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158-437: The service was initially introduced as Fox Sports ' TV Everywhere service, including access to content from networks such as Fox Sports 1 and Big Ten Network (the latter already offered under the brand BTN2Go). Super Bowl XLVIII was streamed for free without authentication on personal computers and tablets, but not on mobile phones due to exclusive rights held by Verizon Wireless . The event averaged 1.7 million viewers on

316-704: A conspiracy to violate antitrust law , by granting DirecTV exclusive rights to sell the Sunday Ticket product, thereby restricting competition and forcing viewers to pay super competitive prices to view out-of-market games. On June 27, 2024, a jury in Los Angeles found that the NFL had violated antitrust law in setting the price of the Sunday ticket package and ordered a penalty totaling more than $ 4.7 billion. With triple damages allowed under federal antitrust laws,

474-636: A merger on June 8, 1966, to take full effect in 1970. In the meantime, the leagues would hold a common draft and championship game. The game, the Super Bowl , was held four times before the merger, with the NFL winning Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II , and the AFL winning Super Bowl III and Super Bowl IV . After the league merged, it was reorganized into two conferences: the National Football Conference (NFC), consisting of most of

632-484: A $ 155 million bid (amounting to $ 31 million annually); as a result, it became the first broadcast network to be awarded a national television contract to carry NHL games, which longtime NHL Commissioner John Ziegler had long thought to be unattainable (NHL games had not aired regularly on a national broadcast network – outside of select championship and All-Star games, and time buy basis airings of ESPN telecasts on ABC from 1992 to 1994 – since NBC 's telecast of

790-420: A black rectangle beginning with the 2004 NFL season , and the team logos would later be replaced with abbreviations in the respective teams' primary colors (the colorized team abbreviations would first be utilized on postseason baseball broadcasts that year). Whenever a team scores a point or a run, the team's score and logo would flash a few times. During baseball broadcasts, the entire banner would flash with

948-625: A blizzard; in 2012, when the Kickoff game was moved from Thursday to Wednesday to avoid conflict with the Democratic National Convention ; and in 2020, when a game was postponed from Sunday to Tuesday due to players testing positive for COVID-19 . NFL regular season match-ups are determined according to a scheduling formula. Within a division, all four teams play 14 out of their 17 games against common opponents or each other– two games (home and away) are played against

1106-488: A club's franchise or any other action, he deems necessary. The commissioner can also issue sanctions up to and including a lifetime ban from the league if an individual connected to the NFL has bet on games or failed to notify the league of conspiracies or plans to bet on or fix games. The current Commissioner of the National Football League is Roger Goodell, who was elected in 2006 after Paul Tagliabue ,

1264-407: A club's season being canceled, a restocking draft would be held. Neither of these protocols has ever had to be implemented. Free agents in the National Football League are divided into restricted free agents , who have three accrued seasons and whose current contract has expired, and unrestricted free agents , who have four or more accrued seasons and whose contract has expired. An accrued season

1422-591: A dedicated app. The Fox Sports Go app was scheduled to be relaunched as part of the Bally Sports rebranding of the Fox Sports Networks on March 31, 2021, but the new app was delayed to a then unspecified date. On April 26, 2021, the Bally Sports app was launched. On June 23, 2022, Bally Sports soft-launched its Bally Sports Plus (or Bally Sports+) direct-to-consumers (DTC) service, which

1580-606: A different football code than the American game, the CFL established a niche market in Canada and still survives as an independent league. A new professional league, the fourth American Football League (AFL), began to play in 1960. The upstart AFL began to challenge the established NFL in popularity, gaining lucrative television contracts and engaging in a bidding war with the NFL for free agents and draft picks. The two leagues announced

1738-501: A five-year deal, beginning in the 2018 NFL season . The deal is reportedly worth an average of more than $ 660 million per year. On May 6, 2019, Fox Sports announced a multi-year broadcast deal with the new incarnation XFL , which went on hiatus midway through its first season, but would return in 2023. In May 2019, Fox Sports partnered with The Stars Group to launch co-branded sports betting operations, including Fox Bet (which offers real-money sports betting where legal), as well as

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1896-432: A format optimized for 16:9 widescreen displays, with graphics framed within a widescreen safe area rather than the 4:3 safe area, intended to be shown in a letterboxed format on standard definition feeds. From 2016 until selling its virtual reality division FoxNext to Disney in 2019 , Fox Sports produced a limited number of game telecasts in 360-degree virtual reality , mostly college football. A TV Everywhere login

2054-458: A lower pick than any team that did not make the divisional round. The Super Bowl champion always drafts last, and the losing team from the Super Bowl always drafts next-to-last. All potential draftees must be at least three years removed from high school in order to be eligible for the draft. Underclassmen that have met that criterion to be eligible for the draft must write an application to

2212-419: A minority of preseason games are distributed among the league's national television partners. Through the 2014 season, the NFL had a blackout policy in which games were 'blacked out' on local television in the home team's area if the home stadium was not sold out. Clubs could elect to set this requirement at only 85%, but they would have to give more ticket revenue to the visiting team; teams could also request

2370-546: A multi-year deal to be the sole broadcaster of the IndyCar Series and its subsidiary series Indy NXT . In addition to the broadcast division, Fox Sports Media Group owns other national cable sports channels and a radio network in the United States, which include: Fox Sports Media Group formally announced the replacement of Speed with Fox Sports 1 on March 5, 2013, with the network eventually launching on

2528-509: A new camera embedded between turns one and two on the various tracks; it was soon known as "Digger Cam", unveiled alongside a gopher mascot named Digger. National Football League The National Football League ( NFL ) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL

2686-739: A number of awards for its players and coaches at its annual NFL Honors presentation. The most prestigious award is the AP Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Other major awards include the AP Offensive Player of the Year , AP Defensive Player of the Year , AP Comeback Player of the Year , and the AP Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year awards. Another prestigious award is the Walter Payton Man of

2844-524: A playoff bid, the number of wild card teams from each conference dropped from three to two. The playoffs expanded again in 2020, adding two more wild card teams to bring the total to 14 playoff teams. The NFL consists of 32 clubs divided into two conferences of 16 teams each. Each conference is divided into four divisions of four clubs each. During the regular season, each team is allowed a maximum of 55 players on its roster; only 48 of these may be active (eligible to play) on game days. Each team can also have

3002-695: A record 167 million people that watched Super Bowl XLVIII , the conclusion to the 2013 season. In addition to radio networks run by each NFL team, select NFL games are broadcast nationally by Westwood One (known as Dial Global for the 2012 season). These games are broadcast on over 500 networks, giving all NFL markets access to each primetime game. The NFL's deal with Westwood One was extended in 2012 and continued through 2017. Other NFL games are nationally distributed by Compass Media Networks and Sports USA Radio Network under contracts with individual teams. Some broadcasting innovations have either been introduced or popularized during NFL telecasts. Among them,

