At the start of the 2024 National Football League (NFL) season, the Green Bay Packers had won the most regular-season games in the history of the competition. The Packers had made five Super Bowl appearances and were crowned champions four times in total.
How is an NFL season structured?
Each NFL season is split into two distinct competition formats: regular season and postseason. The regular season refers to the sport’s league format, where a team competes to finish as high as possible in their respective division and overall conference. The postseason is a knockout tournament involving the best teams from each conference. The final game of the postseason is called the Super Bowl and is played between the winners of the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC).
The origins of the game
The Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals are the only two teams currently playing that were founder members of the original American Professional Football Association in 1920 – the competition was renamed the NFL in 1922. Interestingly, the Arizona Cardinals were named the Chicago Cardinals for that inaugural season in 1920, whereas the Chicago Bears were known as the Decatur Staleys.
