On November 6, 1869 Rutgers played Princeton (2 college teams) in what was considered to be the 1st American Football game, using rules based on the rules of soccer.

By 1875 the rules had evolved to be more like rugby.

In 1880 the "Father" of American Football, Walter Camp, established the elements of the game such as snaps of the ball, line of scrimmage, 11 player teams and downs, etc.

First instance of a player being paid to play football was on November 12, 1892.

In 1920 a professional sports league for football was started in Canton, Ohio called "American Professional Football Association".

In 1922 the name of the league was changed to the "National Football League".

In 1960 the "AFL(American Football League)" was established to compete with the NFL(National Football League).

In 1966 the AFL and NFL agreed to merge and decided to have a game where the champions of each league would play each other, hence the first "Super Bowl" was held in January 1967.

The AFL and NFL merged officially in 1970 - the AFL became known as the AFC (American Football Conference), and the NFL became known as the NFC (National Football Conference).

The combined league kept the name "National Football League".