1.
Carolina Panthers
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The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League, as a club of the leagues National Football Conference South division. The team president is Danny Morrison, and the coach is Ron Rivera. The Panthers were announced as the leagues 29th franchise in 1993 and they did not have another winning season until 2003, when they won the NFC Championship Game and reached Super Bowl XXXVIII, losing 32–29 to the New England Patriots. After recording playoff appearances in 2005 and 2008, the failed to record another playoff appearance until 2013. After losing in the round to the San Francisco 49ers in 2013 and the Seattle Seahawks in 2014, the Panthers finally returned to the Super Bowl in 2016. The Panthers have reached the playoffs seven times, advancing to four NFC Championship Games and they have won six division titles, one in the NFC West and five in the NFC South. The Carolina Panthers are legally registered as Panther Football, LLC, the team is headquartered in Bank of America Stadium in uptown Charlotte, also the teams home field. They are one of the few NFL teams to own the stadium they play in, the team hosts its annual training camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. On December 15,1987, entrepreneur Jerry Richardson announced his bid for an NFL expansion franchise in the Carolinas. Richardson drew his inspiration to pursue an NFL franchise from George Shinn, who had made a bid for an expansion National Basketball Association team in Charlotte. Richardson founded Richardson Sports, a partnership consisting of himself, his family, Richardson looked at four potential locations for a stadium, ultimately choosing uptown Charlotte. In choosing the name, the Richardsons did not run focus groups with potential fans. Their intention had always been the Panthers, Jerry Richardson began driving a car with the license plate PNTHRS near the end of 1989, to highlight the demand for professional football in the Carolinas, Richardson Sports held preseason games around the area from 1989 to 1991. The matchups were between existing NFL teams, in 1991, the group formally filed an application for the open expansion spot, and on October 26,1993, the 28 NFL owners unanimously named the Carolina Panthers as the 29th member of the NFL. The Panthers first competed in the 1995 NFL season, they were one of two teams to begin play that year, the other being the Jacksonville Jaguars. Former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Dom Capers was named the first head coach, the team finished its inaugural season 7–9, the best performance ever from a first-year expansion team. They performed even better in their season, finishing with a 12–4 record and winning the NFC West division
2.
Las Vegas
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The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment and it is the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World and it is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any city in the world. Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the worlds most visited tourist destinations. The citys tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century, population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85. 2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to a 2013 estimate, perhaps the earliest visitors to the Las Vegas area were nomadic Paleo-Indians, who traveled there 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago, a young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, the area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for the meadows, as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as desert spring waters for westward travelers. The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C, frémont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas Fremont Street is named after him, eleven years later members of the LDS Church chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward, the remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue. Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 110 acres of adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city,1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casino gambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks and this year also witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935, in 1941, the Las Vegas Army Air Corps Gunnery School was established. Currently known as Nellis Air Force Base, it is home to the team called the Thunderbirds
3.
2011 NFL Draft
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The 2011 NFL Draft was the 76th installment of the annual NFL Draft, where the franchises of the National Football League select newly eligible football players. The Carolina Panthers, who had the worst record for the 2010 NFL season at 2–14, had the right to the first selection in each round of the draft, with the first pick the Panthers selected Auburn University quarterback Cam Newton, who was the 2010 Heisman Trophy winner. A second Heisman Trophy winner, running back Mark Ingram Jr. from Alabama was selected by New Orleans late in the first round and this was the eleventh draft which included multiple Heisman winners, and the first time ever that it has occurred in consecutive drafts. Five of the first six picks played college football in the Southeastern Conference, for the second consecutive year—and the third time in NFL history—the top two selections of the draft won Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year awards, respectively. The top two picks in the draft, Cam Newton and Denver linebacker Von Miller, played against each other in Super Bowl 50 on the teams that drafted them. This marked the first time that the top two picks in a single draft faced each other in the Super Bowl, the Broncos won, 24-10, with Miller winning Super Bowl MVP. Teams were allowed ten minutes to make each selection in the first round, seven minutes per selection in the second round and five minutes in each of the subsequent rounds. The time allotment ran out for the Baltimore Ravens on their first round pick, allowing the Kansas City Chiefs to move up to the 26th pick and dropping the Ravens to the 27th pick. Fans in attendance at the draft expressed their displeasure with the lockout by booing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell during the event and chanting We want football. Because of the lockout, the Panthers could not sign or even negotiate with their first draft pick before the draft began and this warning did not dissuade several teams from making trades involving future selections. A record 56 underclassmen announced their intention to forgo their remaining NCAA eligibility, of the 56 eligible underclassmen,43 were drafted. The selection of Newton, a junior, marked the third straight draft where the first overall selection was an underclassman, since non-seniors were first eligible to be drafted in 1990, fourteen first overall picks have been players who have entered the draft early. Eight of the first ten players chosen in this draft were non-seniors, jake Locker and Von Miller were the only two seniors among the first ten draftees. The draft order is based generally on each teams record from the previous season, a supplemental draft was held on August 22,2011. For each player selected in the draft, the team forfeits its pick in that round in the draft of the following season. Six players were available in the draft, but only one was selected. In the explanations below, denotes trades that took place during the draft, irrelevant – last overall National Football League draft picks Notes General references 2011 NFL Draft Tracker. Archived from the original on May 2,2011, archived from the original on October 31,2011
4.
