History UsefulNotes / NationalFootballLeague

[[caption-width-right:300:No one circles the wagons quite like these guys!]]

[[caption-width-right:300:1972: [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome 14 wins. 0 losses.]] No one has come close. Respect THAT.]]

[[caption-width-right:300:From the "Greatest Game Ever Played" in 1958 to Creator/PeytonManning, there's a whole lot of history here!]]

[[caption-width-right:300:They say these guys play in the league's smallest market--that's if you don't count the entire city of London!]]

[[caption-width-right:300:Some call them the Super Chargers. [[WebVideo/UrinatingTree Others call them]] [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain The Diamond Dogs of Football]]]]

[[caption-width-right:300:New York area sports fan will never let the Patriots live down [[MemeticMutation EIGHTEEN TO ONE]]]]

[[caption-width-right:300:If you live in Dallas, your favorite teams are the Cowboys and whoever plays against these guys. If you live in DC or Virginia, your favorite team are these guys and whoever plays against the Cowboys]]

[[caption-width-right:300:For a while, these guys were THE team of the West Coast.]]

[[caption-width-right:300:The team with the loudest fans on the Pacific Coast. (Yes, including the Raiders!)]]

[[caption-width-right:300:For a team named after an Edgar Allan Poe story, there's a surprising lack of doom and gloom to these guys.]]

[[caption-width-right:300:From [[1958_NFL_Championship_Game The Greatest Game Ever Played]] to Creator/PeytonManning, there's a whole lot of history here!]]

[[caption-width-right:300:''[[Music/GunsNRoses "Welcome to the jungle! We got fun and games!]]'']]

[[caption-width-right:300:''[[Music/RageAgainstTheMachine "COME WITH IT NOW! BULLS ON PARADE!]]'']]

[[caption-width-right:300:These guys have gone from the bottom of the barrel to [[TookALevelInBadass the first team to get two seperate three-peats]]. Love 'em or hate 'em, gotta respect THAT.]]

[[caption-width-right:300:Without these guys, the AFL-NFL merger never would've happened.]]

[[caption-width-right:300: Even after they finally won a Super Bowl ring for the thumb AND one for the other hand, their fans still want more.]]

The '''UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} Steelers''' have been the most consistently successful team of the Super Bowl era in terms of regular season win record. (Which is wh This is a sharp contrast to their status as perhaps [[ButtMonkey the most pathetic team]] in the pre-merger NFL.[[note]]In fact, the merger itself played a major role in their turnaround--they were one of three pre-merger NFL teams (alongside the Browns and Colts) who switched to the AFC in order to balance the conferences and received $3 million (approximately $18 million today) as compensation. The windfall allowed the historically cash-strapped franchise to begin pursuing and retaining more talented players that became the core of their '70s successes.[[/note]] The team was founded in 1933 by Art Rooney as the Pittsburgh Pirates, in reference to the city's baseball team; they were renamed the "Steelers" in 1940 in reference to the city's steel industry. For their first four decades, the team was generally terrible and only made the postseason once (a 1947 divisional tie-breaker, which they lost). As a result, the franchise regularly faced financial difficulties--they had to merge with the Eagles and Cardinals just to make it through World War II, and the latter team went 0-10. [[note]]The second combination team, officially Card-Pitt, was nicknamed the "Car-Pitts" because opponents walked all over them.[[/note]] While they were more average than truly terrible for most of the next two decades, the Steelers were mostly an afterthought in the wider league.\\\

[[caption-width-right:300:If the Cowboys are "America's Team", the Rams are "Hollywood's Team".]]

The Rams' helmets have sported a distinctive design of curved ram horns since the '40s, being the first team in the NFL to not just paint their helmets a solid color. They spent their first 34 years in UsefulNotes/{{California}} playing in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a national historic landmark built in 1923 that hosted two Olympics, with a third on the way in 2028. This tenure also contributed to the racial reintegration of the NFL--due to the Coliseum being partially funded by state and local taxes, the Rams were pressured to desegregate their football team as part of their lease agreement, leading the team to hire the league's first Black players in over a decade. The team played their last 15 years in California outside of L.A. at the much smaller Anaheim Stadium to get around the league's blackout rules and get closer to the growing Orange County suburbs. After their stay in St. Louis, the Rams returned to the Coliseum while their current home was completed in Inglewood. In contrast to the shoddy reputation of the team's former "Battle Dome" in Missouri, [=SoFi=] Stadium is the most expensive sports venue ever built, costing an estimated $5 billion and featuring a tremendous two-sided circular video screen, a 6,000-seat performing arts theater sponsored by Website/YouTube, and a sweeping translucent roof. Despite said roof covering the field and seating bowl, [=SoFi=] Stadium is considered an outdoor stadium with a canopy, as its sides are open to the elements, subjecting the stadium to weather delays.

