The NFL, otherwise known as the National Football League, is the professional organization that oversees competitive professional football in the United States. Football teams first organized the group in 1920. The 'American Professional Football Association' changed its name to the 'National Football League' in 1922. Today, the league contains 32 teams.

Through the first 40 years of its existence, the NFL played second fiddle to college football. During the nascence of the sport, Ivy League teams, such as Princeton and Yale, dominated the football sports headlines. However, as larger state schools began to attract the budding football talent, the Ivy League football hegemony crumbled quickly.

The NFL really gained popularity after an incredible 1958 final, which went into overtime and captured the nation's imagination. The NFL swallowed up its competitor league, the American Football League in 1969, but it adopted some of the AFL's protocols. Recently, the NFL withstood the challenge of so-called 'arena football,' which promised more gritty action than the NFL but which failed to deliver TV ratings despite its multimillion dollar VC start-up.

The NFL season lasts from Labor Day weekend through Christmas. At the conclusion of the season, playoffs are held to determine the champions of the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The two victors then meet in the Super Bowl, which occurs on the third Sunday in January and draws hundreds of millions of television viewers. On the Sunday after the Super Bowl, the All-Star players from the NFL face-off at the Pro Ball, which is hosted in Hawaii.