Cleveland Browns
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The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Browns compete in the National Football League as a club of the American Football Conference North division. The Browns play their games at FirstEnergy Stadium, which opened in 1999, with administrative offices and training facilities in Berea. The Browns official colors are brown, orange and white and they are unique among the 32 member franchises of the NFL in that they do not have a logo on their helmets and are the only team named after a specific person, original coach Paul Brown. The franchise was founded in 1945 by businessman Arthur B, McBride and coach Paul Brown as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference. The Browns dominated the AAFC, compiling a 47–4–3 record in the four active seasons. When the AAFC folded after the 1949 season, the Browns joined the National Football League along with the San Francisco 49ers, from 1965 to 1995, they made the playoffs 14 times, but did not win another championship or appear in the Super Bowl in that period. In 1995, owner Art Modell, who had purchased the Browns in 1961, announced plans to move the team to Baltimore, Maryland. The Browns intellectual property, including name, logos, training facility, and history, were kept in trust. A new team would be established by 1999 either by expansion or relocation, the Browns were announced as an expansion team in 1998 and resumed play in 1999. Since resuming operations in 1999, the Browns have struggled to find success and they have had only two winning seasons, one playoff appearance, and no playoff wins. The franchise has also noted for a lack of stability with quarterbacks. To date, the Browns overall win-loss record since 1999 is 88–200, the Browns origins date to 1944, when taxicab magnate Arthur B. Mickey McBride secured the rights to a Cleveland franchise in the newly formed All-America Football Conference. S, early in 1945, McBride named 36-year-old Ohio State Buckeyes coach Paul Brown as the teams head coach and general manager and gave him a share in its profits. The move surprised and upset Buckeye fans, who had hoped he would resume his successful run at the school after the war, the name of the team was at first left up to Paul Brown, who rejected calls for it to be christened the Browns. The franchise and the Cleveland Plain Dealer then held a naming contest to publicize the team, in June 1945, a committee selected Panthers as the new teams name, named after a failed American Football League franchise in Cleveland which only lasted a single season in 1926. It is unclear whether Panthers was the highest vote-getter, or if it was second-highest behind Browns, however, the owner of the failed AFL Panthers franchise, General C. X. Zimmerman, indicated that he owned the name Cleveland Panthers, at this point, Paul Brown bowed to popular sentiment and agreed to the Browns name
5.