3160-590: A regionalized basis (usually up to three per week). As part of a six-year renewal of this deal – valued at $ 2.5 billion – in September 2000, Fox Sports became the exclusive over-the-air broadcaster of Major League Baseball, giving it the exclusive rights to the World Series beginning with the 2000 edition , as well as rights to the All-Star Game , select Division Series games and exclusive coverage of

3318-407: A season, the result of the second game determined the title (the source of the 1921 controversy). This method had been used since the league's creation in 1920, but no situation had been encountered where two teams were tied for first. The league quickly determined that a playoff game between Chicago and Portsmouth was needed to decide the league's champion. The teams were originally scheduled to play

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3476-428: A shared deal with NBC (which had carried the league's telecasts since 1947). Through the deal, which Fox paid a fraction of the amount ($ 115 million) that CBS paid to obtain the rights effective with the 1990 season , Fox would broadcast approximately 16 regular season Saturday afternoon games per season (unlike the previous Baseball Network deal between NBC and ABC) and offered different game broadcasts shown on

3634-565: A simulcast with ESPN. Amazon , through their Prime Video streaming service, is the exclusive carrier of the Thursday Night Football package. NFL Network, a U.S. pay cable channel owned by the league itself, broadcasts select games under the NFL Network Exclusive Game Series banner. Games under this banner usually consist of NFL International Series games and select Saturday games. In 2023,

3792-405: A sixteen-player practice squad separate from its main roster. Each NFL club is granted a franchise, the league's authorization for the team to operate in its home city. This franchise covers 'Home Territory' (the 75 miles surrounding the city limits, or, if the team is within 100 miles of another league city, half the distance between the two cities) and 'Home Marketing Area' (Home Territory plus

3950-543: A slate of regional sports networks with broadcasting agreements that follow league market distribution rules. For example, cable and satellite subscribers in Kansas City, Missouri receive Kansas City Royals games on Fox Sports Midwest, while viewers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin see Milwaukee Brewers games on Fox Sports Wisconsin. The regionalized coverage frequently restricts broadcasts of live sporting events outside of

4108-550: A specific exemption from the NFL for the game. The vast majority of NFL games were not blacked out; only 6% of games were blacked out during the 2011 season , and only two games were blacked out in 2013 and none in 2014 . The NFL announced in March 2015 that it would suspend its blackout policy for at least the 2015 season . According to Nielsen , the NFL regular season since 2012 was watched by at least 200 million individuals, accounting for 80% of all television households in

4266-703: A successor to The Spring League . In November 2021, it was announced that Fox Sports had acquired English-language rights to UEFA national team matches under a six-year deal from 2022 to 2028, replacing ESPN. This includes the UEFA Nations League beginning in June 2022, tournaments such as UEFA Euro 2024 and 2028 , UEFA qualifiers for Euro and the FIFA World Cup, and UEFA-organized friendlies. In January 2022, Fox announced that it would sub-license portions of this package to FuboTV , focusing on

4424-471: A team that finishes last would play two other last-place teams in the conference. The final game is an inter-conference based on a rotating cycle and determined by previous season's standings. In total, each team plays 17 games and has one bye week, where it does not play a game. Although a team's home and away opponents are known by the end of the previous year's regular season, the exact dates and times for NFL games are not determined until much later because

4582-408: A team's home market. In addition to game coverage, the regional networks also air regionally-based news, analysis, magazine, and documentary programming, as well as some common national programming. In some markets, the regional Fox Sports network operates one or multiple overflow feeds that carry additional programs that cannot be carried on the main feed due to event conflicts. On March 31, 2021,

4740-555: A total of 32 are given. Clubs are required to make their selection within a certain period of time, the exact time depending on which round the pick is made in. If they fail to do so on time, the clubs behind them can begin to select their players in order, but they do not lose the pick outright. This happened in the 2003 draft , when the Minnesota Vikings failed to make their selection on time. The Jacksonville Jaguars and Carolina Panthers were able to make their picks before

4898-423: A total of sixteen stations to Fox between September 1994 and September 1996 as affiliation contracts with those stations' existing network partners expired. The NFL television rights and affiliation deals firmly established Fox as the nation's fourth major network . The network's relationship with the NFL would expand in 1997 , when it began airing games and acquired partial ownership of NFL Europe (although

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5056-491: A translucent black rectangle, a baseball diamond graphic for baseball broadcasts on the far left, the team abbreviations in white with their scores in yellow boxes (the boxes were white for NFL broadcasts until Super Bowl XXXVI , when the coloring was changed to yellow), then the quarter or inning, time or number of outs, pitch count/speed (used for baseball broadcasts), and the logo of the Fox Sports event property whose game

5214-503: A two-conference system from 1933 to 1966 , where the champions of each conference would meet in the NFL Championship Game . If two teams tied for the conference lead, they would meet in a one-game playoff to determine the conference champion. In 1967 , the NFL expanded from 15 teams to 16 teams. Instead of just evening out the conferences by adding the expansion New Orleans Saints to the seven-member Western Conference,

5372-401: Is accessible through the Bally Sports app. The service is available initially in five MLB cities: Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, and Tampa. It launched nationally in the remainder of the networks' footprint on September 26. On March 14, 2023, Diamond Sports Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection ; its restructuring plan included a proposal for the company to be separated from

5530-497: Is also among the most-watched 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 top five of Nielsen 's all-time most-watched U.S. television broadcasts by 2015. The NFL is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan . The Green Bay Packers hold the most combined NFL championships with thirteen, winning nine titles before

5688-501: Is being telecast (such as NFL on Fox or MLB on Fox ) on the far right. Beginning with the 2003 NFL season, the banner was upgraded as part of a new graphics package. At first, the team abbreviations were replaced with team logos, and the scores were rendered in white within black parallelograms. Unlike the previous version, the FoxBox would alternate between a black rectangle and several black parallelograms; however, it reverted to being

5846-427: Is defined as "six or more regular-season games on a club's active/inactive, reserved/injured or reserve/physically unable to perform lists". Restricted free agents are allowed to negotiate with other clubs besides their former club, but the former club has the right to match any offer. If they choose not to, they are compensated with draft picks. Unrestricted free agents are free to sign with any club, and no compensation

6004-448: Is earned by the 32 clubs and is taxable there. This will remain the case even when the league office and Management Council file returns as taxable entities, and the change in filing status will make no material difference to our business." As a result, the league office might owe around US$ 10 million in income taxes, but it is no longer required to disclose the salaries of its executive officers. The league has three defined officers:

6162-543: Is elected by an affirmative vote of three-fourths or 10 of the conference members. The commissioner appoints the secretary and treasurer and has broad authority in disputes between clubs, players, coaches, and employees. He is the "principal executive officer " of the NFL and also has authority in hiring league employees, negotiating television contracts, disciplining individuals that own part or all of an NFL team, clubs, or employed individuals of an NFL club if they have violated league by-laws or committed "conduct detrimental to

6320-459: Is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and the highest professional level of American football in the world. Each NFL season begins annually with a three-week preseason in August, followed by the 18-week regular season , which runs from early September to early January, with each team playing 17 games and having one bye week . Following the conclusion of

