History UsefulNotes / NationalFootballLeague

* The '''Green Bay Packers''', originally named the "Acme Packers" during the initial birth of the NFL, were the team of the '60s, when under the reign of legendary head coach Vince Lombardi they won five of their record 13 NFL championships (including the first two Super Bowls) and earned the city of Green Bay the nickname of "Titletown, USA." With a population of just over 100,000, Green Bay is microscopic by American major league sports standards; [[note]] although, this is somewhat misleading as they also draw heavily from the remainder of Wisconsin (especially UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}}, which is subject to the same blackout rules as Green Bay despite lying outside the normal 75-mile radius of the stadium to be considered "local" for blackout purposes, largely on account of the Packers having from 1933 to 1994 played at least one home game per season in Milwaukee) and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.[[/note]] nonetheless, their success has helped them cultivate a notoriously large and rabid fan base that extends throughout the whole world, resulting in a presence of "[[FanCommunityNickname cheeseheads]]" at every road game that sometimes even drowns out the home crowd. Their home stadium, Lambeau Field, is subject to some absolutely terrible weather late in the season, leading to it being termed "The Frozen Tundra"[[note]] you might think this means the grass is absolutely terrible to play on by the time January comes around, but thanks to a highly esteemed and obsessive grounds crew, a marquee field heating system, and the team's aversion to lease out the stadium to concerts and any other teams like high schoolers to ruin the turf, the Tundra has been termed one of the best sports surfaces in the world by the players and sports-related media[[/note]]. Countless games have been played (and watched) in ridiculous conditions such as -15 degrees plus wind, including the notorious 1967 "Ice Bowl" which they won to get to Super Bowl II. It is also home to a tradition known as the "Lambeau Leap"[[note]] since December of 1993[[/note]] where players are expected to leap into the stands after scoring a touchdown. The team is also known for its unique community ownership [[note]]the people of Wisconsin own shares of stock invested in the team, making the team publicly owned[[/note]], banned under current league rules but grandfathered in for the Packers, which guarantees that they'll never move to a larger market.

* '''Jeff Fisher''' Coached the Houston/Tennessee Oilers/Tennessee Titans from 1994 to 2011, and owner of a BadassMustache second only to Ditka's. His 1999 Titans squad [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_play_of_Super_Bowl_XXXIV fell literally one yard short]] of winning the Super Bowl. Current head coach of the St. Louis Rams, ironically, the same team that beat his Titans in that Super Bowl.

* '''Roger Goodell''' is the current commissioner. When he got the job, he stated that he wanted to clean up the league, since some teams have been well-known for their...somewhat illegal behavior. The other hot-button issues under his tenure have been the work stoppage and the ever-growing threat of concussions. While detractors accuse him of being too slow to address the concussion issue, his actions have been a dramatic reversal from his predecessor Tagliabue's policy of ignoring the problem and hoping it would go away. More recently, he's come under fire for his handling of the Ray Rice situation (see "Notorious Players and Coaches" below). When video surfaced in September 2014 of Rice punching his then-fiancée, Goodell and other league officials claimed they never received or saw the video until TMZ posted it. Then, it came out that the league apparently had the video in its possession six months earlier.

* '''Adrian Peterson''' is a running back for the Minnesota Vikings. He set a slew of records during his rookie season including most yards rushed in a single game, (296) most yards rushing in the first eight games of a season, (1,036) and most 200-yard rushing games for a rookie.(2) In Peterson's first 30 games he had a total 3,101 yards, which marks the 3rd best start to a career for running backs. Peterson and Marshall Faulk are currently the only NFL players to win both the NFL Pro Bowl MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in the same year. Peterson also holds the Pro Bowl record in career rushing touchdowns. He's now best known for falling eight yards short of tying the single-season record for rushing yards, after ''[[HandicappedBadass tearing his ACL]]'' the year before (an injury that typically takes ''at least'' a year to recover from). After this season, which some considered one of the most impressive seasons for a running back and gained the Vikings their first trip to the playoffs since 2009, he was chosen MVP, the first running back to win the award since [=LaDainian=] Tomlinson in 2006.

