ORIGIN OF FOOTBALL
Professional football was first played soon after the demise of the Intercollegiate Football Association, around 1895. In 1920 the American Professional Football Association was formed; one year later it was reorganized and in1921 was renamed the National Football League. Unlike the APFA, which handed out franchises far and wide with little discretion, the NFL, from 1946 -1949, was limited to only ten teams. The APFA, on the other hand, consisted of twenty three teams in the year between its inception and the change-over in becoming the NFL.
A merger in 1970, fifty years after the inception of the first pro football association, combined sixteen NFL teams with ten AFL teams to comprise one league with two conferences. In the 1980's, further expansion was proposed and by the 1993 NFL season, approval was given for a thirty-team league. The next step towards growth of the league would be to realign the NFL into eight different divisions, each with four teams.
Arena Football, an indoor league played in the spring with eight man teams, debuted in 1970. From its humble beginnings in 1859, when the first intercollegiate game was played between Rutgers and Princeton, football has become a multi-billion dollar business in its professional form.
At the end of each NFL season, champs from both the National and American conferences meet in the Super Bowl to determine a national champion. This game, always played in January, has been called the most watched sporting event of all time.