Why Doesn’t the NFL Play on Saturday?
Many people have asked why the NFL doesn’t play on Saturday. There are several reasons for this, including the fact that Saturday is reserved for college football.
History
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league. It was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA) before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season. The NFL consits of 32 teams, and is an active member of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).
The NFL’s founding in 1920
The National Football League was founded in 1920, and its first regular season was in 1921. The NFL originally had 14 teams, and it has expanded and contracted several times since then. The league reached its current size of 32 teams in 2002.
The NFL’s founders chose not to have their games on Saturday, because that was the traditional day for college football games. They also wanted to avoid competing with baseball, which was the most popular sport at the time.
The NFL has always been a Sunday-centric league, and it has only played a handful of regular season games on Saturdays over the past 97 years. In recent years, the league has begun playing more games on Thursday nights and Monday nights, in order to ensure that every team gets a nationally televised game once per season.
The NFL’s first regular season game in 1922
The NFL’s first regular season game was played on October 22, 1922. The game was between the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cardinals. The Cardinals won the game 12-6.
The NFL did not start playing games on Saturday until 1924. The reason for this was because most college football teams played their games on Saturday. The NFL did not want to compete with college football for fans.
The NFL started playing some games on Monday night in 1966. Monday Night Football became a regular TV event in 1970.
College Football
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 North American professional sports leagues, the highest professional level of American football in the world, the wealthiest professional sport league by revenue, and the sport league with the most valuable teams.
The popularity of college football
College football is one of the most popular sports in the United States. Millions of people watch games every Saturday during the season, and the sport has a large following among alumni of colleges and universities.
The National Football League (NFL) is the professional league for American football, and it also has a large following. However, the NFL does not play its games on Saturday during the college football season.
There are several reasons for this. First, Saturday is a day when many people are free to watch college football, and the NFL does not want to compete with that. Second, most college football stadiums seat far less than 60,000 people, while all NFL stadiums seat at least 60,000 people. This means that there are more fans who can watch an NFL game in person than a college football game.
Finally, the NFL season is shorter than the college football season. The NFL season starts in September and ends in February, while the college football season starts in August and ends in January. This gives the NFL more flexibility to schedule its games on any day of the week except Saturday during the fall months.
The NFL’s competition with college football
The competition between the National Football League (NFL) and college football for fans and players is one of the oldest and most intense in American sports. The two leagues have been vying for supremacy for over a century, and although the NFL has long since surpassed college football in popularity, the competition between them remains as intense as ever.
The roots of the rivalry date back to the early days of professional football, when many of the best players in the country came from colleges. The NFL was founded in 1920, and its early years were dominated by teams from the Midwest, which were home to some of the best college programs in the country. In 1925, the Chicago Bears signed Red Grange, one of the biggest stars in college football, and his arrival sparked a boom in professional football’s popularity.
By the 1930s, most of the best players in the country were signing with NFL teams, and college football’s popularity began to wane. In response, several colleges formed their own professional leagues, but these all failed within a few years. The NFL’s dominance was so complete that it wasn’t until 1958 that another major professional league, the American Football League (AFL), was able to successfully challenge its supremacy.
The AFL’s success forced the NFL to merge with it in 1970, creating a single league with two divisions: The National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). Since then, the NFC has been dominant, winning 27 of 44 Super Bowls as of 2018. However, there have been a few bright spots for AFC teams; notably, the Denver Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998.
Television
The National Football League (NFL) is the most popular sports league in the United States. It is also the most watched sport on television. According to Nielsen, the NFL regular season games were watched by an average of 17.6 million viewers in 2017. But why doesn’t the NFL play on Saturday?
The rise of television in the 1950s
In the 1950s, television began to have a major impact on American culture. Prior to this time, most people got their news from newspapers and radio. But with the advent of television, people began to get their news from this new medium.
One of the most popular events on television in the 1950s was the NFL championship game. This game was broadcast on Saturday afternoon, which was a time when most people were not working. As a result, many people would gather around their television sets to watch this game.
However, in the 1960s, the NFL began to schedule its championship game on Sunday afternoon. This was due to the fact that more people were working on Saturdays and Sundays than during the week. As a result, fewer people were able to watch the game on television.
The NFL’s partnership with television networks
The NFL has had a long and prosperous partnership with television networks. This partnership has been a major source of revenue for the league, and has helped it become the most popular sport in the United States.
One of the reasons why the NFL does not play on Saturday is because of this partnership. The NFL has a contract with NBC, CBS, and FOX that runs through the 2022 season. This contract gives these networks exclusivity over NFL games on Saturday. If the NFL were to start playing games on Saturday, it would be in violation of this contract.
Another reason why the NFL does not play on Saturday is because it does not want to compete with college football. College football is extremely popular, and if the NFL were to start playing games on Saturday, it would likely lose a significant amount of viewers to college football. The league is already struggling to attract younger viewers, and it does not want to risk losing even more viewers to college football.
The NFL has also said that it does not want to inconvenience its fans by making them choose between watching the NFL and college football on Saturdays. Many fans are already die-hard supporters of both leagues, and the NFL does not want to force them to choose one over the other.
Ultimately, the decision whether or not to play games on Saturday comes down to money and ratings. The league is extremely profitable, and04 it does not want to jeopardize that by playing games on a day when there is significant competition from other sports leagues.
The NFL Today
The National Football League (NFL) is the most popular professional American football league, consisting of 32 teams. It is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States, the other being baseball, basketball, and hockey. The NFL today is very different than it was when it was founded in 1920.
The NFL’s current television contracts
The NFL today is the most popular professional sport in the United States. An estimated 211 million people tuned into NFL games during the 2017 regular season, according to Nielsen. That is more than double the audience of MLB games and nearly six times that of the NBA.
But why isn’t the NFL playing on Saturday? The answer has to do with the league’s current television contracts. Here’s a look at why the NFL isn’t playing on Saturdays (and why it might start again in the future).
The NFL today derives a large portion of its revenue from television contracts. In 2018, the league generated an estimated $8 billion in TV revenue, which was about 40% of its total revenue. Of that $8 billion, about $3.8 billion came from its national television partners—NBC, CBS, FOX, and ESPN—and the rest came from its regional television partners.
The vast majority of NFL games are played on Sundays, which is widely considered to be the best day for televised sports. Sunday afternoon games are broadcast on CBS and FOX, while Sunday night games are broadcast on NBC. ESPN airs Monday night games.
The NFL also has a handful of games on Thursdays (on FOX, CBS, and NFL Network) and Saturdays (on NFL Network) during the season. But those are generally considered to be secondary days for televised sports—especially Saturdays during college football season.
The current TV contracts expire after the 2022 season, so there is a possibility that Saturday games could return to the schedule in 2023 or 2024. But it’s far from certain at this point.
The NFL’s current day and time schedule
The NFL today has games on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday. Why doesn’t the NFL play on Saturday? The answer has to do with television.
The NFL’s current day and time schedule is the result of a decision made in the early 1960s. At that time, the only way to watch a game was to go to the stadium and see it in person. This limited the number of people who could see any given game.
In order to make more people able to see games, the NFL decided to allow games to be televised. But they didn’t want to compete against college football, which was already very popular and had games on Saturday. So they decided to have their games on Sunday.
This decision has had a lasting effect on the NFL schedule. Even though there are now other days of the week when games can be televised, the NFL has stuck with its original decision and continues to have most of its games on Sunday.