6478-463: Is owed if they sign with a different club. Clubs are given one franchise tag to offer to any unrestricted free agent. The franchise tag is a one-year deal that pays the player 120% of his previous contract or no less than the average of the five highest-paid players at his position, whichever is greater. There are two types of franchise tags: exclusive tags, which do not allow the player to negotiate with other clubs, and non-exclusive tags, which allow

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6636-478: Is required to schedule three preseason games. NFC teams must play at least two of these at home in odd numbered years and AFC teams must play at least two at home in even numbered years. However, the teams involved in the Hall of Fame game, as well as any team that played in an American Bowl game, play four preseason games. Preseason games are exhibition matches and do not count towards regular-season totals. Because

6794-761: Is the sports programming division of the Fox Corporation that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), Fox Sports 2 (FS2), and the Fox Sports Radio network. The division was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League (NFL) games. In subsequent years, Fox has televised the National Hockey League (NHL) ( 1994 – 1999 ), Major League Baseball (MLB) ( 1996 –present), NASCAR ( 2001 –present),

6952-469: The 1975 Stanley Cup Finals , as networks were not willing to commit to broadcasting a large number of games due to low viewership). Again, Fox outbid CBS , which wanted to secure the rights as a result of losing the NFL to Fox, for the NHL package. Fox lost the NHL rights to ABC Sports and ESPN in 1999 . On November 7, 1995, Fox was awarded partial broadcast rights to Major League Baseball (MLB) games, in

7110-538: The 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup . In February 2015, Fox's contract was extended to 2026 (which was ultimately awarded to a joint North American bid led by the United States), in what was reported to be compensation for the rescheduling of the 2022 tournament to late-November/mid-December (which will compete with the regular seasons of the NFL). On August 6, 2013, Fox Sports announced a 12-year deal to broadcast

7268-803: The Akron Pros , Canton Bulldogs , Cleveland Indians , and Dayton Triangles at the Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton, Ohio . This meeting resulted in the formation of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC), a group who, according to the Canton Evening Repository , intended to "raise the standard of professional football in every way possible, to eliminate bidding for players between rival clubs and to secure cooperation in

7426-582: The American Professional Football Association (APFA) . The league elected Jim Thorpe as its first president, and consisted of 14 teams (the Buffalo All-Americans , Chicago Tigers , Columbus Panhandles and Detroit Heralds joined the league during the year). The Massillon Tigers from Massillon, Ohio was also at the September 17 meeting, but did not field a team in 1920. Only two of these teams,

7584-852: The Big Ten Conference Championship through 2016 (as part of Fox Sports' involvement with the Big Ten Network ), and the Pac-12 Championship through 2017 on an alternating basis with ESPN. With the replacement of the BCS with the College Football Playoff , Fox lost the broadcasting rights to the 2015 Cotton Bowl Classic onwards again to ESPN. In May 2010, Fox aired the final of the UEFA Champions League , marking

7742-1047: The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) ( 2007 – 2010 ), Major League Soccer (MLS) ( 2003 – 2011 , 2015 –present), the U.S. Open golf tournament ( 2015 – 2019 ), the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) (2016–present), WWE programming (2019–2024), the XFL ( 2020 ), the United States Football League (USFL) ( 2022 –2023), the United Football League (UFL) ( 2024 -present) and the World Baseball Classic (WBC) ( 2023 –present). On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company announced plans to acquire then-parent company 21st Century Fox for $ 52.4 billion, which included key assets such as

7900-658: The Brunswick-Balke Collender Cup , was donated to the NFL (then APFA) in 1920 by the Brunswick-Balke Collender Corporation . The trophy, the appearance of which is only known by its description as a "silver loving cup", was intended to be a traveling trophy and not to become permanent until a team had won at least three titles. The league awarded it to the Akron Pros, champions of the inaugural 1920 season; however,

8058-545: The Daytona 500 and Pepsi 400 alternated annually, with Fox airing the 500 in odd-numbered years, and the 400 in even-numbered years. Fox's first telecast was the 2001 Daytona 500 —an event that would be marred by a final-lap crash that resulted in the death of Dale Earnhardt . Later that year, Fox acquired the motorsports cable network Speedvision , and rebranded it in February 2002 as Speed Channel. Fox intended to use

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8216-691: The Fox Television Center in Hollywood, California , later moving to the Fox Network Center (located on the 20th Century Fox backlot in Century City ) by 1998. In order to bolster viewership for the NFL telecasts, Fox parent News Corporation decided to strike affiliation deals with broadcasting companies that owned stations affiliated with ABC, NBC and CBS in order to raise the profile of Fox's affiliate body, which at

8374-470: The Houston Texans began play as an expansion team . Other drafts held by the league include an allocation draft in 1950 to allocate players from several teams that played in the dissolved All-America Football Conference and a supplemental draft in 1984 to give NFL teams the rights to players who had been eligible for the main draft but had not been drafted because they had signed contracts with

8532-505: The Internal Revenue Code provides an exemption from federal income taxation for "Business leagues, chambers of commerce, real-estate boards, boards of trade, or professional football leagues (whether or not administering a pension fund for football players), not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual." In contrast, each individual team, with

8690-524: The League Championship Series . Under a clause in the contract (which has not been exercised as there has not been a labor dispute during the term of rights while Fox Sports has held the contract), if some of the scheduled games were cancelled by a strike or lockout, Fox would still pay Major League Baseball for a full slate of annual games, while the league in turn had to compensate Fox with additional telecasts. In 1998, Fox obtained

8848-839: The Los Angeles Rams who came from a 1936 iteration of the American Football League, and the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers , both from the AAFC. By the 1950s, the NFL had an effective monopoly on professional football in the United States; its only competition in North America was the professional Canadian football circuit, which formally became the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 1958. With Canadian football being

9006-500: The National Football League (NFL) for the television rights to Monday Night Football , Fox made an offer for the package at the same price that ABC had been paying at the time – about $ 13 million per game. However, partly due to the fact that Fox had yet to establish itself as a major network, the NFL decided to resume negotiations with ABC, with the two parties eventually agreeing to a new contract, keeping what

9164-641: The National League Championship Series that year and NASCAR races with the 2011 Budweiser Shootout . However, NASCAR and MLB broadcasts reinstated their own theme music in 2016 and 2020, respectively, and the CBB on FOX telecasts were switched over to " Roundball Rock ", which was formerly used by the NBA on NBC , in 2019. Fox College Football uses a marching band rendition of the NFL theme, and USFL on FOX , which debuted in 2022, uses

9322-670: The Rock Island Independents defeated the non-league St. Paul Ideals 48–0 at Douglas Park . On October 3, 1920, the first full week of league play occurred. The following season resulted in the Chicago Staleys controversially winning the title over the Buffalo All-Americans. On June 24, 1922, the APFA changed its name to the National Football League (NFL). In 1932 , the season ended with

9480-583: The Rose Bowl Game and the 2010 BCS Championship – were excluded from the contract. On November 11, 1999, Fox and sister cable channel FX were awarded rights to the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and Busch Series as part of NASCAR 's first centralized television rights deal, beginning in the 2001 season. The contract covered the first half of the season, with the second half of the season being aired by NBC and TNT . Rights to