And finally, according to a recent survey by the league, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff the Rams are the most popular NFL team in China, Japan and South Korea.]] Something about that Hollywood glamor must really appeal to them...

[[caption-width-right:300:The loudest fanbase in all of sports. (Not a joke, their stadium is that loud!(]]

[[caption-width-right:300:''[[MemeticMutation Fun times in Cleveland today! CLEVELAND!]]]]

[[caption-width-right:300:These guys have gone from the bottom of the barrell to [[TookALevelInBadass the first team to get two seperate three-peats]]. Love 'em or hate 'em, gotta respect THAT.]]

The '''UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} Steelers''' have been the most consistently successful team of the Super Bowl era in terms of regular season win record. This is a sharp contrast to their status as perhaps [[ButtMonkey the most pathetic team]] in the pre-merger NFL.[[note]]In fact, the merger itself played a major role in their turnaround--they were one of three pre-merger NFL teams (alongside the Browns and Colts) who switched to the AFC in order to balance the conferences and received $3 million (approximately $18 million today) as compensation. The windfall allowed the historically cash-strapped franchise to begin pursuing and retaining more talented players that became the core of their '70s successes.[[/note]] The team was founded in 1933 by Art Rooney as the Pittsburgh Pirates, in reference to the city's baseball team; they were renamed the "Steelers" in 1940 in reference to the city's steel industry. For their first four decades, the team was generally terrible and only made the postseason once (a 1947 divisional tie-breaker, which they lost). As a result, the franchise regularly faced financial difficulties--they had to merge with the Eagles and Cardinals just to make it through World War II, and the latter team went 0-10. [[note]]The second combination team, officially Card-Pitt, was nicknamed the "Car-Pitts" because opponents walked all over them.[[/note]] While they were more average than truly terrible for most of the next two decades, the Steelers were mostly an afterthought in the wider league.\\\

The National Football League (NFL) is the top-level professional UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball league. Founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association,[[note]]Its history should not to be confused with the NFL that briefly existed in 1902 out in UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}} that featured teams owned by Pennsylvania-based UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball teams [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer at the time]].[[/note]] it is the sport's [[OldestOnesInTheBook longest-lived pro league]], as well as the most popular professional sports league of any kind in the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates and the wealthiest one by revenue in the entire world.

Originally consisting of fourteen teams scattered throughout the Midwest and Northeast of the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates, the NFL competed (and eventually merged) with various smaller leagues over the following decades. By the 1950s, it had grown into the premier pro football league in the nation, though continuing to trail UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball and even UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball in terms of overall popularity. In 1966, the league agreed to partner and merge with the competing American Football League (AFL), bringing an end to a mutually-destructive bidding war over players and greatly expanding its number of teams and markets. And although the NFL had been playing an annual championship game since 1933, it was the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl contest, introduced in 1967 (played initially between the champion teams of the NFL and AFL, and then -- after the merger went into effect in 1970 -- between the NFC and AFC champions), which truly elevated the sport into must-watch television. Engrossing game action, reasonable competitive parity, and skillful marketing under then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, a former PR executive, all helped propel pro football ahead of its rivals to make it the most popular spectator sport in the United States by the 1970s, and it has only become even more dominant over the ensuing decades.

->''"In UsefulNotes/{{baseball}}, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness. In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being. "''

'''Home Stadium:''' Soldier Field (61,500 capacity) [1971-2001, Since 2003][[note]]The stadium was renovated in 2002, and the Bears played that season in [[UsefulNotes/PowerFiveConferences Urbana-Champaign]].[[/note]]\\

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/texans_5.png]]

