In order to promote football as a professional American game and to regulate teams, the owners of 11 football teams across the USA formed a professional football association in 1920. This association would later become known as the National Football League (NFL). Originally, it was named the American Professional Football Association, later becoming the American Professional Football League in 1921 and finally settling on its current name in 1922.

There are two divisions of the National Football League, the AFC (American Football Conference) and the NFC (National Football Conference). These two conferences are further divided into four smaller divisions, with four teams each. The primary objective of the NFL is to promote the game, set the regular season schedule of competitors and to host a playoff game, the world championship, known as the Super Bowl.

Each team is on a 17-week schedule, where they will play 16 games against teams in their conference each week and have one week off. The regular season normally begins on the first Thursday after Labor Day (September 1) and will end in late December or early January. At the conclusion of the regular season, the six top teams from each conference (AFC and NFC) will play in a single elimination tournament, known as the playoffs. The 2 winning teams of the playoff games will graduate to the Super Bowl.

In addition to the schedules and the administration of professional football, the National Football League also promotes and owns all rights to the Super Bowl, including picking the host stadium for the annual event. That task is accomplished through a bidding process in which a host city will make a proposal to the National Football League for the Super Bowl to be held in their city.

The National Football League has strict requirements for Host cities, one of which is the seating capacity of the stadium. Recently, many cities with a football team have built new stadiums with larger capacities to meet this important NFL requirement. Another consideration is the impact the super Bowl will have on the area. One such case was the Super Bowl XXXIX held at the new Jacksonville Stadium in 2005. The unprecedented amount of people using the public restrooms resulted in difficulties with the local wastewater treatment plant to accommodate the unexpected rise in facilities.

Although occassionally such problems may arise, the National Football League has been the driving force behind making football a great American pastime in the same respect as America's other favorite sport of Baseball.