When Does the Official NFL Season Start?
The official NFL season starts on Thursday, September 10th.
Introduction
The National Football League (NFL) regular season begins on the weekend following the Labor Day holiday (i.e., the first Sunday in September). Each team plays 16 games during the regular season, which runs for 17 weeks until late December or early January.
The NFL playoffs begin in January, and the final championship game, known as the Super Bowl, is played in early February.
The Pre-Season
The National Football League (NFL) preseason is the period each year during which NFL teams play several not-for-the-record exhibition games before the regular season starts. Beginning with the featured Pro Football Hall of Fame game in early August, five weekends of exhibition games are currently played in August and one in late September. The preseason schedule gets underway with the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, which is traditionally held on the Sunday night preceding the start of the regular season.
The Regular Season
The National Football League’s regular season begins the week after Labor Day in September and ends in December or early January. After a two-week preseason, during which each team plays four games, the regular season kicks off on the Thursday following Labor Day.
During the 16-game regular season, each of the league’s 32 teams plays one game against each of the other 31 teams. The schedule is designed so that teams from all four divisions in each conference play each other at least once every three years.
The Playoffs
The Playoffs start on Wild Card weekend, which is the weekend after the final regular season games have been played. The playoffs are a single-elimination tournament, meaning that once a team loses, they are out of the running for the championship. The playoffs culminate in the Super Bowl, which is held on the first Sunday in February.
The Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the biggest event in American football. It is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL). The game is usually played on the first Sunday in February and determines the champion of the NFL for that season.
