A rookie’s guide to the NFL: All you need to know about American football ahead of the 2022 season | NFL News
The 2022 NFL season kicks off on Thursday, with about 32 teams setting out with the same ultimate goal, to reach and win, Super Bowl LVII in Arizona on February 12, 2023.
This year’s Super Bowl is the 57th game in NFL history, a match where the best of 16 NFC conference attendees against the top of 16 from the AFC.
The Los Angeles Rams (NFC) beat the Cincinnati Bengals (AFC) 23-20 in the big game last year, while the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots share the record for the most Super Bowl wins, with six.
Tom Brady, however, tops the lot. He has more Super Bowl wins than any other team, with seven to his name – the superstar quarterback picked up six of them with the Patriots before adding a seventh success with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers two. last year. At 45, he’s back this year to play an incredible 23rd season in the NFL!
But what else do you need to know? What exactly is the NFL? And how do teams get to the Super Bowl? Here, we break down the basics…
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September 9, 2022, 1:10 am
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What is the NFL?
The NFL is the National Football League of the United States, their flagship American football league, in which 32 teams compete for the season-ending championship, the Super Bowl.
The 32 teams are divided into two conferences: the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC).
The NFC and AFC were then further subdivided by regions to include four categories with four teams each:
NFC North – Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings
NFC East – Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Commanders
NFC Male – Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NFC West – Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks
Northern AFC – Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC East – Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New York Flying Team
AFC South – Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans
AFC West – Denver Broncos, Kansas City Captains, Las Vegas Raid Squad, Los Angeles Chargers
How does the NFL work?
Over the course of the year, each team plays against three other teams in their divisions home and away, while the other 10 matches that make up their 16-match schedule have been pre-determined.
Matches are primarily played on Sunday afternoons, with live coverage of three billion games starting at 6 p.m. on Sky Sports NFL each week, while there are also televised matches into the night. late every Thursday and Monday, starting with the 2022 season opener between the defenders -chaosystem Rams and Buffalo Bills on Thursday, September 8th – starting at 1:20 a.m., Friday morning.
However, each match consists of four quarters of 15 minutes, unlike in football the clock is paused with every stoppage time and, therefore, no time added at the end. However, the match will be extended to injury time if the match is tied after four innings, leaving 15 more minutes to play to find the winner.
How do you score?
Teams must move with the ball for a minimum of 10 yards each time their fouling team reaches position, trying to do it four times, or the ball will automatically switch to the opponent.
If they run successfully or pass down the field to score a touch, they score six points, with the option of extending to seven or eight with an ‘extra’ kick through the goalposts or a ‘two switch’ ‘, which is essentially an attempt to score another touchdown two yards out of the end area.
If a team fails to make it into the bottom area, they can add three points to their score by doing a ‘goal on the field’, which is another attempt to shoot the ball between the goalposts.
If a goal cannot be scored, the team will usually throw the ball back to the opponent deep in their own half so their attack is sent into the field.
Are there any games in the UK this year?
Since the 2007 season, the NFL has hosted International Series games outside of the United States, with London hosting 30 such games – the first to see the New York Giants win the Miami Dolphins by a margin. 13-10.
Wembley Stadium hosted exclusively one match per year until 2013, while Twickenham and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have also hosted matches in the years since. The Jacksonville Jaguars have held one of their regular-season games in London every year since 2013, with the Covid-affected 2020 season being the only exception…
This year, there are three International Series matches held in London, including the first visit to these shores by the Green Packers – the last of the 32 teams in the tournament to play in London – while there are another International Series is scheduled in advance, with Germany as host for the first time in a regular game of the season…
Minnesota Vikings @ New Orleans SaintsTottenham Hotspur Stadium, October 2
New York Giants @ Green Bay PackersTottenham Hotspur Stadium, October 9
Denver Broncos @ Jacksonville JaguarsWembley, October 30
Seattle Seahawks @ Tampa Bay BuccaneersAllianz Arena, Munich, November 13
San Francisco 49ers @ Arizona CardinalsEstadio Azteca, Mexico City, November 21
Road to the Super Bowl
At the end of the season, the best performing teams in each of the four divisions for each tournament, along with the next three best performing teams in each tournament (‘wildcard’ teams), will qualify for the knockout round.
This means that a total of 14 teams – seven from each convention – progressed from the regular season on their way to the Super Bowl, with each seed matched based on their win-loss record to determine if Who do they face in the knockout round?
Wild Card Weekend: Eligible representative teams will automatically be seeded 5th, 6th, and 7th in each game and drawn to play on the road against the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd seeded teams, while the parties are First place is parted.
Split round: The 1st seed in each tournament will host the lowest-ranked team remaining after the Wild Card weekend, with the remaining two teams in each tournament going head-to-head – the highest remaining seed hosting the contest.
Conference Championship: Next, the two teams remaining in each match – the higher ranked seed has the home advantage – to determine the respective champions of NFC and AFC and thus the two teams will compete in Super Bowl.
Don’t miss the second second of the 2022 NFL season with Sky Sports NFL – join us to watch all the games live, starting with the Buffalo Bills at the Los Angeles Rams from 1:20 a.m. Friday. 9 September.