How Many Games Are In The NFL Season This Year?
Contents
The NFL season is underway and there are plenty of games to watch. But how many games are in the NFL season this year? We break it down for you.
Introduction
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.
How Many Games Are In The NFL Season?
The 2020 NFL season is scheduled to have 256 games, including 11 Thursday night games, eight Monday night games, one Saturday game, and two Saturday games in Week 16.
Pre-Season
Pre-season games are played in August, with four games per team. These are used as practice games and to decide which players will make the team’s 53-man roster for the regular season.
Regular Season
The NFL regular season is seventeen weeks long, with each team playing sixteen games and having one bye week. The bye week is a week where a team does not play, and can use the time to rest and recover from any injuries sustained during the season. The regular season begins the week after Labor Day and ends the week before Christmas. During the regular season, each team plays every other team in their conference twice (once at home, and once on the road), and all four teams in a different conference once (two at home, and two on the road).
Post-Season
The NFL regular season typically runs from September to December, with each team playing 16 games. The postseason playoffs follow, consisting of six teams from each conference—the four division winners and two wild card teams—who compete in a single-elimination tournament leading to the conference championships. The winners of the AFC and NFC championship games then meet in the Super Bowl, the biggest annual sporting event in the United States.
Conclusion
shorter season this year.
The figure below displays the total number of games played in each NFL season since 1978, when the regular season was lengthened to 16 games. As can be seen, there have been between 256 and 272 games played in a given season.
This year, there will be 256 games played, which is the same number as last year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 season will be shorter than usual, with each team playing 16 games instead of the usual 18. This is the first time since 1978 that the NFL season will have fewer than 256 games.
So, in answer to the question posed in this article’s title, there will be 256 NFL games played this season.
