universities, where students organized informal games to relieve campus boredom and rowdiness. Players did not yet consider themselves professionals but received support from coaches and trainers to perform at their peak levels.
In the 1920s, college footballers often viewed professional football as a step down from college – until University of Illinois fullback Harold “Red” Grange signed. That signing proved pivotal.
The league flourished throughout the 1930s and 1940s, setting itself apart from collegiate football by changing rules to make games more exciting. Legalizing passing from any point behind the line of scrimmage; eliminating penalties for throwing multiple incomplete passes at once; moving hash marks closer to center; these were just a few ways it made itself distinct from college football.
Rules
In the NFL, players or teams are considered out of bounds when touching anything outside of a boundary line – other than other players, officials, or weighted pylons – such as an end zone. A player who finds themselves out-of-bounds may regain their status when either both feet touch the ground within said boundaries (including within an end zone) once more.
The game takes place on a 360-foot by 160-foot field, marked with sidelines and endlines that form its boundaries, known as Sidelines and End Lines respectively; their intersection forms what’s referred to as Field of Play; this area has white markings. All plays may be subject to booth review with two challenges permitted per coach per game.
Officiating
The seven on-field officials (referee, umpire, down judge, line judge, field judge and side judge) work collaboratively to administer each game. Each has an important part: referee is in charge of calling penalties and evaluating player safety; umpire checks the line of scrimmage for holding and illegal blocks; down judge keeps track of first downs while signalling play clock start up; line judges assist by monitoring line-of-scrimmage play while helping with sideline rulings; finally sideline judges assist by monitoring line of scrimmage play while providing sideline rulings on sideline rulings.
Each week, supervisors attend one game from a booth above the field and grade every official’s performance using stringent criteria. They then share these evaluations with crew members as well as providing training videos to improve consistency over time.
Schedules
After all the wild-card games have concluded, this Saturday and Sunday will feature divisional playoff matches between top seeds in each conference, culminating with AFC and NFC championship games with their winners meeting up in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on February 9th.
The 2024 NFL schedule features an international slate that kicks off during Week 1, when Green Bay and Philadelphia face each other in Brazil (8:15 p.m. ET, Peacock). Jacksonville and Chicago take part in Week 5, meeting up at Wembley Stadium.
Week 6’s schedule features 12 games, highlighted by a Monday Night Football matchup between Buffalo and the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens-Tampa Bay Buccaneers matchup.
Teams
The National Football League (NFL) is the world’s largest and most profitable professional sports league. Its season consists of a three-week preseason followed by 18 regular-season weeks that culminates in its championship game – Super Bowl 50.
Prior to the formation of the NFL, fourteen teams competed in the American Professional Football Association (APFA). Of those 14 clubs, two – Decatur Staleys and Chicago Bears – remain as active participants today in the National Football League (NFL).
Football teams frequently relocate due to financial pressures. According to a 2007 Turnkey Sports & Entertainment survey, the Pittsburgh Steelers hold the strongest fan loyalty among professional sports franchises; other top teams include New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts. Accordingly, teams with strong attendance numbers tend to command higher values compared to teams with lower per-game attendance numbers.