9638-604: The Scott Schreer -composed theme, coincidentally or otherwise, echoes the notes for the "giddyup, giddyup, giddyup, let's go" line from the Leroy Anderson -composed song, Sleigh Ride . Although, the rhythm of that segment of both tunes is similar to that of the first four bars of both the first and second figures of the Johann Strauss Sr. -composed Radetzky March , which itself is similar to that of

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9796-469: The Skycam camera system was used for the first time in a live telecast, at a 1984 preseason NFL game in San Diego between the Chargers and 49ers , and televised by CBS. Commentator John Madden famously used a telestrator during games between the early 1980s to the mid-2000s, boosting the device's popularity. Each April (excluding 2014 when it took place in May), the NFL holds a draft of college players. The draft consists of seven rounds, with each of

9954-452: The United States Football League or Canadian Football League . Like the other major sports leagues in the United States , the NFL maintains protocol for a disaster draft . In the event of a 'near disaster' (less than 15 players killed or disabled) that caused the club to lose a quarterback, they could draft one from a team with at least three quarterbacks. In the event of a 'disaster' (15 or more players killed or disabled) that results in

10112-506: The aspect ratio of HDTV sets. Fox Sports began producing selected events in 720p high definition, starting on July 3, 2004, with the Pepsi 400 , select NFL games, the 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Game , and that year's postseason. During the following years, Fox would produce more sports telecasts in HD, but still fell back on using 480p widescreen for events not televised in HD. As of late July 2010, all sports programming broadcast by Fox-owned networks began transitioning to

10270-417: The 2001 scoring banners and graphics in 2004 until the network's coverage of that year 's postseason. During NASCAR telecasts from 2007 to 2011, this graphics package was briefly used to weather delay updates and also used for merchandise for the Digger cam. This graphics package was also used during Prelude to the Dream at Eldora from 2005 to 2007. Beginning with the 2006 NFL season, the scoring banner

10428-424: The 32 clubs getting one pick in each round. The draft order for non-playoff teams is determined by regular-season record; among playoff teams, teams are first ranked by the furthest round of the playoffs they reached, and then are ranked by regular-season record. For example, any team that reached the divisional round will be given a higher pick than any team that reached the conference championships, but will be given

10586-402: The AFC package, and Fox carries afternoon games from the NFC package. These afternoon games are not carried on all affiliates, as multiple games are being played at once; each network affiliate is assigned one game per time slot, according to a complicated set of rules. Since 2011, the league has reserved the right to give Sunday games that, under the contract, would normally air on one network to

10744-423: The Big Ten Conference announced that it had reached six-year deals with Fox Sports and ESPN to hold rights to its football games beginning in the 2017 season, with Fox's package expanding on its involvement in BTN. As part of the contract, Fox's contract to run BTN was extended through 2032. On January 31, 2018, the NFL announced that Fox had acquired the sub-license for its Thursday Night Football package under

10902-411: The Chicago Bears ( 6–1–6 ) and the Portsmouth Spartans ( 6–1–4 ) tied for first in the league standings. At the time, teams were ranked on a single table and the team with the highest winning percentage (not including ties, which were not counted towards the standings) at the end of the season was declared the champion; the only tiebreaker was that in the event of a tie if two teams played twice in

11060-413: The Decatur Staleys (now the Chicago Bears) and the Chicago Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals), remain in the NFL. Although the league did not maintain official standings for its 1920 inaugural season and teams played schedules that included non-league opponents, the APFA awarded the Akron Pros the championship by virtue of their 8–0–3 record. The first event occurred on September 26, 1920, when

11218-408: The Fox Sports Networks rebranded as Bally Sports . For Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002, Fox Sports produced its first telecast in a 16:9, 480p enhanced-definition format marketed as "Fox Widescreen"; while promoted as having better quality than standard definition , and being the first U.S. sporting event produced completely in a widescreen format, it was not true high definition , but still matched

11376-570: The Fox network (which aired its first UFC match in November 2011, the first time that the UFC aired an event on broadcast television), FX and Fuel TV. The contract expired in 2019, with the UFC moving its broadcast rights to ESPN . On October 22, 2011, FIFA announced that Fox Sports had acquired rights to air its tournaments beginning in 2015, including the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup , and

11534-557: The Green Bay Packers to victories in the first two Super Bowls. Unlike the previous trophies, a new Vince Lombardi Trophy is issued to each year's champion, who maintains permanent control of it. Lombardi Trophies are made by Tiffany & Co. out of sterling silver and are worth anywhere from US$ 25,000 to US$ 300,000. Additionally, each player on the winning team as well as coaches and personnel are awarded Super Bowl rings to commemorate their victory. The winning team chooses

11692-677: The NFC receive the George Halas Trophy , named after Chicago Bears founder George Halas , who is also considered one of the co-founders of the NFL. The AFC champions receive the Lamar Hunt Trophy , named after Lamar Hunt , the founder of the Kansas City Chiefs and the principal founder of the American Football League. Players on the winning team also receive a conference championship ring. The NFL recognizes

11850-565: The NFL announced the NFL Source initiative, aimed at increasing the number of minority- and women-owned businesses that work with the league throughout the year. NFL Source will be mandatory for teams that host major events, such as the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft, and their organizing committees, but will be optional for other contracts at the team level. The NFL will partner with the U.S. Black Chambers, Inc to help local businesses across

12008-402: The NFL by January 15 renouncing their remaining college eligibility. Clubs can trade away picks for future draft picks, but cannot trade the rights to players they have selected in previous drafts. Aside from the seven picks each club gets, compensatory draft picks are given to teams that have lost more compensatory free agents than they have gained. These are spread out from rounds 3 to 7, and

12166-525: The NFL cannot hold games on those days until the Friday before the third Saturday in December. While Saturday games late in the season are common, the league rarely holds Friday games, the most recent one being on Christmas Day in 2020. NFL games are rarely scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, and those days have only been used three times since 1948: in 2010, when a Sunday game was rescheduled to Tuesday due to

12324-455: The NFL could ultimately be liable for $ 14.39 billion. The league said it would ask the judge to set the verdict aside then appeal the verdict if needed. From 1920 to 1934, the NFL did not have a set number of games for teams to play, instead setting a minimum. The league mandated a twelve-game regular season for each team beginning in 1935 , later shortening this to eleven games in 1937 and ten games in 1943 , mainly due to World War II. After

12482-513: The NFL occupied the top three rates for a 30-second advertisement: $ 882,079 for Sunday Night Football , $ 562,524 for Monday Night Football , and $ 440,523 for Thursday Night Football . The league, in recent years, has expanded their televised broadcasts to over-the-top streaming services. Since 2022, Amazon holds the exclusive rights to broadcast the Thursday Night Football package. Prior to then, Amazon streamed games from