The [[DraftingMechanic NFL Draft]] was [[TropeMaker the first major draft]] in professional sports, invented in 1936 as a way of improving parity by giving the lower performing teams exclusive dibs to sign the most promising young talent who would otherwise just sign with either the wealthiest or most successful franchise. The Draft occurs each year in late April or early May, but following it is a year-round pastime in and of itself, with many journalists and commentators making a career out of being "draftniks" who explain, investigate, and predict team's draft decisions. Though the event itself sounds fairly dull on paper--essentially just reading a couple hundred names of college athletes, many of which will never be heard of again by even the most devout fans--the Draft is now a primetime television event in the U.S., with various networks doing their best to [[MundaneMadeAwesome make mundane awesome]] by highlighting the scrambling of the teams to secure last minute trades and the live reactions of the players and their loved ones, capturing their emotions at becoming millionaires after a lifetime of hard work. It's wound up making good enough drama that the NFL sponsored [[Film/DraftDay a whole movie]] just about the men and women who scout and draft talent.\\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Jim Benton, Parker Hall, Bob Waterfield, Tom Fears, Norm Van Brocklin, Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, Dan Towler, Les Richter, Ed Meador, Deacon Jones, Merlin and Phil Olsen, Rosey Grier, Roman Gabriel, Tom Mack, Jack Youngblood, Harold Jackson, Creator/FredDryer, James Harris, Jackie Slater, Dennis Harrah, Vince Ferragamo, Eric Dickerson, Dieter Brock, Jim Everett, Henry Ellard, Willie "Flipper" Anderson, Kevin Greene, Greg Bell, Isaac Bruce, Orlando Pace, Jeff Wilkins, Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt, Marc Bulger, Steven Jackson, Chris Long, Sam Bradford, Johnny Hekker, Aaron Donald, Todd Gurley, Jared Goff, Cooper Kupp, Andrew Whitworth, Jalen Ramsey, Puka Nacua\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Jim Benton, Parker Hall, Bob Waterfield, Tom Fears, Norm Van Brocklin, Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch, Dan Towler, Les Richter, Ed Meador, Deacon Jones, Merlin and Phil Olsen, Rosey Grier, Roman Gabriel, Tom Mack, Jack Youngblood, Harold Jackson, Creator/FredDryer, James Harris, Jackie Slater, Vince Ferragamo, Eric Dickerson, Dieter Brock, Jim Everett, Henry Ellard, Willie "Flipper" Anderson, Kevin Greene, Greg Bell, Isaac Bruce, Orlando Pace, Jeff Wilkins, Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt, Marc Bulger, Steven Jackson, Chris Long, Sam Bradford, Johnny Hekker, Aaron Donald, Todd Gurley, Jared Goff, Cooper Kupp, Andrew Whitworth, Jalen Ramsey, Puka Nacua\\
'''Notable Historic Coaches and Personnel:''' Dan Reeves, Joe Stydahar, Chuck Knox, Georgia Frontiere, John Robinson, Dick Vermeil, Steve Spagnuolo\\

'''Current Starting Quarterback:''' Jacoby Brissett\\

'''Current Starting Quarterback:''' Sam Howell\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Mose Kelsch, Walt Kiesling, Bill Dudley, Jim Finks, John Henry Johnson, Jack Butler, Ernie Stautner, Andy Russell, Bobby Walden, "Mean" Joe Greene, Rocky Bleier, L.C. Greenwood, John "Frenchy" Fuqua, Terry Bradshaw, Mel Blount, Dwight White, Franco Harris, Joe Gilliam, Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Mike Webster, Jack Ham, Ernie Holmes, Jack Lambert, Donnie Shell, Tunch Ilkin, Gary Anderson, Rod Woodson, Merrill Hoge, Dermontti Dawson, Neil O'Donnell, Barry Foster, Kevin Greene, Kordell Stewart, Jerome Bettis, Alan Faneca, Hines Ward, James Harrison, Troy Polamalu, Ben Roethlisberger, Heath Miller, Antonio Brown, Cam Heyward, Le'Veon Bell, Alejandro Villanueva, Ryan Shazier, T.J. Watt\\

'''Notable Historic Players:''' Frank Tripucka, Lionel Taylor, Goose Gonsoulin, Floyd Little, Marlin Briscoe, Jim Turner, Lyle Alzado, Charley Johnson, Tom Jackson, Randy Gradishar, Rick Upchurch, Craig Morton, John Elway, Steve Atwater, Karl Mecklenburg, Shannon Sharpe, Mike Croel, Jason Elam, Gary Zimmerman, Tom Rouen, Glyn Milburn, Rod Smith, Tom Nalen, Terrell Davis, Ed [=McCaffrey=], Mark Schlereth, Mike Anderson, Elvis Dumervil, Brandon Marshall, Tim Tebow, Matt Prater, Creator/PeytonManning, Von Miller\\