by Caryna St. John

Created on: September 24, 2009

The National Football League is made up of 32 teams, divided equally into 8 divisions in 2 conferences. The National Football Conference evolved from the original NFL, while the American Football Conference was formed from the original American Football League. The two leagues merged in 1970.

Today, teams play a pre-season schedule of four or five games, followed by a 16-game regular season and a single-elimination playoff tournament to decide the league champion. The final game is called the Super Bowl and the winner receives the Vince Lombardi trophy. One final exhibition game, the Pro Bowl, is played after the Super Bowl, and the two teams are made up of all-stars as voted by players, fans and coaches.

The pre-season is statistically insignificant, although it is the culmination of the year's preceding events, including the draft and training camp. The main reason why the pre-season is so important is because it allows teams to test out new plays as well as determine which players make the roster.

In early September, the regular season starts. The NFL has a rotating schedule system. Each team plays a 16-game regular season over a period of 17 weeks. Every team receives a single week off near the middle of the season, which is called a bye week. The 16-game schedule can be broken down into a number of categories.

First, each team plays the other three teams in its division twice; once at home and once in the other team's stadium. Also, each of the 32 teams plays all four teams in one NFC division and one AFC division, which rotate yearly and result in each team playing every other team at least once every four years.

The final two games of the schedule are determined as follows: depending on what place a team finished in, they play the two remaining teams in their conference who also finished in the same place in their respective divisions. Each division winner (eight teams) and the two teams in each conference with the best record who did not win their division make the playoffs. The four teams with the best records get to skip the first round based on the merit of their winning percentage.

There are eleven playoff games in total, which begin in January. A single loss eliminates any given team from the playoffs. After a two-week break, the two conference winners meet in the Super Bowl, which is held in a different city every year. The Super Bowl is the most watched television event in the world and the winner is that year's NFL champion.

Learn more about this author, Caryna St. John.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.