NFL clubs surround their players with coaches, trainers and medical staff to prepare them for gameday. Furthermore, these professionals evaluate thousands of collegiate players annually to identify potential future stars.
The top seven teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament that culminates with Super Bowl XLVII. Rule changes may arise for numerous reasons – be they controversial issues, extraordinary circumstances or revolutionary new technologies.
Origins
Early days of the NFL were chaotic. Players accepted pay to participate, yet were often untrained and underprepared to handle its demands. Many worked second jobs to supplement meager pay. Meanwhile, league officials struggled to draw fans.
As a response, the NFL adopted several reforms designed to make their games more exciting, such as legalizing passing from behind the line of scrimmage, eliminating penalties for multiple incomplete passes during a series of downs, and moving hash marks closer to centerfield. These modifications helped create more pass-friendly game play which led to greater offensive success for the established league; however they were challenged by another professional league called World Football League (WFL), but this failed to recruit top talent from NFL players; its one season run ended shortly afterwards by two player strikes that cut short 1982 and 1987 seasons respectively.
Formats
The NFL season consists of three weeks of preseason, 18 weeks of regular season play and a single-elimination playoff featuring 14 teams that leads up to its championship game, the Super Bowl. Every team plays 17 regular season games during regular season, with the top four from each conference qualifying for playoffs while seven remaining teams are determined according to overall record, with tiebreakers applied if there are multiple ties for first place in each conference.
The game format for an NFL game is determined by its rules, which must comply with all local, state, and federal regulations. These include playing in a stadium with roof covering the playing field (minimum 200 yards long). Furthermore, standard procedures require coin tosses to end one half with and kickoffs to kickoffs at the beginning of another half.
The NFL schedule makers face the challenging task of crafting a 272-game schedule that best showcases its talent and matchups. Cloud-based computers produce thousands of possible schedules before selecting one to be final. Furthermore, broadcast partners and local events must also be considered when creating this calendar.
Rules
The game’s rules are always evolving to enhance safety, fairness and entertainment. They’re periodically reviewed by the NFL’s Competition Committee which uses statistics, video footage and input from players, coaches and medical advisers as criteria for review. Over time this committee has made changes such as mandating three defensive players form wedges on kickoff returns (to reduce injuries) or moving extra point attempts closer to 15 yards line.
In overtime, a coin toss determines which team receives possession first and the winning team gets the choice between possessing or defending it. If both teams cannot agree on a winner, additional overtime periods will ensue until one team scores; these consist of two-minute warnings and five plays each time around with instant replay allowing coaches to challenge close plays in the end zone without using up timeouts, as well as reviewing plays already ruled a touchdown.
Scoring
NFL Football’s scoring system involves an intricate system of rules and penalties designed to ensure equal treatment, safety, and contact among its players while striking a balance between offense and defense for maximum scoring action.
In 1934, to increase scoring, the NFL implemented rule changes that permitted teams to kick field goals after three downs and reduced tie percentage from 20% to less than 5%. Furthermore, these rules made field goals simpler by moving goal posts from behind the end zone onto the goalline.
The NFL’s scoring rules allow for extra points, two-point conversions and even the occasional safety. Teams may attempt an extra point after scoring a touchdown – though to be successful the ball must be snapped from behind the line of scrimmage – if successful they receive one point; two-point conversions can also be attempted from either team following touchdown.
