Professional Football
Wednesday, August 24th, 2005Professional Football
By Christopher Fister
Professional football’s origins are traced to around 1895, but the first organized professional league, the American Professional Football Association, was formed in 1920. The APFA consisted of 23 teams and handed out franchises with little discretion. In 1922 the APFA was renamed the National Football League (NFL). From 1946-49, the NFL was limited to a 10-team league.
The emergence of the NFL as a national phenomenon began in the late 1960s with the advent of the Super Bowl, a contest between the top teams of the NFL and the rival American Football League (AFL). The two leagues would merge in 1970, with 16 teams from the NFL and 10 from the AFL forming one league with two conferences.
In the 1980s, further expansion was proposed and by the 1993-94 NFL season, approval was given for a 30-team league, and it has since expanded by two more for a total of 32 teams. The next step towards growth of the league would be to realign the NFL into eight different divisions, each with four teams.
Pro football, like its college counterpart, was not without its failures. Among the number of competitive leagues that have folded in failure are the All-American Football conference of the 1940s, the World Football League, 1974-75 and, most recently, the short-lived XFL.
Arena Football, an indoor league played in the spring with eight man teams, debuted in 1987. It is still played, but does not enjoy the popularity or success that is found in the National Football League.
With the advent of cable television, dozens of high school and college games can be watched over Friday and Saturday afternoons. Pro games are televised on Sunday and Monday nights, with at least half a dozen games televised each weekend during the season. At the end of each NFL season, the four division winners and two wild card teams (the two teams with the best records who were not division winners) enter the playoffs. After two rounds of playoffs, the NFC and AFC conference champions meet in the league’s championship game, the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl, played in January at a neutral, pre-determined site, is the most widely viewed American sporting event each year.
The NFL currently consists of 32 teams, they are:
AFC North: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers.
AFC South: Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans.
AFC East: New England Patriots, Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets.
AFC West: Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers.
NFC North: Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions.
NFC South: Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons.
NFC East: Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins, New York Giants.
NFC West: St. Louis Rams, Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals.
College football does not have a playoff system to determine its champion. Instead, a series of weekly rankings put together by several different sources determines a list of the top-ranked teams in the country. The two teams at the top of the BCS list at the end of the season, meet in one game and the winner is named the NCAA national champion.
=========================
Christopher Fister is a former sports editor at the New York Post.
=========================