The National Football League (NFL) is the most prestigious league in the world, with Millions of fans tuning in every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday to cheer on their favorite teams. The league has a long history and since its establishment in 1920, the league has gone through several changes.
Many American Football fans love to know interesting and obscure facts about the National Football League (NFL), and there are plenty of them to explore. We have compiled some of the most interesting facts about the NFL.
- The NFL was called APFA in the beginning
American football became increasingly popular in the United States in the early 1900s, and professional football teams in the United States felt the need for an organization to regulate American football in the country. So, the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which eventually became the National Football League, was founded in 1920.
- NFL is the most profitable professional sports league
Professional sports generate enormous amounts of revenue all around the world. There are many professional sports leagues that make billions of dollar revenue each season. With a revenue of US$16 billion, the NFL is the world’s most profitable sports league. Although American football is not very popular outside the United States and Canada, the NFL still manages to earn the most revenue compared to other professional leagues. There are some fantastic resources out there for American Football wagering such as NFLPickWatch.com as well as BParlay.com.
- The League has a preseason
Unlike other professional sports leagues, the NFL has a preseason of three weeks. Each team plays at least three friendly matches against regional opponents during the preseason. Teams do not try to win these pre-season games because they are not on the team’s official record. Instead, teams utilize the pre-season matches to evaluate their potential. Football fans all around the world watch these pre-season matches with all the excitement of a regular season.
- The First NFL game on TV
NBC was the first television network to broadcast an NFL match on October 22, 1939. The first match broadcast live was between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Eagles. NBC used only two cameras to broadcast the match, there were only eight crew members of the production staff including one announcer Allen Walz. The match reached thousands of views worldwide. The match started at 2:30 pm and it was broadcast live for two hours and 33 minutes without any commercial break.
- The youngest and the oldest Hall of Fame
Gale Sayers was the youngest professional football player to be added into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was only 34 years old when he received the honor in the year 1977. He played as halfback for the Chicago Bears between 1965 and 1971. The oldest inductee in the Hall of Fame was Ed Sabol, he was 94 years old when he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011. He was the founder of NFL Films. His ideal was to preserve NFL matches on films.
- Vince Lombardi Trophy
Each season, the Vince Lombardi Trophy is presented to the winner of the NFL Super Bowl. Tiffany & Co. developed the first award in 1967, with Oscar Riedener, the company’s head designer. The trophy that was initially presented to the Green Bay Packers in January 1967 was emblazoned with the words “World Professional Football Championship,” but following Vince Lombardi’s death in 1970, it was formally renamed in his honor. The winning team gets permanent possession of the trophy.
- Players receive Super Bowl Rings
The NFL winning team players are awarded with the Super Bowl rings every season. These rings become permanent possession of players. Rings are also awarded to players of the teams who win the American Football Conference and National Football Conference championships. These rings are specially designed for players and are made of yellow and white gold with diamonds inlaid on them. The Super Bowl rings also carry the name and logo of the winning team with the words “World Champion” engraved on them.
- Super Bowl audience
According to a study, the Super Bowl broadcast on CBS has an average television viewership of more than 100 million viewers from across the world each year. It is the world’s most watched sporting event. In 2015, approximately 114.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the game live on CBS. The NFL Super Bowl is also the most live-streamed sporting event in the world, with over 6 million viewers tuning in to watch the live streaming of the game.
- The longest field goal in the NFL history
Justin Tucker, a placekicker for the Baltimore Ravens, owns the NFL record for the longest field goal. In a game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Detroit Lions in September 2021, the Ravens were two points behind the Lions when their team lined up for a 66-yard field goal in the game’s final seconds. Tucker kicked the ball and successfully scored 3 points for his team. He broke the world record of the longest field goal in NFL history previously held by Matt Prater, who scored a 64-yard field goal. Learn more about the NFL Player positions with the Enjoythematch teams guide.
- Super Bowl commercials are expensive
The Super Bowl is the most watched sporting event in the world, with over 100 million people tuning in every year. This allows broadcasters to make a lot of money from ads. Advertisers may spend more than $5 million on a 30-second advertisement that is shown live during the Super Bowl game. A 90-second Toyota Prius commercial in the 2016 Super Bowl cost $14.4 million to the advertiser.
Other sources of information relating to the Enjoy The Match team and its work can be found on the Football News page on GetReading.co.uk as well as the Official Newcastle United news page.