12640-651: The NFL realigned the conferences and split each into two four-team divisions. The four division champions would meet in the NFL playoffs , a two-round playoff. The NFL also operated the Playoff Bowl (officially the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl) from 1960 to 1969. Effectively, a third-place game , pitting the two conference runners-up against each other, the league considers Playoff Bowls to have been exhibitions rather than playoff games. The league discontinued

12798-405: The National Football League for the 1922 season . After initially determining champions through end-of-season standings, a playoff system was implemented in 1933 that culminated with the NFL Championship Game until 1966. Following an agreement to merge the NFL with the rival American Football League (AFL), the Super Bowl was first held in 1967 to determine a champion between the best teams from

12956-827: The Nations League and selected matches from the European Championships. In January 2022, Fox Sports reached an agreement with the New York Racing Association for the rights to the Belmont Stakes , the third leg of the horse racing triple crown , through 2030. On February 6, 2024, Fox Sports announced a joint venture with ESPN Inc. and TNT Sports to offer Venu Sports , including the three organizations' main linear sports channels and associated media rights, beginning in fall 2024. On June 13, 2024, Fox Sports announced

13114-485: The Playoff Bowl in 1970 due to its perception as a game for losers. Following the addition of the former AFL teams into the NFL in 1970 , the NFL split into two conferences with three divisions each. The expanded league, now with twenty-six teams, would also feature an expanded eight-team playoff, the participants being the three division champions from each conference as well as one 'wild card' team (the team with

13272-506: The Sinclair Broadcast Group into a standalone company. By January 17, 2024, Diamond Sports announced a restructuring agreement after receiving a minority investment from Amazon , and reaching an agreement with the Sinclair Broadcast Group for a $ 495 million cash payment to settle an earlier lawsuit. Under the deal, the Bally Sports app will be folded into Amazon Prime Video . The restructuring still needs to be approved by

13430-427: The Sunday and Monday primetime football packages were up for renewal, Fox placed a bid for $ 1.58 billion to obtain the broadcast rights to the NFC. On December 17, 1993, the NFL selected Fox's bid and signed a four-year contract with the network to award it the rights to televise regular season and playoff (as well as select preseason) games from the NFC, beginning with the 1994 season ; the initial contract also included

13588-670: The Super Bowl era and four Super Bowls afterwards. Since the creation of the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers are tied for the most Super Bowl victories at six each. The reigning league champions are the Kansas City Chiefs , who defeated the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 25–22 in Super Bowl LVIII . On August 20, 1920, a meeting was held by representatives of

13746-508: The Top 50 most valuable sports teams in the world; and 16 of the NFL's owners are listed on the Forbes 400 , the most of any sports league or organization. At the corporate level, the National Football League considers itself a trade association made up of and financed by its 32 member teams. Up until 2015, the league was an unincorporated nonprofit 501(c)(6) association. Section 501(c)(6) of

13904-516: The United States and 69% of all potential viewers in the United States. NFL regular season games accounted for 31 out of the top 32 most-watched programs in the fall season and an NFL game ranked as the most-watched television show in all 17 weeks of the regular season. At the local level, NFL games were the highest-ranked shows in NFL markets 92% of the time. Super Bowls account for the 22 most-watched programs (based on total audience) in US history, including

14062-476: The Vikings were able to use theirs. Selected players are only allowed to negotiate contracts with the team that picked them, but if they choose not to sign they become eligible for the next year's draft. Under the current collective bargaining contract, all contracts to drafted players must be four-year deals with a club option for a fifth. Contracts themselves are limited to a certain amount of money, depending on

14220-947: The Year Award , which recognizes a player's off-field work in addition to his on-field performance. The NFL Coach of the Year award is the highest coaching award. The NFL also gives out weekly awards such as the FedEx Air & Ground NFL Players of the Week and the Pepsi MAX NFL Rookie of the Week awards. In the United States, the National Football League is televised on eight networks across seven media partners: ESPN / ABC , CBS , Fox , NBC , Prime Video , Netflix , and NFL Network . The league offers its media rights in packages of games to prospective media partners. The packages can vary depending on conference, broadcast time slot, or both. CBS televises afternoon games from

14378-556: The bankruptcy court. On October 16, 2024, it was revealed in a court filing that Diamond had reached a new sponsorship agreement with FanDuel Group , under which it intends to rebrand Bally Sports as the FanDuel Sports Network. Diamond officially announced the rebrand on October 18, which took effect October 21. The Bally Sports app would simply be updated into the new FanDuel Sports Network app. Fox Sports (United States) Fox Sports , stylized in all caps ,

14536-406: The beginning of his tenure to 17 million by the end of his tenure, and 400 million global viewers watched 1989's Super Bowl XXIII . The NFL established NFL Properties in 1963. The league's licensing wing, NFL Properties, earns the league billions of dollars annually; Rozelle's tenure also marked the creation of NFL Charities and a national partnership with United Way . Paul Tagliabue

14694-410: The best overall record, with tiebreakers in the event of two or more teams having the same record). These teams are seeded according to overall record and tiebreakers, with the division champions always ranking higher than the wild card teams. The top team (seeded one) from each conference are awarded a bye week, while the remaining six teams (seeded 2–7) from each conference compete in the first round of

14852-492: The best win percentage that did not win its division) from each conference. In 1978, the league added a second wild card team from each conference, bringing the total number of playoff teams to ten, and a further two wild card teams were added in 1990 to bring the total to twelve. When the NFL expanded to 32 teams in 2002 , the league realigned, changing the division structure from three divisions in each conference to four divisions in each conference. As each division champion gets

15010-697: The broadcast rights to the Cotton Bowl Classic college football game. In 2007 , Fox began airing most of the games of the Bowl Championship Series , including the BCS National Championship Game , in a deal worth close to $ 20 million per game. Due to a separate arrangement between ABC and the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association , events in the series that were held at the Rose Bowl stadium – such as

15168-417: The broadcasts on ESPN or ABC. ESPN also holds exclusive rights to stream one Sunday morning international game on ESPN+. Beginning in 2024, Netflix holds the global streaming rights for at least one Christmas Day game every season as part of a three-year deal. The Super Bowl television rights are rotated on a four-year basis between CBS, Fox, NBC, and ESPN/ABC. The NFL's most recent contract negotiation for

15326-407: The championship. Fan interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL, beginning in 1933 , to split into two divisions with a championship game to be played between the division champions. The 1934 season also marked the first of twelve seasons in which African Americans were absent from the league . The de facto ban was rescinded in 1946 , following public pressure and coinciding with

15484-596: The championships of the United States Golf Association (USGA), including the U.S. Open , beginning in 2015. In 2016, Fox began to air NHRA drag racing events—primarily on Fox Sports 1 and 2, and with selected flagship events airing on Fox proper. On May 12, 2014, Fox Sports announced a 7-year deal to broadcast Major League Soccer (MLS). The deal included the rights to air the MLS Cup on Fox in even numbered years. On July 24, 2017,

15642-414: The commissioner, secretary, and treasurer. Each conference has one defined officer, the president, which is essentially an honorary position with few powers and mostly ceremonial duties, including awarding the conference championship trophy. The commissioner is elected by the affirmative vote of two-thirds or eighteen (whichever is greater) of the members of the league, while the president of each conference