2013 NFL season
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The 2013 NFL season was the 94th season in the history of the National Football League. The Super Bowl was played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on Sunday and it was the first Super Bowl hosted by New Jersey and the first to be held outdoors in a cold weather environment. The Seahawks scored 12 seconds into the game and held the lead the rest of the way, Manning also was named the Offensive Player of the Year for the second time in his career. Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly earned Defensive Player of the Year honors, scoring reached historic levels throughout the league in 2013. As a whole the league set records for points scored, points scored per game. The Broncos set a new standard for scoring in the regular season with 606 points. In addition to the Broncos, ten teams each scored over 400 points. The regular season got underway on Thursday, September 5,2013, the regular season wrapped up on Sunday night, December 29. The playoffs began with the wild card round which took place the first weekend of January 2014, both home teams prevailed to set up just the second Super Bowl matchup of #1 seeds in the past 20 seasons. The 2013 league year began at 4 pm EST on March 12, the per-team salary cap was set at US$123,000,000. This period, which was referred to by some as the legal tampering period, a total of 524 players were eligible for some form of free agency. Eight players were assigned the franchise tag by their teams. These players were Brandon Albert, Jairus Byrd, Ryan Clady, Michael Johnson, Pat McAfee, Henry Melton, Anthony Spencer, none of these players changed teams. Smith had been the first overall selection of the 2005 NFL Draft, March 11 – Wide receiver Percy Harvin was traded by the Vikings to the Seahawks for the Seahawks 2013 first-round and seventh-round selections as well as the Seahawks third-round pick in 2014. The Seahawks subsequently signed Harvin to a 6-year, $67 million contract extension which includes $25.5 million in guaranteed money, March 11 – The 49ers acquired wide receiver Anquan Boldin from the Ravens for a sixth-round selection in the 2013 draft. Boldin, a three-time Pro Bowler and former Offensive Rookie of the Year, had refused to accept a pay cut that the Ravens had requested, April 21 – Cornerback Darrelle Revis was traded by the Jets to the Buccaneers. The Jets received the Bucs first round pick in 2013, the 13th overall selection and a conditional pick which would become the Bucs fourth-round selection in 2014. The Bucs signed Revis to a 6-year, $96 million contract, in-season September 18 – In a bit of a shocking mid-season move the Browns traded running back Trent Richardson to the Colts in exchange for the Colts first-round pick in the 2014 draft
6.
Tackle (football move)
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Most forms of football have a move known as a tackle. The primary and important purposes of tackling are to dispossess an opponent of the ball, the word is used in some contact variations of football to describe the act of physically holding or wrestling a player to the ground. In others, it simply one or more methods of contesting for possession of the ball. It can therefore be used as both a defensive or attacking move, in Middle Dutch, the verb tacken meant to grab or to handle. By the 18th century, a use was applied to harnesses or equipment used with horses. Modern use in football comes from the sport of rugby. In any such case, the ball becomes dead, the down is over, a tackle is known as a quarterback sack when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage while attempting to throw a pass. A tackle for loss indicates a tackle that causes a loss of yardage for the running back or wide receiver. When a player who does not have the ball is taken down it is referred to as a block. Tackles can also be made by grabbing the ball carriers jersey, as mentioned above, the referee can declare that a play is dead if the ball carriers forward progress has been stopped, even if he has not actually been taken to the ground. To protect players from potentially catastrophic injury, there are restrictions on tackles. At no time may a defensive player tackle a player by grabbing the facemask of their helmet, doing so incurs a 15-yard penalty. A similar penalty is assessed to any player attempting to contact with his helmet against another opponents helmet. Grabbing a ball carrier by the pads behind his neck and pulling him down is known as a horse collar, a method which has been made illegal at all levels of American football. However, in the NFL a player can continue forward for one step, place kickers and punters are afforded an even greater protection from being tackled. Once the play is ruled complete, no contact is permitted, a player who makes contact with an opponent after the play is charged with unnecessary roughness and his team is assessed a 15-yard penalty. However, a player who plays on the line can block below the knees as long the block is five yards of the line. In the National Football League, tackles are tracked as a statistic by a scorekeeper hired by the home team
7.
American football
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The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team, if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the teams end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponents goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins, American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6,1869, during the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. American football as a whole is the most popular sport in the United States, Professional football and college football are the most popular forms of the game, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. As of 2012, nearly 1.1 million high school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually, almost all of them men, in the United States, American football is referred to as football. The term football was established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season. The terms gridiron or American football are favored in English-speaking countries where other codes of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, American football evolved from the sports of association football and rugby football. What is considered to be the first American football game was played on November 6,1869 between Rutgers and Princeton, two college teams, the game was played between two teams of 25 players each and used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried. It could, however, be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, Rutgers won the game 6 goals to 4. Collegiate play continued for years in which matches were played using the rules of the host school. Representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Rutgers met on October 19,1873 to create a set of rules for all schools to adhere to. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of 400 by 250 feet were specified, Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball. An 1875 Harvard-Yale game played under rugby-style rules was observed by two impressed Princeton athletes and these players introduced the sport to Princeton, a feat the Professional Football Researchers Association compared to selling refrigerators to Eskimos. Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia then agreed to play using a form of rugby union rules with a modified scoring system. These schools formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, although Yale did not join until 1879, the introduction of the snap resulted in unexpected consequences. Prior to the snap, the strategy had been to punt if a scrum resulted in bad field position, however, a group of Princeton players realized that, as the snap was uncontested, they now could hold the ball indefinitely to prevent their opponent from scoring. In 1881, both teams in a game between Yale-Princeton used this strategy to maintain their undefeated records, each team held the ball, gaining no ground, for an entire half, resulting in a 0-0 tie
8.