* '''Brett Favre''' (pronounced "farv") is the current all-time leading passer and was the literal BadassGrandpa of the. He spent the majority of his 20-year career with the Green Bay Packers, during which he was mostly seen as an AllAmericanFace, although some late-career shenanigans ultimately damaged his image (including a string of [[TenMinuteRetirement un-retirements]] with different teams, including the Packers’ division rival, and allegations of sexual harassment). He is perhaps the greatest example of a {{Determinator}} in the history of the NFL, known for fourth-quarter comebacks, [[MadeOfIron shrugging off injury]] and playing with more heart than anyone else in the league. The best example of this was in his 2003 season (most of which he played with a broken thumb on his throwing hand) when he elected to play a week-16 Monday Night game against Oakland despite his father dying of a heart attack the night before, scoring a miraculous 4 touchdowns in the first half of a 41-7 victory and [[ManlyTears breaking down in tears on the sidelines]]. Many football fans hold that game in higher esteem than his Super Bowl victory. He holds the record for consecutive starts (321, including playoffs, stretching from his first start as a Packer in ’92 into his last season as a Viking in 2010), and as the rules for protecting injured players grow more stringent, the record is considered unbreakable. Many of his backup [=QBs=] have spent many years of their careers on the sidelines and in his last few seasons, several of his wide receivers were young enough to still be in diapers when Brett first started playing pro. This longevity and his high-risk, high reward "gunslinger" passing style is why he holds so many records, both good (career wins, attempts,completions, touchdowns, and yards) and bad (career interceptions). After contemplating retirement for several years, he officially announced his retirement in January of 2008, only to change his mind late in the offseason. When the Packers refused to give him a starting position (causing outrage among fans; see Aaron Rodgers below), he was traded to the Jets, and played a lukewarm season, plagued by injuries to his right shoulder, after which he announced his retirement again, and was released from the team. He came out of retirement once again, however, this time being [[FaceHeelTurn picked up by the Packers’ division rival, the Vikings,]] where he played one of the best seasons of his career, soundly defeating his former team twice and becoming the first player to beat all 32 teams in the NFL (a feat that Peyton Manning matched five years later). After a late-game interception cost his team the NFC Championship and a chance at the Super Bowl, he suffered a disastrous 2010 season (finishing 6-10 while the Packers, coincidentally, went on to win the Super Bowl under Favre's former backup), and announced his retirement for a third time. It appears to have stuck this time, after turning down an offer from the Rams in 2013, preferring to spend time with his grandchildren.

* '''Brett Favre''' (pronounced "farv") is the current all-time leading passer and was the BadassGrandpa of the NFL. He spent the majority of his 20-year career with the Green Bay Packers, during which he was mostly seen as an AllAmericanFace, although some late-career shenanigans ultimately damaged his image (including a string of [[TenMinuteRetirement un-retirements]] with different teams, including the Packers’ division rival, and allegations of sexual harassment). He is perhaps the greatest example of a {{Determinator}} in the history of the NFL, known for fourth-quarter comebacks, [[MadeOfIron shrugging off injury]] and playing with more heart than anyone else in the league. The best example of this was in his 2003 season (most of which he played with a broken thumb on his throwing hand) when he elected to play a week-16 Monday Night game against Oakland despite his father dying of a heart attack the night before, scoring a miraculous 4 touchdowns in the first half of a 41-7 victory and [[ManlyTears breaking down in tears on the sidelines]]. Many football fans hold that game in higher esteem than his Super Bowl victory. He holds the record for consecutive starts (321, including playoffs, stretching from his first start as a Packer in ’92 into his last season as a Viking in 2010), and as the rules for protecting injured players grow more stringent, it is suspected that his record will never be broken. Many of his backup [=QBs=] have spent many years of their careers on the sidelines and in his last few seasons, several of his wide receivers were young enough to still be in diapers when Brett first started playing pro. This longevity and his high-risk, high reward "gunslinger" passing style is why he holds so many records, both good (career wins, attempts,completions, touchdowns, and yards) and bad (career interceptions). After contemplating retirement for several years, he officially announced his retirement in January of 2008, only to change his mind late in the offseason. When the Packers refused to give him a starting position (causing outrage among fans; see Aaron Rodgers below), he was traded to the Jets, and played a lukewarm season, plagued by injuries to his right shoulder, after which he announced his retirement again, and was released from the team. He came out of retirement once again, however, this time being [[FaceHeelTurn picked up by the Packers’ division rival, the Vikings,]] where he played one of the best seasons of his career, soundly defeating his former team twice and becoming the only player as of 2013 to beat all 32 teams in the NFL. After a late-game interception cost his team the NFC Championship and a chance at the Super Bowl, he suffered a disastrous 2010 season (finishing 6-10 while the Packers, coincidentally, went on to win the Super Bowl under Favre's former backup), and announced his retirement for a third time. It appears to have stuck this time, after turning down an offer from the Rams in 2013, preferring to spend time with his grandchildren.