15800-462: The company that makes the rings; each ring design varies, with the NFL mandating certain ring specifications (which have a degree of room for deviation), in addition to requiring the Super Bowl logo be on at least one side of the ring. The losing team are also awarded rings, which must be no more than half as valuable as the winners' rings, but those are almost never worn. The conference champions receive trophies for their achievement. The champions of

15958-467: The company's sale to Flutter Entertainment , Fox would have an option in 2021 to acquire an 18.5% stake in its U.S. subsidiary FanDuel Group . In June 2020, Fox exited its contract with the USGA and sold the remainder to previous rightsholder NBC. In June 2021, it was announced that Fox would be a minority investor in a new iteration of the United States Football League (USFL), which would operate as

16116-463: The country obtain the certifications necessary to do business with the league in furtherance of its efforts to increase partnerships with certified and underrepresented businesses that are 51% owned and operated or led by a veteran, woman, minority, person with disabilities or LGBTQ+. In 2015, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers, alleging that the NFL, its member teams, its broadcast partners, and DirecTV engaged in

16274-671: The current league champion, the league issued a smaller replica trophy to each champion, who would maintain permanent control over it. The current location of the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy, long thought to be lost, is believed to be possessed by the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame . The current trophy of the NFL is the Vince Lombardi Trophy . The Super Bowl trophy was officially renamed in 1970 after Vince Lombardi , who as head coach led

16432-418: The diamond graphic appeared in middle-justification and was slimmed down to just the three main bases, unlike other implements which included home plate. This banner, after first being used for NFL broadcasts in 2006, was eventually expanded to Bowl Championship Series, NASCAR and MLB; baseball telecasts, however, continued to use the late-2005 scoring banners and graphics in 2007. In 2008, Fox NASCAR introduced

16590-407: The exact draft pick the player was selected with. Players who were draft eligible but not picked in the draft are free to sign with any club. The NFL operates several other drafts in addition to the NFL draft. The league holds a supplemental draft annually. Clubs submit emails to the league stating the player they wish to select and the round they will do so, and the team with the highest bid wins

16748-518: The exception of the non-profit Green Bay Packers , is subject to tax because they make a profit. In 2015, the NFL gave up its tax-exempt status following public criticism; in a letter to the club owners, Commissioner Roger Goodell labeled it a "distraction", saying "the effects of the tax-exempt status of the league office have been mischaracterized repeatedly in recent years… Every dollar of income generated through television rights fees, licensing agreements, sponsorships, ticket sales, and other means

16906-441: The exclusive U.S. television rights to broadcast Super Bowl XXXI in 1997. The deal stripped CBS of football telecasts for the first time since 1955 . Fox also lured commentators Pat Summerall , John Madden , Dick Stockton , Matt Millen , James Brown and Terry Bradshaw as well as many behind-the-scenes production personnel from CBS Sports to staff the network's NFL coverage. The network's studio coverage originated from

17064-432: The extreme sports-focused Fuel TV was rebranded as Fox Sports 2 , a companion network serving primarily as an overflow channel for Fox Sports 1, along with providing supplementary sports coverage. On September 2, 2013, Fox Soccer was replaced by FXX , an entertainment-based sister network to FX with a focus on comedy programming. With the concurrent shutdown and replacement of the network, Fox Soccer's sports programming

17222-510: The finale of Gioachino Rossini 's overture to his opera William Tell . During sports broadcasts aired during the Christmas holiday season, Fox Sports broadcasts will sometimes acknowledge this fact by seguéing from the one tune into the other during the commercial break outcue. Beginning in October 2010, the NFL on FOX theme became uniform for all Fox Sports properties beginning with

17380-537: The formation of schedules". A second meeting was held on September 17, 1920, with representatives from teams within four states: Akron, Canton, Cleveland, and Dayton from Ohio; the Hammond Pros and Muncie Flyers from Indiana; the Rochester Jeffersons from New York; and the Rock Island Independents , Decatur Staleys , and Racine (Chicago) Cardinals from Illinois. The league was renamed to

17538-552: The former described as a "24/7 news franchise providing around-the-clock coverage through regularly scheduled programs, hourly updates and an information-rich ticker that provides a network agnostic sports event television schedule." Notable personalities on FS1 include Regis Philbin , Mike Tyson , Michael Strahan , Erin Andrews , as well as many others. The international feed of Speed would eventually be replaced with Fox Sports Racing on February 20, 2015. On August 17, 2013,

17696-511: The free football prediction game Fox Sports Super 6 . As part of the partnership, Fox Corporation acquired a 4.99% minority stake in the company for $ 236 million, with an option to increase its stake to up to 50% within the next 10 years. The partnership made Fox the first major U.S. sports broadcaster to establish a sports betting operation, taking advantage of the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 . With

17854-425: The game was moved to the week before. Because of this, players from the teams participating in the Super Bowl are exempt from participating in the game. The Pro Bowl is not considered as competitive as a regular-season game because the biggest concern of teams is to avoid injuries to the players. The National Football League has used three different trophies to honor its champion over its existence. The first trophy,

18012-473: The group, nearly 50 more potential schedules were developed to try to ensure that the chosen schedule would be the best possible one. Following the conclusion of the regular season, the NFL Playoffs, a 14-team single-elimination tournament, is then held. Seven teams are selected from each conference: the winners of each of the four divisions as well as three wild card teams (the three remaining teams with

18170-542: The higher remaining seed hosting the lower remaining seed. The AFC and NFC champions then compete in the Super Bowl to determine the league champion. The only other postseason event hosted by the NFL is the Pro Bowl , the league's all-star game . Since 2009, the Pro Bowl has been held the week before the Super Bowl ; in previous years, the game was held the week following the Super Bowl, but in an effort to boost ratings,

18328-478: The league has to account for, among other things, the Major League Baseball postseason and local events that could pose a scheduling conflict with NFL games. During the 2010 season, over 500,000 potential schedules were created by computers, 5,000 of which were considered "playable schedules" and were reviewed by the NFL's scheduling team. After arriving at what they felt was the best schedule out of

18486-512: The media rights deal was announced on March 18, 2021, to take effect beginning in the 2023 season. The deal renewed previous rights agreements made by the NFL and each of its network partners to air their respective game packages, while awarding Amazon the Thursday Night Football package. ESPN/ABC is set to return to the Super Bowl broadcast rotation and will broadcast the Super Bowl on U.S. television in 2027, 21 years after airing its last Super Bowl, Super Bowl XL . Digital and streaming distribution

18644-865: The network as an outlet for ancillary NASCAR content. In September 2002, Speed Channel bought out ESPN 's contract to televise the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series . Fox lost the broadcasting rights to the Bowl Championship Series to ESPN beginning in 2010 . In response, Fox introduced a Saturday "game of the week" on FX in 2011, featuring games from the Pac-12 , the Big 12 and Conference USA (the rights to which were later assumed by Fox and Fox Sports 1); Fox also signed deals to carry two new championship games created through conference realignments that occurred in 2010 and 2011:

