Regular Season Games

 

Back in the day, you could tell which weekend day it was by the football game that was being played: Friday night was high school, Saturday was college, and Sunday was the NFL. That was so long ago there were three major channels: ABC, CBS, and NBC.

First there was the innovation of Monday Night Football, in 1970, which was broadcast on ABC. The iconic trio of broadcasters for much of the 1970s and 1980s were Frank Gifford, Don Meredith, and Howard Cosell. My father couldn’t stand Howard Cosell, and would watch the games with the sound turned down.

In 1994, Fox began broadcasting pro football, winning the bid for the NFC games that used to be on CBS. Pat Summerall and John Madden moved from CBS to Fox, staying with the NFC.

In 1998, CBS won the bid to broadcast AFC games, taking them away from NBC.

2006 saw two innovations and one change: Sunday Night Football, broadcast on NBC; Thursday Night Football, broadcast on the NFL channel; and Monday Night Football being broadcast on ESPN.

In a new wrinkle, the 2012 regular season kicks off on Wednesday, September 5, as a special edition of Sunday Night Football. It will be shown on NBC.

In addition to football games being played on almost any day except Tuesday, the league plays 16 regular season games over 17 weeks. Every team gets one week off during the regular season, called a Bye week.

All teams play the first three weeks. Bye weeks run from week 4 through week 11. All teams play during weeks 12 through 17. With Bye weeks running during weeks 5 through 11, most teams have their week off roughly in the middle of the season.

Based on their first few weeks of play, teams use the Bye week to fine-tune their offense and defense, and rest injured players.

All teams play on Sunday, December 30, which is the final game day of the regular season.

The playoffs begin on Saturday, January 5, 2013.