* '''Jimmy Graham''' is a hyper-athletic tight end for the New Orleans Saints. He led the NFL in most major receiving categories early in the 2013 season, earning him an NFL Offensive Player of the Month award, the first tight end in the history of that award (dating back to 1986) to win it. Graham played only one year of college football at the University of Miami, playing basketball for his first four years there.

[[folder: Other Players]]

* '''J.J. Watt''' of the Houston Texans is the reigning Defensive Player of The Year and one of the most feared defensive lineman in the game today. He posses a rare dual threat at his position, the ability to sack the quarterback, AND the ability to bat passes down at the line of scrimmage, thus earning him the nickname, "J.J. Swat". In 2012, he notched a 15 sack/15 passes defended season, an astonishing feat for a defensive lineman.

* '''[=DeMarcus=] Ware''' is a sack-producing linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys. He's led the league in sacks twice, and is one of only a few players to notch a 20-sack season. He finished a very close second in Defensive Player of the Year voting that year.

* '''Roger Goodell''' is the current commissioner. When he got the job, he stated that he wanted to clean up the league, since some teams have been well-known for their...somewhat illegal behavior. The other hot-button issues under his tenure have been the work stoppage and the ever-growing threat of concussions. While detractors accuse him of being too slow to address the concussion issue, his actions have been a dramatic reversal from his predecessor Tagliabue's policy of ignoring the problem and hoping it would go away. More recently, he's come under fire for his handling of the Ray Rice situation (see "Notorious Players and Coaches" below). When video surfaced in September 2014 of Rice punching his then-fiancée, Goodell and other league officials claimed they never received or saw the video until Website/{{TMZ}} posted it. Then, it came out that the league apparently had the video in its possession six months earlier.

* '''Paul Tagliabue''' was the commissioner between Rozelle and Goodell (1989-2006). His legacy mainly consisted of expanding on Rozelle's successes, especially through many troubles including 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina, making the NFL the dominant pro sports league in America. He took great pains to make sure Cleveland (specifically the Cleveland Browns) would return after Art Modell's movement of the team to Baltimore, while at the same time lost Los Angeles as an NFL market when the Rams moved to St. Louis and the Raiders moved back to Oakland (though there have been many overtures, there hasn't been a team in Los Angeles since 1995).

* '''Roger Goodell''' is the current commissioner. When he got the job, he stated that he wanted to clean up the league, since some teams have been well-known for their...somewhat illegal behavior. The other hot-button issues under his tenure have been the work stoppage and the ever-growing threat of concussions. While detractors accuse him of being too slow to address the concussion issue, his actions have been a dramatic reversal from his predecessor Tagliabue's policy of ignoring the problem and hoping it would go away.

