When Is The First NFL Game?
It’s never too early to start prepping for the NFL season! Find out when the first game is and start getting ready for some football!
Introduction
The National Football League (NFL) regular season begins on the weekend following Labor Day in early September and ends in December or early January. After a brief hiatus, the NFL playoffs start in late January. The Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event in the United States, is played in early February.
The regular season
The regular season of the National Football League (NFL) begins the week after Labor Day in early September, and ends in late December or early January. It consists of each team playing 16 games, 8 of which are divisional opponents, and 4 non-divisional opponents.
The preseason
The National Football League preseason is the period each year during which NFL teams play several not-for-the-record exhibition games before the regular season commences.
The preseason schedule gets underway with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, typically played the weekend of August 3 (to coincide with inductions into the Hall of Fame). The remainder of the preseason schedule is typically released in April.
The playoffs
The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the National Football League’s (NFL) regular season to determine the NFL champion. Six teams from each of the league’s two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season records, and four division winners are seeded 1 through 4 in their conference, with the remaining two wild-card teams seeded 5 and 6.
The playoffs begin with four wild-card playoff games, two in each conference. The 1 and 2 seeds from each conference then receive a bye in the first round of the playoffs, which leaves four divisional matchups. In the second round, the divisional playoffs, seed 1 hosts seed 4 while seed 2 hosts seed 3 in each conference. The winners of those games then meet in their respective conference championship games to determine who will advance to the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the biggest and most important game in the NFL season. It is the culmination of a long and hard-fought battle between the two best teams in the league, and it always features some of the most exciting football action of the year. The game is typically played in February, and it is always broadcast on television.
