National Football League - Galleries

In October 2006 the NFL announced the league would fully operate NFL.com, including the development of the technology, infrastructure and editorial content. Launching its first major redesign since 1999 in August 2007, the site had been previously produced and hosted since 2001 by CBS SportsLine. It is estimated that the contract cost CBS $120 million over a five year period. Prior to CBS, ESPN.com produced and hosted the NFL site.

Brian Rolapp, senior vice president of NFL digital media and media strategy: “In a rapidly changing digital landscape, bringing NFL.com in-house provides us greater control of our valuable content and enables us to strategically build the site as a media asset. Fans can look forward to an even more entertaining, interactive and informative site built upon the expertise of the NFL and its other in-house media outlets such as NFL Network and NFL Films.”

Each NFL team has its own radio network and employs its announcers. Nationally, the NFL is heard on the Westwood One Radio Network, Sports USA Radio Network, the Dial Global-Compass Media Sports Network and in Spanish on Univision Radio. Westwood One carries Sunday and Monday Night Football, all Thursday games, two Sunday afternoon contests each week, the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, and all post-season games, including the Pro Bowl.

Sports USA Radio and Dial Global-Compass each broadcast two Sunday afternoon games every Sunday during the regular season, by agreement with individual teams. Univision carries Monday Night games, select games from the New York metro area, and all playoff games.

The television rights to the NFL are the most lucrative and expensive rights not only of any American sport, but of any American entertainment property. With the fragmentation of audiences due to the increased specialization of broadcast and cable TV networks, sports remain one of the few entertainment properties that not only can guarantee a large and diversified audience, but an audience that will watch in real time.

Annually, the Super Bowl often ranks as the most watched show of the year. Four of Nielsen Media Research's top ten programs are Super Bowls.[8] Networks have purchased a share of the broadcasting rights to the NFL as a means of raising the entire network's profile.[9] The Super Bowl is so popular annually that many companies debut elaborate commercials during the game.

Since 2002, The NFL season features the following schedule:

* a 4-game exhibition season (or preseason) running from early August to early September;
* a 16-game, 17-week regular season running from September to December or early January; and
* a 12-team Single-elimination playoff beginning in January, culminating in the Super Bowl in early February.

Traditionally, American high school football games are played on Friday, American college football games are played on Saturday, and most NFL games are played on Sunday. Because the NFL season is longer than the college football season, the NFL schedules Saturday games and Saturday playoff games outside the college football season. The ABC Television network added Monday Night Football in 1970, and Thursday night NFL games were added in the 1980s.

In 1920 representatives of several professional American football leagues and independent teams founded the American Professional Football Conference, soon renamed the National Football League. The first official championship game was held in 1933.

By 1958, when that season's NFL championship game became known as "The Greatest Game Ever Played", the NFL was on its way to becoming one of the most popular sports leagues in the United States. The merger with the American Football League, agreed to in 1966 and completed in 1970, greatly expanded the league and created the Super Bowl, which has become the most-watched annual sporting event in the United States.

The National Football League (NFL) is the highest level of professional American football. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing its name to the National Football League in 1922.

The league currently consists of thirty-two teams from the United States. The league is divided evenly into two conferences — the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC), and each conference has four divisions that have four teams each. The NFL is organized as an unincorporated association of its 32 teams. The NFL is by far the most attended domestic sports league in the world by average attendance per game, with 67,509 fans per game in the latest regular season (2009).

It’s been a busy week in the Southeastern Conference, particularly for Alabama coach Nick Saban and Florida coach Urban Meyer.

News recently broke that the two schools are under NCAA investigation because of improper benefits Alabama defensive lineman Marcel Dareus and Florida center Maurkice Pouncey allegedly received from agents.

Pouncey was rumored to have taken $100,000 from an agent as a junior at Florida, something he has steadfastly denied.

Alabama Coach Nick Saban started throwing stones at the agents who jeopardize the eligibility of college players, and Ralph Cindrich, an agent for N.F.L. players, picked up those stones and threw them right back

Saban, who guided the Crimson Tide to the national championship last season, referred to some agents as pimps Wednesday at the annual gathering of members of the news media before the Southeastern Conference football season.

“I don’t know that I would disagree with him about some agents as pimps, but all I know is there are coaches who would also fall in that category,” said Cindrich, who represents the Jets’ D’Brickashaw Ferguson, among others. “I would never tolerate nor permit Saban or any other coach to lump me in that category.

