I can vividly remember watching NFL football games as a teen some 45 plus years ago in the 1960′s. Names like Y.A. Tiddle and Bart Starr come to mind. At the time, it seemed to me that the NFL had been around forever, but that is far from true. Like any fledgling enterprise, the NFL had humble beginnings and suffered through it’s share of growing pains.

However, all the hardships it suffered through were well worth it as football has emerged as an exceptional team game that still allows for individual greatness, while at the same time not compromising the team concept that exemplifies the game and is the very foundation on which it was built.

Through more than 9 decades of gridiron action, a network of players, coaches, owners, and sponsors have united to take NFL football from it’s humble beginnings in the 1920′s to the successful and much-loved product it is today.

It was on August, 1920 that executives from the first four professional football clubs had their inaugural meeting in Canton, Ohio. That first meeting led to the formation of the American Professional Football Association(APFA). That was short-lived however, because in just two years the original APFA became the much-loved NFL that we are familiar with today.

It took nearly 10 years, but eventually the NFL grew from having two early football powers to a 10 team league divided into East-West divisions. The Canton Bulldogs and the Earl Lambeau coached Green Bay Packers were the trail-blazers that led the way. However, in a historic first ever championship game, it was the Chicago Bears who defeated the New York Giants in 1933.

For a short 4 year span a rival league, the All-American Football Conference, managed to introduce 8 new teams, but after it’s short life only three teams survived and merged with the NFL. It was 1950 when Cleveland, Baltimore, and San Francisco were welcomed into the league. They were all high quality teams and it was actually the Cleveland Browns who won the NFL championship that year over the Los Angeles Rams.

It took some time, but as the league grew it began to attract the interest of the major televison networks and it was actually the coast to coast televising of the 1958 NFL championships that catapulted the league into the living rooms and hearts of the American viewing public. It was on that day that millions watched the drama unfold as The Colts defeated the New york Giants in a sudden-death overtime game. There are many who witnessed the game that still consider it one of the most memorable football games ever played. Just that one game and the magic of television was a major catalyst for the growth of the NFL.

It was Pete Rozelle who took advantage of a bill passed by Congress in 1961 that made it legal for single networks to have contracts with professional sports leagues. He saw it as an opportunity to add millions more Americans to the NFL viewing audience and signed a contract with CBS to bring all of the leagues regular season games into the homes of the viewing public.

Through-out the 1960′s, more great names and events began to emerge that would eventually take on historic importance in the now rapidly growing NFL. Names like the amazing Green Bay Packers under the leadership of Vince Lomabardi and Lamar Hunt who founded the AFL and in just 6 years saw it merge with the NFL. The result of that merger led to the forming of the NFC and the AFC that sparked the first ever World Championship Game in 1967. Soon the sporting world would come to know it as the annual Super Bowl Game that would be played between the AFL and NFL for football supremacy.

Growth of the NFL continued into the 1970′s and mushroomed to 28 franchises with the addition of Seattle and Tampa Bay into the league in 1976. The season expanded to 16 games in 1978. The playoffs were also expanded to include 10 teams. The 3 division winners would join two wildcard entries from each conference to vie for entry into the Super Bowl and a chance at nfl bragging rights and immortality.

However, growth of the NFL still continued into the 1990′s. The addition of Carolina and Jacksonville in 1995 was quickly followed by a Baltimore franchise in 1996. Also, the Cleveland Browns returned to the league in 1999.

As of today there are 32 NFL teams that take the field every season. The league has come such a long way since the Canton Bulldogs and the Vince Lombardi coached Green Bay Packers. NFL football is much more than a sport. It’s a national institution that ranks right up there with mom’s apple pie. It’s the dogpound, the cheeseheads, and the Raider Nation. It’s fans from every corner of the country who bleed the color of their team’s jersey. Every Sunday stadiums, living rooms, and bars across the country are filled with fans who pay homage to the national pastime that is the perfect escape from a world that often moves far too fast.

A world that needs the amazing game of football not just as an escape, but also as a catalyst that has the power to bring prospective, excitement, and hope back into everyday life.