18802-516: The network's first ever soccer broadcast. In August 2011, Fox Sports announced it had reached a seven-year broadcast agreement with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), ending the mixed martial arts promotion's relationship with Spike . The deal included the rights to broadcast four live events in prime time or late night annually, as well as other UFC programming that would air on various Fox properties, including

18960-497: The network's management, having seen how sports programming (in particular, soccer events) played a critical role in the growth of the British satellite service BSkyB , determined that sports would be the type of programming that would ascend Fox to a major network status the quickest; as a result, Fox tried to attract a professional football package to the network. In 1987, after ABC initially hedged on renewing its contract with

19118-462: The other network (known as "flexible scheduling"). The only way to legally watch a regionally televised game not being carried on the local network affiliates is to purchase NFL Sunday Ticket, the league's out-of-market sports package , which is available through YouTube TV starting with the 2023 season. The league also provides NFL RedZone , an omnibus telecast that cuts to the most relevant plays in each game, live as they happen. In addition to

19276-544: The other three teams in the division, while one game is held against all the members of a division from the NFC and a division from the AFC as determined by a rotating cycle (three years for the conference the team is in, and four years in the conference they are not in). Two of the other games are intraconference games, determined by the standings of the previous year – for example, if a team finishes first in its division, it will play two other first-place teams in its conference, while

19434-412: The partial ownership ended in 2000), an agreement which ended in 2006 when all games were moved to NFL Network ; the by-then renamed NFL Europa closed down the next year . With a sports division now established, Fox decided to seek broadcast rights agreements with other major sports leagues. On September 9, 1994, Fox was awarded the broadcast television rights to the National Hockey League (NHL) in

19592-478: The platform. For regional telecasts on the Fox Sports Networks , NBA games were available, and Major League Baseball games became available starting with the 2016 season, after Fox Sports and MLB came to an agreement for in-market streaming rights in November 2015. Fox reached a similar deal for regional National Hockey League games beginning in the 2016–17 season. In 2019, Fox Sports Networks

19750-512: The playoff game, officially a regular-season game that would count towards the regular season standings, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, but a combination of heavy snow and extreme cold forced the game to be moved indoors to Chicago Stadium , which did not have a regulation-size football field. Playing with altered rules to accommodate the smaller playing field, the Bears won the game 9–0 and thus won

19908-615: The playoffs, the Wild Card round, with the 2-seed competing against the 7-seed, the 3-seed competing against the 6-seed and the 4-seed competing against the 5-seed. The winners of the Wild Card round advance to the Divisional Round, which matches the lower seeded team against the 1-seed and the two remaining teams against each other. The winners of those games then compete in the Conference Championships, with

20066-414: The pre-merger NFL teams, and the American Football Conference (AFC), consisting of all of the AFL teams as well as three pre-merger NFL teams. Today, the NFL is the most popular sports league in North America – with much of the league's growth and popularity attributable to former Commissioner Pete Rozelle , who led the league from 1960 to 1989. Overall annual attendance increased from 3 million at

20224-435: The preseason does not count towards standings, teams generally do not focus on winning games; instead, they are used by coaches to evaluate their teams and by players to show their performance, both to their current team and to other teams if they get cut. The quality of preseason games has been criticized by some fans, who dislike having to pay full price for exhibition games, as well as by some players and coaches, who dislike

20382-469: The previous commissioner, retired. The NFL season format consists of a three-week preseason , an 18-week regular season (each team plays 17 games), and a 14-team single-elimination playoff culminating in the Super Bowl, the league's championship game. The NFL preseason begins with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game , played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton . Each NFL team

20540-568: The regional Fox Sports Networks (which were later sold by Disney to the Sinclair Broadcast Group ), FX Networks , and Fox Sports International . Under the terms of the proposed acquisition, Fox Sports 1 , Fox Sports 2 , and other assets were spun off into the division's current parent company, which is independently owned by Fox Corporation. When the Fox Broadcasting Company launched in October 1986,

20698-563: The regional games, the league also has packages of telecasts, mostly in prime time, that are carried nationwide. NBC broadcasts the primetime Sunday Night Football package, which includes the Thursday NFL Kickoff game that starts the regular season and a primetime Thanksgiving Day game . ESPN is the main broadcaster of the Monday Night Football package with ABC airing select games either exclusively or as

20856-463: The regular season, seven teams from each conference, including four division winners and three wild card teams, advance to the playoffs , a single-elimination tournament , which culminates in the Super Bowl , played in early February between the winners of the AFC and NFC championship games. The NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association ( APFA ) before renaming itself

21014-558: The removal of a similar ban in Major League Baseball . The NFL was always the largest professional football league in the United States; it nevertheless faced numerous rival professional leagues through the 1930s and 1940s. Rival leagues included at least three separate American Football Leagues and the All-America Football Conference (AAFC), on top of various regional leagues of varying caliber. Three NFL teams trace their histories to these rival leagues;

21172-456: The rest of the state the club operates in, as well as the area the team operates its training camp in for the duration of the camp). Each NFL member has the exclusive right to host professional football games inside its Home Territory and the exclusive right to advertise, promote, and host events in its Home Marketing Area. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, mostly relating to teams with close proximity to each other: teams that operate in

21330-420: The rights to that player. The exact order is determined by a lottery held before the draft, and a successful bid for a player will result in the team forfeiting the rights to its pick in the equivalent round of the next NFL draft. Players are only eligible for the supplemental draft after being granted a petition for special eligibility. The league holds expansion drafts , the most recent happening in 2002 when

21488-500: The risk of injury the games have, while others have felt the preseason is a necessary part of the NFL season. Currently, the 14 opponents each team faces over the 17-game regular season schedule are set using a predetermined formula: The league runs an 18-week, 272-game regular season. Since 2021, the season has begun the week after Labor Day (the first Monday in September) and concluded the week after New Year. The opening game of

21646-477: The same city (e.g. New York City and Los Angeles) or the same state (e.g. California , Florida , and Texas ) share the rights to the city's Home Territory and the state's Home Marketing Area, respectively. According to Forbes , the Dallas Cowboys , at approximately US$ 8 billion, are the most valuable NFL franchise and the most valuable sports team in the world. 26 of the 32 NFL teams rank among

21804-520: The same package as part of a tri-cast model that saw games aired on broadcast television (initially through CBS and NBC, then later with Fox), cable television (through NFL Network), and digital streaming (through Prime Video). Amazon has also streamed games for free on Twitch since 2018. CBS streams its AFC package games on Paramount+ as a simulcast with its CBS broadcasts. NBC streams Sunday Night Football and select exclusive games on Peacock . ESPN streams its games on ESPN+ in simulcast with

21962-441: The schedule will give half the teams nine games as the home team, while half the teams have only eight home games. To minimize the perceived benefit on competition of having more home games, the extra home game will be rotated between the two conferences each year. This is because playoff berths are allocated at the conference level, so all teams within the conference will have played the same number of home games. The NFL operated in