Brett Favre was badly beat up in Minnesota's overtime loss at New Orleans last January, a well-documented part of that epic NFC championship game.

The grandfather of NFL quarterbacks, however, doesn't sound worried about his health as it relates to returning for a 20th season.

"Playing another year probably isn't going to make a difference. The damage has already been done," Favre told Men's Journal magazine for the issue that will go on sale on Friday.

The Green Bay Packers remain profitable, just not as much as they have been in recent years.

And as the only NFL team that opens its books to the public, this year's financial report is certain to come up in the league's labor negotiations.

Packers officials said Wednesday that the team posted an operating profit of $9.8 million in the fiscal year that ended March 31, down from $20.1 million the previous year. The team has been in a slide since posting an operating profit of $34 million four years ago.

Green Bay Packers cornerback Charles Woodson says he was lucky to escape a burning house in Michigan over the weekend.

Woodson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday he was at Gwen Haggerty's house in Bay Harbor on Friday night. It was part of a celebration honring the Ted and Jane Von Voigtlander Foundation for donating $15 million to name the new women's hospital at the University of Michigan.

The Houston Texans have signed seventh-round draft pick Dorin Dickerson.

The 6-foot-2 Dickerson was taken with the 227th overall selection. He played receiver, tight end and linebacker during his college career at Pittsburgh, and set a school record for tight ends with 10 touchdown receptions last season.

Dickerson finished with 49 catches for 529 yards in 2009.

A co-defendant who took a plea deal in the robbery of former NFL player Javon Walker was sentenced Wednesday to three to eight years in Nevada state prison.

Arfat Abdo Fadel, 32, has already served more than two years behind bars since his arrest several days after the June 2008 attack. He pleaded guilty before trial in April to felony robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and second-degree kidnapping, and testified against accomplice Deshawn Lamont Thomas, 42.

Attorneys for Minnesota Vikings Kevin Williams and Pat Williams say a judge erred by declining to permanently block the NFL from enforcing their suspensions.

The argument was made Tuesday in a filing with the Minnesota Court of Appeals. It is another step in the players' long legal battle against their four-game suspensions for violating the NFL's anti-doping policy. They tested positive for a banned diuretic in 2008.

Attorneys for Minnesota Vikings Kevin Williams and Pat Williams say a judge erred by declining to permanently block the NFL from enforcing their suspensions.

The argument was made Tuesday in a filing with the Minnesota Court of Appeals. It is another step in the players' long legal battle against their four-game suspensions for violating the NFL's anti-doping policy. They tested positive for a banned diuretic in 2008.

Cleveland Browns nose tackle Shaun Rogers has reached an agreement with prosecutors that could dismiss charges that he tried to carry a gun through airport security in April.

Prosecutors in Cleveland say when Rogers appears in court Thursday, he'll agree to meet with a diversion officer and do volunteer service over the next year.

The case against Rogers will be dismissed if he completes the diversion program, including 10 hours in a gun-class.

Terrell Owens would like to point out that he's never been disciplined by the NFL for off-field conduct, unlike some of the league's "golden boys."

No team has yet to sign him as a free agent, and the polarizing receiver worries they're swayed by the perception he's a troublemaker. A perception he believes he disproved with his agreeable behavior in Buffalo during a disappointing season last year.

"There were a number of times where prior I probably would have reacted, said something I wasn't supposed to say," Owens told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I really had some restraint, very patient."

David Howard, a Brown University defensive lineman drafted in the spring by the Tennessee Titans, has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge in Rhode Island.

Howard was accused in April 2009 of punching and kicking a customer at a bar where he was working as a bouncer. He entered the plea Monday to a charge of simple assault.

Howard's lawyer, Mark Smith, said Tuesday that the plea does not constitute a conviction and that the charge will be expunged from Howard's record if he stays out of trouble for a year.

Smith says Howard wanted to get the case behind him and move on with his life.

The Titans selected Howard in the seventh round. AP.org

The San Diego Chargers say Pro Bowl wide receiver Vincent Jackson has been suspended by the NFL for the first three games of the 2010 season for violating the league's substance abuse policy.

Jackson pleaded guilty in February to his second DUI since 2006.

The suspension could be moot. Jackson has refused to sign his tender as a restricted free agent and could sit out the first 10 games of the season.

AP org