# National Football League (NFL)

> The National Football League is the 32-club organization that governs the highest level of professional American football, packages its games and intellectual property for broadcasters, streaming platforms, sponsors and licensees, and operates a growing set of direct-to-fan products. Its work stretches well beyond the schedule: the league writes and enforces playing rules, coordinates officiating and major events, develops safety and performance technology, runs NFL.com and the NFL app, sells NFL+ subscriptions, supports fantasy and data products, licenses merchandise, and develops youth and international participation. Its competitive advantage is a shared national media model that turns a scarce inventory of live games into broad reach while preserving strong local club identities.

- **Founded:** 1920
- **Headquarters:** New York City, United States
- **Founders:** Ralph Hay (Founding organizer and temporary secretary), Jim Thorpe (First league president)
- **Team size:** Approximately 2,000 league employees, excluding the separately staffed 32 clubs and their players.
- **Products:** NFL games and marquee events, Media rights and content licensing, NFL Films, NFL Network and NFL RedZone, Next Gen Stats
- **Notable:** Grew from the American Professional Football Association founded in 1920 into a 32-club league., Built the Super Bowl into one of the most-watched annual programs in U.S. television., Completed long-term U.S. media distribution agreements with Amazon, CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox and NBC extending largely through 2033.

## Products & services

- **NFL games and marquee events** — A centrally governed schedule of preseason, regular-season and postseason games, culminating in the Super Bowl, plus the Draft, Combine, Pro Bowl Games and international events.
- **Media rights and content licensing** — National television, streaming, radio, highlights and international distribution packages sold to partners including Amazon, CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox, NBC, Netflix, YouTube and DAZN in market-specific arrangements.
- **NFL Films** — The league's film and documentary production arm, creating archival, promotional and original football programming.
- **NFL Network and NFL RedZone** — League-branded television products for news, live games and whip-around scoring coverage; ESPN acquired NFL Network and certain other media assets in a transaction completed in January 2026.
- **Next Gen Stats** — A player-and-ball tracking platform developed with Zebra Technologies and Wilson and run on AWS, used by clubs, broadcasts and fan products.
- **NFL+ and NFL+ Premium** — U.S. subscription tiers combining live local and primetime mobile games, audio, NFL Network, library content and Fantasy+, with Premium adding RedZone, replays, All-22 film and NFL Pro.
- **NFL digital products** — NFL.com, the NFL app, fantasy products, schedules, scores, news, video, tickets and personalized ways-to-watch tools.
- **Licensing and commerce** — League and club marks licensed across apparel, collectibles, video games and consumer products, with official merchandise sold through NFL Shop and retail partners.
- **Play Football and NFL FLAG** — Youth participation, coaching, safety and non-contact flag-football programs designed to build the sport's next generation of players and fans.

## Achievements

- Grew from the American Professional Football Association founded in 1920 into a 32-club league.
- Built the Super Bowl into one of the most-watched annual programs in U.S. television.
- Completed long-term U.S. media distribution agreements with Amazon, CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox and NBC extending largely through 2033.
- Created NFL Films, NFL Network, RedZone, NFL+, NFL Pro and Next Gen Stats as distinct media and data products around the core game.
- Expanded the 2026 international schedule to nine games across four continents and seven countries.
- Deployed player-and-ball tracking that captures real-time data on every player on every play.
- Established centralized replay and officiating review at Art McNally GameDay Central.
- Extended Nike's uniform and apparel relationship through 2038.

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — The league revealed nine 2026 international games spanning four continents and seven countries, including its first regular-season game in Australia.
- **2026-02** — The NFL opened its Innovation Hub Challenge around fan personalization, local commerce and global event discovery, with finalists scheduled to showcase during Draft week.
- **2026-01** — ESPN completed its acquisition of NFL Network and certain other NFL media assets; the broader transaction also ties the league more closely to ESPN's distribution ecosystem.
- **2025-08** — The NFL and Microsoft expanded their strategic partnership to apply Copilot, Azure AI and upgraded Surface devices across sidelines, scouting and business operations.

## Links

- Website: https://www.nfl.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-football-league/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/NFL
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nfl
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nfl/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NFL/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nfl

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Last updated: 2026-08-13