Super Bowl 50
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Super Bowl 50 was an American football game to determine the champion of the National Football League for the 2015 season. The American Football Conference champion Denver Broncos won against National Football Conference champion Carolina Panthers 24–10 to win their 3rd Super Bowl championship, the game was played on February 7,2016, at Levis Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The Panthers finished the season with a 15–1 record, racking up the leagues top offense. They defeated the Arizona Cardinals 49–15 in the NFC Championship Game, the Broncos finished the regular season with a 12–4 record, bolstered by having the leagues top defense and the veteran presence of starting quarterback and Super Bowl XLI winner Peyton Manning. This record would later be broken the next season, in 2017, in one of the most defensive Super Bowl matchups in NFL history, the Broncos took an early lead in Super Bowl 50 and never trailed. Denver recorded seven sacks and forced four turnovers, Carolina likewise kept pace by recording five sacks and forcing two turnovers. Denver linebacker Von Miller was named Super Bowl MVP and this game was also the final game of Peyton Mannings career, he announced his retirement on March 7,2016. CBS broadcast of the game was the third most-watched program in American television history with an average of 111.9 million viewers, the network charged an average of $5 million for a 30-second commercial during the game. It remains the highest-rated program in the history of CBS, the Super Bowl 50 halftime show was headlined by Coldplay, with special guest performers Beyoncé and Bruno Mars. In early 2012, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated that the league planned to make the 50th Super Bowl spectacular and that it would be an important game for us as a league. The Los Angeles bid was dependent on a team relocating to the area by the time the site was selected, No team requested to relocate by the time the site was selected, and Los Angeles was pulled from consideration. Los Angeles was then put into consideration for Super Bowl LIV, the league eventually narrowed the bids to three sites, New Orleans Mercedes-Benz Superdome, Miamis Sun Life Stadium, and the San Francisco Bay Areas Levis Stadium. The league announced on October 16,2012, that the two finalists were Sun Life Stadium and Levis Stadium, the South Florida/Miami area has previously hosted the event 10 times, with the most recent one being Super Bowl XLIV in 2010. The San Francisco Bay Area last hosted in 1985, held at Stanford Stadium in Stanford, California, the Miami bid depended on whether the stadium underwent renovations. However, on May 3,2013, the Florida legislature refused to approve the plan to pay for the renovations. On May 21,2013, NFL owners at their meetings in Boston voted and awarded the game to Levis Stadium. The $1.2 billion stadium opened in 2014 and it is the first Super Bowl held in the San Francisco Bay Area since Super Bowl XIX in 1985, and the first in California since Super Bowl XXXVII took place in San Diego in 2003. For the third season, the number one seeds in the NFC and AFC
9.
