---
slug: nfl
title: NFL
depth_tier: league
side: UNIVERSAL
category: Leagues
source_id: "LGE-0001"
created: 2026-05-12
updated: 2026-05-12
canonical: https://learningfootball.xyz/leagues/nfl
aliases:
  - National Football League
  - the NFL
  - pro football
  - the league
---
# NFL

## Short Definition

The National Football League—the 32-team professional football organization founded in 1920 and the most valuable sports property in the United States.

## Definition

The National Football League is the premier professional American football organization, comprising 32 franchises organized into two conferences (AFC and NFC) of four divisions each. Founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association and renamed the NFL in 1922, it has grown from a loose regional association of midwestern teams into the most commercially valuable sports league in the world, generating over $20 billion in annual revenue.

The NFL's structure—the draft, salary cap, revenue sharing, and scheduling system—was designed to maintain competitive balance across markets of vastly different sizes. Revenue sharing in particular, which distributes national media rights income equally across all 32 franchises, allows small-market teams like Green Bay and Buffalo to compete financially with franchises in New York and Los Angeles. This structural parity is a deliberate feature that distinguishes the NFL from most global sports leagues.

The league's relationship with television has defined both its commercial success and its cultural footprint. The NFL's broadcast deals with CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN, and Amazon represent the most valuable sports media contracts in history. Sunday afternoons, Sunday nights, Monday nights, and Thursday nights are structured around NFL game windows that draw the largest regular-season television audiences in American media.

The CBA between the NFL and the NFLPA governs all player employment terms, salary structures, and working conditions. The relationship between the league office, team owners, and the players union has shaped the financial architecture of professional football across multiple decades of collective bargaining, strikes, and lockouts.

## Example

"The NFL generated more revenue than the NBA, MLB, and NHL combined in 2023. Thirty-two franchises, one league, the most watched television programming in American history. That's the scale of what the NFL has built."

## Common Confusion

The NFL is not the oldest professional football league—the American Professional Football Association was founded in 1920 and renamed the NFL in 1922. The league also did not always have 32 teams: it expanded gradually from its founding franchises through the AFL merger (1970), several expansion rounds, and the addition of franchises through the 1990s and 2000s. The Houston Texans, who joined in 2002, are the league's most recent addition.

## Related

- cba
- nflpa
- salary-cap
- draft-night
- super-bowl-sunday
- lombardi-trophy

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Source: https://learningfootball.xyz/leagues/nfl