The U.S. National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The NFL is one of the four major North American professional sports leagues and the highest professional level of American football in the world. Its eighteen-week regular season runs from early September to early January, with each team playing seventeen games and having one bye week.
Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference (four division winners and three wild card teams) advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, which is usually held on the first Sunday in February and is played between the champions of the NFC and AFC. The league is headquartered in New York City.
The Super Bowl is also among the biggest club sporting events in the world, with the individual games accounting for many of the most watched television programs in American history and all occupying the Nielsen’s Top 5 tally of the all-time most watched U.S. television broadcasts by 2015. The NFL is the wealthiest professional sports league by revenue and the sports league with the most valuable teams.
The NFL is the wealthiest professional sports league by revenue and the sports league with the most valuable teams.