[[folder: Notorious Players]]

* '''Michael Sam''' is a defensive end, taken by the St. Louis Rams right at the end of the 2014 NFL Draft. He came out as gay a few months beforehand, making him the first openly gay player in NFL history, assuming he makes the team.

* ''' Ray Rice''' was a runningback for the Baltimore Ravens since 2008, and was a key factor in their ground game, by using his [[PintsizedPowerhouse smaller than the NFL average size, and speed]] to duck past incoming tackles. However, he became infamous during the off-season after the 2013-2014 Season, when he was caught on security cameras at an Atlantic City, New Jersey casino dragging his unconscious then-fiance (now wife) from an elevator, in a suspected case of domestic abuse. The Ravens and the League decided to take this matter seriously by..... [[WhatTheHellHero voicing their support of Rice, and giving him a mild 2 game suspension without pay]]. The reasoning being that in somewhat bizarre press conference he, and his fiance claimed it was a mutual fight, and that they were both to blame, as well as that Rice was going into an intervention program to change. This led to widespread outrage amongst the public who pointed out a double standard in punishment, when the league was suspending players for substance abuse and performance enhancing drug use with 4 or 5 game suspensions. In response, the league decided to make the [[AuthorsSavingthrow official policy for domestic violence]] a 6 game suspension (with ability to change depending on severity) for the first case, and indefinite suspension in the second incident for all future cases. Then, seven months latter, on September 8th, 2014, celebrity news website [=TMZ=] released the previously unseen security camera footage from inside the elevator, which showed the physical fight was all Rice's doing. The Ravens within hours of the video's release, ended their contract with Rice, and the League has put him on indefinite suspension.

Basically, let's say we have the Washington Redskins. Washington was first in their division last year. This year the NFC East is playing the NFC North and AFC West. That means that 6 of Washington's games will be against their divisional rivals, 4 games will be against all 4 NFC North teams, 4 games will be against all 4 AFC West teams, and the other two will be against the teams that came in first place of the NFC South and NFC West. That's how a 16-game schedule is generated.

Postseason qualification involves 12 teams which qualify for the playoffs. Each division will send the team with the best record - this is the division champion. However, there are also 4 wild-card spots (2 [=AFC=], 2 [=NFC=]) that are up for grabs. These go to the teams with the best records remaining in the leagues. There's a lot of math that goes into it - tiebreakers and all that - but that's the basics of how it works.

* Several teams, especially very old ones, have had owners over multiple generations. These include the Chicago Bears' Halas/[=McCaskey=] family, the Pittsburgh Steelers' Rooney Family, the New York Giants' Mara family [[note]](the actress who plays Lisbeth in the American ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo]]'' films in fact is named RooneyMara, as she is related to both latter families; her sister [[KateMara Kate]] is also an accomplished actress)[[/note]], and the Arizona/Phoenix/St. Louis/Chicago Cardinals' Bidwill family.

** Peyton and Eli are also the stars of "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn5zytfm9No Football on Your Phone]]", a now-viral DIRECTV commercial. Archie also appears in the spot.

* One of the first star running backs was '''Byron "Whizzer" White'''. During his rookie season at Pittsburgh in 1938, he was the most highly-paid player in the NFL...and [[GeniusBruiser he dropped football to take up a Rhodes Scholarship]]. After coming back from Oxford, White played two years (1940-41) in Detroit, where he had a contract for the then-obscene sum of $15,000 (about a quarter of a million in today's dollars). In 1941, the US joined UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and White joined the Navy. He never played pro football again; after the war he went to Yale Law School, became Deputy Attorney General in 1961, and was appointed an [[AmericanCourts Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]] in 1962. Nevertheless, he kept up his relationship with football (for instance, when interviewing a prospective law clerk, the conversation inevitably revolved around football and not legal issues, as it usually did with other Justices), and the annual NFL community service/humanitarian award is named after him.

