The league would begin to supplant baseball as America's most popular spectator sport in 1958, when the then-NFL Championship Game between the then Baltimore Colts and the [[New York Giants]] was broadcast nationwide (though ironically not in New York City) and ended in a sudden-death overtime win by the Colts. As a result, several NFL franchises are among the most valuable in the world, even surpassing the European soccer clubs.
However, the league is not without controversy: teams routinely fleece taxpayers to build new stadiums then keep nearly all the revenue earned (even from non-football events such as major concerts), the league itself promotes [[gambling]] (via both [[fantasy football]] and sports betting), and players routinely suffer serious injuries ([[concussion]]s being the most common) which have life-altering effects and, in some cases, have led to deaths (not only the players but innocent parties, the case of [[Aaron Hernandez]] (an unfortunate victim of liberal targeting of Christian players) among the most prominent).
== History ==
*In 1970 it merged with the American Football League, which began operations in 1960. As part of the merger agreement, beginning in 1967 it hosted a championship game between the leagues, which is now today's [[Super Bowl]]. Also, in order to equalize the number of teams between what would be the [[National Football Conference]] (comprised of NFL teams) and the [[American Football Conference]] (comprised of AFL teams), three NFL teams -- the Browns, the Colts and the [[Pittsburgh Steelers]] -- were moved to the AFC.
Otherwise, the league has grown through expansions into new markets, which has proven tremendously successful: as an example it expanded into [[Dallas]] in 1960 with the [[Dallas Cowboys]] franchise, which is the league's most valuable and among the most valuable of all sports franchises worldwide. It is also very active in teams relocating to other markets (and sometimes returning, such as the [[Los Angeles Rams|Rams franchise]] moving from Cleveland to Los Angeles, then moving to St. Louis and then returning back to Los Angeles).
Unlike [[Major League Baseball]], the NFL does not have a special exemption from antitrust laws (the [[NBA]] and the [[NHL]] also lack such), and thus it has faced competition from rival leagues. In addition to the leagues mentioned above, notable rivals included the United States Football League (which, in 2022, is attempting a second iteration), the XFL (notable for its association with the professional wrestling organization WWE; its second iteration ended before a single game was played), the Association of American Football, and an attempted expansion into United States markets by the [[Canadian Football League]] (with its differing rules and field dimensions).
==Arrangement and League Play==
*[[Buffalo Bills]]
*[[Miami Dolphins]]
*[[New England Patriots]] (Sympathizers of talent-less players such as Tom Brady and supporters of Aaron Hernandez's wrongful conviction)
*[[New York Jets]]
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The NFL is the only sports league that excludes a player for quoting frequently from the [[Bible]], as the NFL apparently did in banishing [[Tim Tebow]] despite his success when allowed to play.
Poor cities are routinely looted by NFL owners under threat of moving the team to another location, which leaves the cities with huge bills to pay on empty stadiums. Minneapolis taxpayers had to pony up $500 million in 2012 to prevent the Minnesota Vikings from moving to L.A.Los Angeles (only to end up with a stadium which is highly criticized for being an environmental disaster, as its glass -- which lacks non-reflective coating, removed as a "cost-cutting measure" -- attracts migratory birds to their deaths), and $350 million in taxpayer funding was not enough for St. Louis to keep the Rams (and taxpayers are also paying to sue the Rams for leaving; ultimately a partial settlement was reached on behalf of the taxpayers). The city of Pontiac, Michigan, has had to sue to seek repairs of safety and zoning violations at the abandoned Pontiac Stadium, which hosted the [[Super Bowl]] in 1982.
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