Getty The NFL is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
The NFL 100 logo that has been seen throughout the season and, most recently, on the 50-yard line of the Super Bowl field is a nod to the league’s 100th anniversary. The NFL 100 graphic has also been on teams’ jerseys throughout the season, just one of the ways the league is celebrating their significant birthday.
There have been several top 100 lists throughout the season, including the NFL’s top 100 players. NFL Network aired multiple shows broken down by position naming the top players at each position. Rich Eisen, Chris Collinsworth and Bill Belichick were the three analysts that discussed all 100 players and were also joined by some of the people who were voted on for the team.
“For nearly 100 years, the NFL has been part of the fabric of America, unifying communities and bringing fans together to support their favorite teams and players.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell explained, per NFL.com. “We have the greatest fans in the world. Next year, we will join our fans in celebrating what this incredible game means to each of us.”
The NFL Is Celebrating 100 Years, But It Is Only Super Bowl 54
The NFL has been around for quite some time, but the Super Bowl is a different story. The Chiefs-49ers marks Super Bowl 54 (technically Super Bowl LIV) as the way the NFL crowned a champion evolved over the years.
The Super Bowl was initially called the AFL-NFL World Championship, a nod to the best teams in competing leagues. The first title game took place in 1967 between the Chiefs and Packers. It was not until the third edition of the game in 1969 that the matchup was officially called the Super Bowl, but the prior AFL-NFL World Championships would retroactively be referred to as Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II, per NFL Network. The winning team receives the Lombardi Trophy, renamed from the AFL-NFL World Championship trophy in 1971 following the death of legendary coach Vince Lombardi.
The NFL Champion Was Initially Determined by Winning Percentage
The first pro football season was in 1920 when the American Professional Football Association began with 14 teams, per the Los Angeles Times. The Akron Pros were the first champions going 8-0-3 in the inaugural season. During the third season (1922), the league officially renamed itself to the National Football League (NFL), a name that it carries to this day.
Prior to the Super Bowl, the NFL champion was crowned in a variety of different ways. From 1920-1931, the team with the highest win-loss percentage was awarded the trophy, per the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Things changed in 1932 when a playoff was needed to determine the winner. The league continued to progress in 1933 when the NFL split into two divisions and a championship game was played between the two division winners, a similar format to what we have today.
After initially competing with the NFL, the AFL merged with its former rival in 1970 which shifted things towards the playoff format we enjoy today. The NFL was split into two conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC), beginning the Super Bowl tradition of the AFC and NFC winners squaring off for the title.