22120-549: The season is normally a home game on a Thursday for the league's defending champion. Most NFL games are played on Sundays, with a Monday night game typically held at least once a week and Thursday night games occurring on most weeks as well. NFL games are not normally played on Fridays or Saturdays until late in the regular season, as federal law prohibits professional football leagues from competing with college or high school football. Because high school and college teams typically play games on Friday and Saturday, respectively,

22278-424: The sport safer, mainly through fining or suspending players who break rules. These actions are among many the NFL is taking to reduce concussions and improve player safety. Prior to 2021, the NFL had utilized race-based adjustments of dementia claims in the $ 1 billion settlement of concussion claims, which had been criticized by critics before the NFL decided to end what was called "race-norming". On May 21, 2024,

22436-426: The standard version. By 2001, the score bug was restructured as a banner positioned at the top of the screen, and was simpler than the version used today. It was first utilized that year on Fox's NASCAR coverage with the introduction of a new updated graphics package that was based on the 1998 design; the banner and updated graphics were then utilized on the network's Major League Baseball and NFL telecasts. It featured

22594-526: The tentative date of August 17, 2013. The network would air content from Major League Baseball , the UFC , NASCAR , soccer (including the FIFA World Cup ) and multiple college sports events (including owning rights to Big East basketball and its annual postseason basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden ). The network launched Fox Sports Live as a competitor to ESPN 's SportsCenter , with

22752-452: The theme used on the Fox network's NFL broadcasts are incorporated in iterations of other themes used on Fox Sports broadcasts. Originally, when the scoring bugs are upgraded, the previous versions were retained for one of the division's other properties for about a year; however, this practice ended in 2009. The first score bug was used for Fox's NFL coverage, and was then expanded to the network's baseball and hockey broadcasts. One segment of

22910-784: The time mainly consisted of UHF stations that (with some exceptions) had little to no prior history as a major network affiliate , had weaker signals and largely did not carry as much value with advertisers as the Big Three 's affiliates. During the late spring and summer of 1994, Fox reached separate agreements with New World Communications (a media company controlled by investor Ronald Perelman , which Fox's station group Fox Television Stations would purchase in July 1996) and SF Broadcasting (a joint venture between Fox and Savoy Pictures that purchased four stations from Burnham Broadcasting through separate deals in July and August 1994) to switch

23068-476: The trophy was discontinued and its current whereabouts are unknown. A second trophy, the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy , was issued by the NFL from 1934 to 1967. The trophy's namesake, Ed Thorp, was a referee in the league and a friend to many early league owners; upon his death in 1934, the league created the trophy to honor him. In addition to the main trophy, which would be in the possession of

23226-426: The two leagues and has remained as the final game of each NFL season since the merger was completed in 1970. The NFL is the wealthiest professional sports league in the world by revenue and the sports league with the most valuable teams. The NFL also has the highest average attendance (67,591) of any professional sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States. The Super Bowl

23384-509: The war ended, the number of games returned to eleven games in 1946 , and later back to twelve in 1947. The NFL went to a 14-game schedule in 1961 , which it retained until switching to a 16-game schedule in 1978 . In March 2021, the NFL officially adopted a 17-game schedule after gaining the agreement of the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). Having an odd number of games in

23542-483: The welfare of the League or professional football". The commissioner can, in the event of misconduct by a party associated with the league, suspend individuals, hand down a fine of up to US$ 500,000, cancel contracts with the league, and award or strip teams of draft picks. In extreme cases, the commissioner can offer recommendations to the NFL's executive committee, up to and including the "cancellation or forfeiture" of

23700-439: The words " HOME RUN " and the team's name in the team's color zooming in to the center from both left and right. In late 2005, a new white banner resembling a chrome finish was introduced, and the team abbreviations became rendered in white letters in the team's main color; the new banner debuted on Fox's coverage of the 2005 World Series , and would then be expanded to NFL and NASCAR broadcasts. Baseball broadcasts continued to use

23858-424: Was elected as commissioner to succeed Rozelle; his 17-year tenure, which ended in 2006, was marked by large increases in television contracts and the addition of four expansion teams, as well as the introduction of league initiatives to increase the number of minorities in league and team management roles. The league's current Commissioner, Roger Goodell , has focused on reducing the number of illegal hits and making

24016-732: Was expanded to allow CBS, NBC, and ESPN/ABC to stream games on their respective over-the-top streaming services. For each of the packages the respective network partners currently hold, ESPN/ABC is paying US$ 2.7 billion a year; CBS, Fox, and NBC are each paying more than US$ 2 billion a year; and Amazon is paying US$ 1 billion a year. The current deal runs through the 2033 season. The league also has deals with Spanish-language broadcasters NBC Universo , Fox Deportes , and ESPN Deportes , which air Spanish language dubs of their respective English-language sister networks' games. The league's contracts do not cover preseason games, which individual teams are free to sell to local stations directly;

24174-482: Was moved exclusively to FoxSports.com and the Fox Sports app, leaving Fox Sports Go to only carry content from the regional networks. The national Fox Sports content continued to be listed on the Fox Sports Go main page as external links during an interim brand-licensing period. On March 10, 2021, the programming from YES Network (which is also partially owned by Sinclair) was separated from FSGO and moved to

24332-633: Was required to access the broadcast. In 2017, Fox Sports began to produce selected telecasts in 4K ultra-high-definition television , beginning with selected NASCAR and college basketball events, and for the 2017 season, a college football game per-week. They are primarily available via DirecTV and other supported providers. Fox began televising its Thursday Night Football games in 1080p upconverted to 4K with HLG HDR on September 26, 2019. The graphics and scoring bugs used by Fox Sports have won awards and changed how sports broadcasts are presented on United States television. The opening notes of

24490-416: Was shifted over to Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. As a result, outside of very rare sports conflicts on both Fox Sports networks, FX no longer carries any sports programming. Fox Soccer's companion premium service, Fox Soccer Plus , continues to exist and supplements soccer coverage on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2. Prior to its acquisition by the Sinclair Broadcast Group , Fox Sports Networks operated as

24648-494: Was sold to Diamond Sports Group , a joint venture between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entertainment Studios , as part of The Walt Disney Company's purchase of Fox's entertainment assets ; Fox also sought to divest Fox Sports Networks but were barred from selling them to Disney by federal regulators. The sale included rights to the Fox Sports Go platform; as a result, streaming of national Fox Sports channels (such as Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 , and Big Ten Network) and programming

24806-470: Was the crown jewel of the league's television broadcasts on that network (where it remained until 2006, when MNF moved to sister network ESPN as part of a contract that also saw NBC gain the Sunday Night Football package). Six years later, as the league's television contracts for both the National Football Conference (NFC) and American Football Conference (AFC) divisions, and for

24964-417: Was upgraded again. This time, real-time scores from around the league were included as a permanent fixture on the extreme right side of the bar, while the banner's coloring changed to the colors of the team currently in possession of the ball (this coloring scheme was seen only on football broadcasts). The banner no longer flashed after the scoring of runs, touchdowns or field goals . During baseball broadcasts,

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