* '''Joe Greene''' was a defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s and the cornerstone of the "Steel Curtain" defense. The fact that he was called "Mean" Joe Greene tells you all you need to know about his on-the-field ruthlessness. He's probably best known for this [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xffOCZYX6F8 Coca-Cola commercial]].
* '''James Harrison''' is a hard-hitting linebacker for the Bengals. An unheralded draft pick out of Kent State, he worked his way up to become one of the most dominating defenders in the league. He won the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year award over Ware. He's probably currently better known for his frequent instances of "Foot-In-Mouth Disease" than anything. Among other things, he's called out Ben Roethlisberger over the Super Bowl [=XLV=] loss and he called league commissioner Roger Goodell a homophobic slur in response to getting fined for hits on other players that are against new NFL rules against helmet-to-helmet contact to limit injury. (He also threatened retirement over the same rules.) Spent most of his career playing for the Steelers, with whom he won two Super Bowls, before signing with division rival the Bengals in 2013.

* '''AFC South''' (Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, & Tennessee): Another contender for "strongest division"; though Indy ran away with the division during the Peyton Manning years, Tennessee and occasionally Jacksonville can usually put up a decent fight. Houston was known as a decent team in a division where "decent" wasn't good enough. They came very close to a playoff berth in 2009 and 2010, and earned their first playoff birth and playoff victory in 2011.

* '''Michael Vick''' played for the Atlanta Falcons. As an athlete, he more or less redefined the quarterback position - he was extremely mobile with the football, if a mediocre passer. However, that all came to an end when it was discovered he ran an illegal dogfighting operation and was sent to prison for 2 years and pretty much became PersonaNonGrata with football fans. After being released from prison, he signed a one-year contract with a team option for a second year with the Philadelphia Eagles on August 13, 2009 and partway through the 2010-2011 season became the team's starting quarterback. After a whirlwind RedemptionQuest, he was shown to still be an excellent quarterback, leading the Eagles into the 2010 Playoffs, winning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award, scoring a new endorsement deal with Nike and even lobbying in support of a bill [[http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/19/washington.dog.fighting.vick/index.html?hpt=po_bn1 that would persecute those who attend illegal animal fights or bring children to them]]. He's almost returned to his pre-dogfighting level of popularity, but [[http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/most-disliked-athlete-america-still-hasn-t-forgiven-165836221.html the general public has still not forgiven him]]. Additionally, in terms of actual on-field play, is also known for being something of a FountainOfExpies. While there were fast runners at the QB position that predated Vick (Randall Cunningham comes to mind), Vick seemed to start a wave of quarterbacks that are every bit as gifted with their legs (and sometimes more so) than they are with their arms - and usually, as young players, they tend to be compared to Vick rather than anyone else.

* '''Dan Marino''' was the Hall of Fame Dolphins QB who threw for a then-record 61,361 yards, and is the current or former holder of many other passing records. Marino had the unfortunate luck to be one of the all time greats at quarterback at a time when several other "greatest of all time" candidates (Joe Montana, Troy Aikman, John Elway, Steve Young, Brett Favre) were playing. Thus he managed the paradoxical feat of setting all kinds of records while his team was just good enough to make it into the playoffs and then lose badly in the first round. He is often called "The best quarterback to never win a Super Bowl".

** Hunt is also considered a very important figure in American soccer, as he was one of the founding figures in the creation of MajorLeagueSoccer. His contributions to the sport were so important that the US Open Cup (equivalent to the [[UsefulNotes/TheFACup FA Cup]]) is named after him.

