The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The NFL is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, and the highest professional level of American football in the world.[1] The NFL was founded in 1920. In the course of its existence, it has merged with the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and the American Football League (AFL) to create the current NFL. The AAFC merged with the NFL in 1950, and the AFL merged with the NFL in 1970. The history and records of the AFL were incorporated into the NFL.
In the 105-year history of the NFL, there have been 530 head coaches, 32 of whom are currently active as head coaches. George Halas has the longest tenure of any NFL head coach, with a career spanning 40 years, however, these seasons were not consecutive as they were spread out over 4 separate tenures. Don Shula, who had a 33-year coaching career spanning from 1963 to 1995, has coached the most overall games with 526 (490 regular season games and 36 postseason games). Former Green Bay Packers coach Curly Lambeau owns the record for most consecutive seasons coaching one team with 28.
- ^ Jozsa, Frank P. (2004). Sports Capitalism: The Foreign Business of American Professional Leagues. Ashgate Publishing. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-7546-4185-8.
Since 1922, [the NFL] has been the top professional sports league in the world with respect to American football