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    National Football League (NFL)

    Also known as NFL, National Football League

    The National Football League (NFL) is the top professional American football league. Its 32 teams each play 17 regular-season games over 18 weeks.[1] Fourteen teams reach the playoffs, and the season ends with the Super Bowl. Super Bowl LXI is on 14 February 2027 at SoFi Stadium.[2][3] The Seattle Seahawks are the reigning champions after winning Super Bowl LX.[4]

    Editor reviewedUpdated WikiSports
    Key facts

    The National Football League (NFL) is the top professional American football league in the United States. It is organised into two conferences, the AFC and the NFC, each with four divisions.[2][5] Its 32 teams each play 17 regular-season games over 18 weeks.[1] Fourteen of them reach a single-elimination playoff that ends in the Super Bowl.[2]

    Season structure

    The 2026 regular season runs from Wednesday 9 September 2026 to 10 January 2027. It has 272 games, and the final week is made up entirely of division games.[6][7] Each team has one bye week, between Week 5 and Week 14.[1] Each team’s 17th game is against a team from the other conference that finished in the same divisional place the year before.[8]

    In the playoffs, the four division champions in each conference are seeded 1 to 4 and three wild cards are seeded 5 to 7.[5] Only the No. 1 seeds skip the Wild Card round.[2] For 2026-27, the playoffs start on 16 January, the conference championships are on 31 January, and Super Bowl LXI is on 14 February at SoFi Stadium.[9][3] Our explainer on how the NFL season and playoffs work has more detail.

    Recent champions and the 2026 season

    The Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl LX, beating the New England Patriots 29-13 at Levi’s Stadium. The two teams met again in the 2026 opener, which Seattle won 13-10.[4][10] As of 11 October 2026, before Week 5’s Sunday games, the Chiefs, Vikings and 49ers were unbeaten at 4-0.[11] For live standings and results, see the NFL 2026 season tracker.

    International games

    The NFL has expanded its regular-season games abroad. The 2026 schedule has nine international games, the most ever.[12] They include the first regular-season game in Australia, where the 49ers beat the Rams 27-7 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of 100,021 fans.[13] Other 2026 games abroad include Baltimore’s 34-31 win over Dallas in Rio de Janeiro and games in London.[14][15]

    Broadcasting

    The NFL says it is the only sports league whose regular-season and postseason games are all shown on free, over-the-air television in local markets.[16] National packages are split among several partners. NBC has Sunday nights and ESPN Monday nights, Prime Video streams Thursday Night Football exclusively, and Netflix and Peacock stream selected games.[17][18][19][20] The league’s own NFL+ service streams live local and primetime games on mobile devices.[21] Out-of-market Sunday games are sold as NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube.[22] Our how to watch the NFL in 2026 guide compares the options and prices.

    Next in the crash course

    Questions readers ask

    How many teams are in the NFL?

    Thirty-two. Each plays 17 regular-season games over 18 weeks.[1]

    Who won the most recent Super Bowl?

    The Seattle Seahawks, who beat the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX.[4]

    Where is Super Bowl LXI?

    At SoFi Stadium in the Los Angeles area on 14 February 2027. It will be the ninth Super Bowl played in Los Angeles.[3]

    Does the NFL play games outside the US?

    Yes. The 2026 schedule has a record nine international games, including first regular-season games in Melbourne, Paris and Rio de Janeiro.[12]

    Are NFL games on free TV?

    The NFL says all of its regular-season and postseason games are shown on free, over-the-air television in local markets.[16]

    Sources

    · 22 claims from 4 publishers

    Each numbered claim is a statement we checked against the sources listed with it. Tap a number in the text to see its sources in place.

    1. [1]

      Each of the 32 NFL teams plays 17 games over 18 weeks in 2026, with bye weeks running from Week 5 to Week 14. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    2. [2]

      Fourteen teams make the NFL playoffs, seven from each conference, and the No. 1 seed in each conference gets a bye through the Wild Card round. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    3. [3]

      Super Bowl LXI is scheduled for Sunday 14 February 2027 at SoFi Stadium in the Los Angeles area, broadcast by ESPN. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    4. [4]

      The Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl LX 29-13 over the New England Patriots at Levi's Stadium, and the two teams met again in the 2026 season opener. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    5. [5]

      In each NFL conference, the division champions are seeded 1 to 4 by record and the three best non-division-winners are seeded 5, 6 and 7. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    6. [6]

      The 2026 NFL regular season is an 18-week, 272-game schedule that kicked off on Wednesday 9 September 2026 in Seattle and ends with 16 division games in Week 18 on 9-10 January 2027. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    7. [7]

      For the 17th consecutive year, all 16 games in the final week of the NFL regular season are division games. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    8. [8]

      Each team's 17th game is against a team from the other conference that finished in the same divisional standing the previous season; the NFC is the home conference for that game in 2026. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    9. [9]

      The 2026 NFL playoffs are scheduled to start with six Wild Card games from Saturday 16 January 2027, followed by the Divisional round on 23-24 January and the AFC and NFC Championship Games on 31 January. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    10. [10]

      The Seahawks beat the Patriots 13-10 in the 2026 season opener on 9 September, intercepting Drake Maye three times in the fourth quarter. confirmedas of 2026-09-10

    11. [11]

      As of 11 October 2026, before Week 5's Sunday games, the Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers were the NFL's only unbeaten teams at 4-0. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

      • 2026 NFL League Standings · NFL.com · League standings table (W L T PCT PF PA); Vikings and 49ers rows also 4 0 0 (retrieved 2026-10-11)
    12. [12]

      The 2026 NFL schedule includes nine international games, the most in a single season, five of them shown exclusively on NFL Network, including first games in Melbourne, Paris and Rio de Janeiro. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    13. [13]

      The 49ers beat the Rams 27-7 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the NFL's first regular-season game in Australia, in front of 100,021 fans. confirmedas of 2026-09-11

    14. [14]

      The Ravens beat the Cowboys 34-31 in Rio de Janeiro on 27 September on Tyler Loop's 56-yard field goal at the end of a seven-second drive. confirmedas of 2026-09-28

    15. [15]

      The Colts beat the Commanders 30-13 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on 4 October. confirmedas of 2026-10-04

    16. [16]

      The NFL says it is the only sports league that shows all regular-season and postseason games on free, over-the-air television in local markets. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    17. [17]

      NBC televises one Sunday night game and ESPN one Monday night game in each of Weeks 1-17 of the 2026 season. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    18. [18]

      Thursday Night Football streams exclusively on Prime Video in 2026, which carries 15 Thursday games between Weeks 2 and 17 plus the Black Friday game. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    19. [19]

      Netflix streamed the Week 1 game in Melbourne and is scheduled to stream the first Thanksgiving Eve game (25 November 2026) and two Christmas Day games in 2026. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    20. [20]

      Peacock will exclusively stream one NFL regular-season game in primetime on Saturday 2 January 2027. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    21. [21]

      All live local and primetime NFL games can be streamed on mobile devices with NFL+. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    22. [22]

      NFL Sunday Ticket covers out-of-market Sunday games; local and national games require a separate TV plan such as YouTube TV. confirmedas of 2026-10-11

    Revision history (1)
    1. Page created.

    Created Oct 11, 2026. Last reviewed by an editor on Oct 11, 2026. Next scheduled review: Jan 11, 2027.

    Cite this page

    "National Football League (NFL)." ContentLora, updated Oct 11, 2026. https://contentlora.com/wiki/national-football-league

    Spotted an error? Suggest a correction or emailcorrections@contentlora.com.

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