* '''Clay Matthews III''', also known as "The Predator", "The Claymaker", and [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor "Thor"]] is a Green Bay Packers linebacker who has established himself as one of the most dominating defenders in the NFL after just two years in the league. He was named NFL Defensive Rookie Of The Year in 2009 and finished a narrow second in the voting for Defensive Player Of The Year in 2010. He and his cousin Kevin Matthews, a center for the Tennessee Titans, are third-generation NFL players and part of a [[BadassFamily vast football family]] that has included his grandfather Clay Sr. (linebacker, 49ers), his father Clay Jr. (linebacker, Browns and Falcons) and his uncle (and Kevin's father) Bruce (offensive linesman, Oilers and Titans). His younger brother Casey is a linebacker for the Eagles. His cousin Jake is a lineman for the Falcons, who was drafted 6th overall in 2014. One more cousin, Mike Matthews, is a lineman for Texas A&M University. Clay is perhaps best known for his performance in Super Bowl XLV, where he forced a game-changing fumble at the start of the fourth quarter in what is often called the best play of the game.

* '''Most Valuable Player''' (duh): The award given to - wait for it - the player who makes the biggest impact in the entire season. Peyton Manning has four of them, one shared with Steve [=McNair=]. Almost always goes to offensive players, specifically those of the quarterback and running back positions.

* The '''Arizona Cardinals''' are the NFL's oldest franchise (they began in Chicago in ''1898'' as the "Morgan Athletic Club"), and historically [[ButtMonkey one of its least successful]]...until 2008, when they won more playoff games in three weeks than the team had won in the previous 60 futile years, coming within a minute or so of winning a Super Bowl. Sometimes called the "football Cardinals", a throwback to the time they played in St. Louis, a city which already had (and still does have) a baseball team by the same name. Currently play in a stadium that looks like a giant steel rattlesnake curled up in the desert and is named for the University of Phoenix, an online school which doesn't even field a chess team. They own one of the best playing wide receivers around in [[NiceGuy Larry Fitzgerald]].

* The '''Detroit Lions''' were arguably the team of the 1950s. Since then, they have struggled. They became the first team to go 0-16 in a season in 2008, and have made fewer playoff appearances than many teams half their age. They've been really bad for a really long time (their last championship was in ''1957''). It got so bad under the tenure of general manager [[DorkAge Matt Millen]] that fans organized protest marches and put up billboards demanding he be fired, some of them appearing at sporting events ''in other cities''. Barry Sanders, an incredible running back, quit the NFL rather than continue his career carrying such an abysmal squad on his shoulders. The Sanders-era Lions peaked in 1991, when they went 12-4, only to be defeated by the Redskins in the NFC Championship Game. The ''other'' team that always plays on Thanksgiving Day. They're currently rebuilding their team after drafting popular and dominant college players Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson, Ndamukong Suh and Jahvid Best in recent drafts; the investment seems to have paid off, with the Lions coming up with their first 5-0 start since ''1956'' in 2011 before being narrowly defeated by the 49ers; Detroit also clinched their first winning season and playoff appearance since 1999. The 2012 season was a return to traditional Lions losing form, marked by generally good gameplay followed by inexplicable 4th-quarter collapses.

The National Football League plays mostly on Sundays and Mondays from September to January/February. The regular season lasts from September to early January. The division winners and two "wild card" teams (the two best records in each conference not to win a division) proceed to a seeded playoff tournament through January, culminating in the SuperBowl, played between the conference champions on the first Sunday in February, which is usually the most-watched television program of the year and therefore gets the [[SuperBowlSpecial best commercials]].

[[folder: Others]]

* '''O.J. Simpson''' was a dominant running back. As an athlete, he had the first 2,000 yard rushing season with the Buffalo Bills in the (14-game) 1973 season, and is one of only a few people to earn Most Valuable Player on a non-playoff team and after he retired from football he became a moderately popular movie actor. Then in 1994 he allegedly killed his wife and her friend. After the "Trial of the Century", he was found not guilty. This created a great deal of arguing, and the trial pretty much obliterated his long-held "nice guy" persona he had cultivated for decades (especially after he published a book about how he would have murdered his wife, 'if he had done so'). Recently, he was found guilty of robbing and assault two sports memorabilia collectors (justifying his actions because he believed this [[WhatAnIdiot memorabilia was somehow "his" because it had his autograph on it]]), and will be imprisoned for at least nine years.