Changes

As an NFL game ends and fans begin leaving the stadium, it is best to avoid the nearby roads.  One study showed that the ''average'' fan at many NFL games has a blood-alcohol level higher than safe level for driving as recommended by the NTSB.<ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/14/national-transportation-safety-board-drunken-driving/2158107/</ref>

As an NFL game ends and fans begin leaving the stadium, it is best to avoid the nearby roads.  One study showed that the ''average'' fan at many NFL games has a blood-alcohol level higher than safe level for driving as recommended by the NTSB.<ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/14/national-transportation-safety-board-drunken-driving/2158107/</ref>

The league is composed of 32 professional [[American Football|football]] teams from the [[United States]], divided into two conferences (the American and the National), each of which have four, four-team divisions. Teams play sixteen regular season games over seventeen weeks (each team receives a "bye" week in which it doesn't play), comprised of six games in a home-and-home against the other three teams in its division, six games against other conference opponents (two from each of the other conference divisions, over a six-year period every team will play every other conference opponent home-and-home), and four teams against all the opponents of a division from the other conference (over an eight-year period, every team will play every other team in the other conference home-and-home).

The league is composed of 32 professional [[American Football|football]] teams from the [[United States]], divided into two conferences (the American and the National), each of which have four, four-team divisions. Although the divisions have "directional" names (East, North, South, and West) they have little meaning geographically (for example, the NFC East is comprised of the New York Giants, Philadelphia, Washington and Dallas, notwithstanding that Carolina is further east and geographically closer than Dallas to the other three teams) and much to do with rivalry and media (the aforementioned NFC East comprises four top-10 media markets, and all four teams have long-standing historic rivalries with each other; Dallas-Washington being the most well-known).

Twelve teams qualify for the playoffs (the winners of each division and four "wild-card" teams, the two teams in each conference with the best record among non-division winners).  The playoff consists of four rounds:

*The first round features the two wild card teams from each conference against the two division winners with the poorer records (the division winners with the best records are given a bye).

 

*The second round features the winners from the first round, who will go up against the two division winners that had the first-round bye.

Fourteen teams qualify for the playoffs (the winners of each division and three "wild-card" teams which are the teams in each conference with the best record among non-division winners).  The playoff consists of four rounds:

*The third round is the "conference championship", featuring each second round winner.

*The first round features the three wild card teams from each conference against the three division winners with the poorer records (the division winner with the best record is given a bye).

*The playoffs culminate in the NFL's championship game, the [[Super Bowl]], featuring the winners from each conference.  

*The second round features the winners from the first round, the lowest-seeded winner goes up against the division winner that had the first-round bye, while the other two teams play each other with the higher seeded team hosting.

*The third round is the "conference championship", featuring each second round winner; the team with the highest seed hosts.

*The playoffs culminate in the NFL's championship game, the [[Super Bowl]], featuring the winners from each conference.  The Super Bowl is played at a pre-determined location: not until Super Bowl LV would a team play a Super Bowl game in its own stadium (the [[Tampa Bay Buccaneers]] in Raymond James Stadium).

== History ==

== History ==