Graham Gano
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Graham Gano is an American football placekicker for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League. He was signed by the Baltimore Ravens as a free agent in 2009. He played college football at Florida State University, Gano has also played for the Las Vegas Locomotives and the Washington Redskins. During his tenure with the Redskins, he attained the Redskins franchise record for longest field goal at 59 yards in 2011, ganos father Mark was a United States Navy Master Chief Petty Officer stationed in Scotland when Gano was born. Gano has a line of ancestors who served in the military, including his grandfather Richard Gano, of Martinsburg. Gano grew up in Pensacola, Florida and attended J. M. Tate High School, in high school football, he was an All-American First-Team selection by USA Today and the nations third-ranked kicker by Rivals. com. Gano played in the CaliFlorida All-Star game, completing a 50-yard field goal in the game, during his senior season, Gano kicked three field goals over 55 yards and had a 71-yard field goal made which was negated by a penalty. A total of 36 of his 38 kickoffs were touchbacks and he averaged better than 42 yards per punt as a senior, as a standout track & field athlete, Gano was one of the states top performers in the sprinting events. Gano attended Florida State University from 2005 to 2008, playing as a kicker and punter for the Florida State Seminoles and he was one of only two kickers in college to make over 90% of his field goal attempts in 2008. He was the highest scoring kicker in America and fourth overall in the FBS in scoring and he also was a Rivals. com, Scout. com and CBS Sports first team All-American. Gano was listed as Walter Camp, Associated Press, Sporting News, SI. com and he earned All-ACC First Team honors as well. Gano was four-time ACC Specialist of the Week for his performances against NC State, Virginia Tech, Clemson. He also was a two-time Lou Groza Star of the Week honoree for his performances in Florida States victories over NC State and he was named offensive special teams player of the year for the Seminoles as selected by the Florida State coaching staff. He also led the ACC in field goals per game with a career-high 2.2 field goals per game average. Gano has the highest FG percentage in the ACC, in 2008 he made 92.3 percent of his field goal attempts and he was also the ACCs leading scorer with 105 points and a 9.5 points per game average. Gano was also the only kicker in FSU history to convert over 90% of his goals in a season. He is the only ever to be named the MVP of a bowl game. He holds the Seminoles single season record for 50-yard field goals, despite only kicking for one season, he finished second in career 50-yard field goals at FSU behind two time Lou Groza Award winner Sebastian Janikowski
10.
Torrey Smith
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James Torrey Smith is an American football wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. He played college football at the University of Maryland and was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2011 NFL Draft and he has also played for the San Francisco 49ers. Smith was born on January 26,1989 and grew up with his mother Monica Jenkins in Colonial Beach, Virginia and Fredericksburg, Virginia. The oldest of seven children, Smith helped his single mother, Smith attended Colonial Beach Elementary School, where his physical education teacher, Steve Swope, recognized his athletic ability and allowed Smith to attend his camps free of charge. Smith noted, Coach Swope knew me before I knew myself, every kid whos athletic in that town goes through Coach Swope. Smith went on to Stafford Senior High School, where he played basketball as a guard and he enjoys fishing as a pastime. Smith played on the Stafford Indians football team as a quarterback, running back, wide receiver, cornerback, kickoff returner, in Staffords 2004 game against King George, Smith opened with a 54-yard kickoff return, played quarterback, and scored on a 63-yard punt return. His coach, Roger Pierce, said, Torrey can do those type of things for us and we expect him to do those things. During his senior year in 2006, Smith had 155 carries for 815 yards and 12 touchdowns, completed nine of 25 passes for 230 yards, over the course of his interscholastic career, Smith returned six kickoffs for touchdowns. He earned all-state kick returner honors as a sophomore, all-district honors as a junior, and honorable mention All-Northwest Region quarterback honors, all-district, and all-area honors as a senior. As a college prospect, Rivals. com ranked him 30th nationally among quarterbacks, Scouts, Inc. ranked him 33rd nationally among wide receivers. ESPN assessed him as a do-it-all prospect and projected him as a wide receiver because of his size, Smith was recruited by Maryland, Penn State, and Virginia Tech. He was shown interest by Virginia, but did not receive a scholarship offer, the Virginia staff then asked him to repeat the feat at the University of Virginia campus, but Maryland offered a scholarship, which Smith accepted. He later said, I kind of hold a grudge against U. Va, I kind of want to show them that they questioned my speed and whether I was going to get it back. I want to them that Im all healed up. So we are not above admitting that there is a player that certainly has turned out to be superior to many people thought. Hes—regardless of what the circumstances were in the past—he is a college football player. Smith sat out the 2007 season at Maryland on redshirt status and he was named the scout team player of the week before the Florida State game
11.
Cincinnati Bengals
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The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football franchise based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Bengals currently compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues American Football Conference North division. Their home stadium is Paul Brown Stadium in downtown Cincinnati and their current head coach is Marvin Lewis, who has held the position since 2003 and is currently the second-longest tenured head coach in the NFL, behind the New England Patriots Bill Belichick. Their chief rivals are the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, the Bengals were founded in 1966 as a member of the American Football League by former Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown. Brown was the Bengals head coach from their inception to 1975, after being dismissed as the Browns head coach by Art Modell in January 1963, Brown had shown interest in establishing another NFL franchise in Ohio and looked at both Cincinnati and Columbus. Due to the merger of the AFL and the NFL. The Bengals, like the other former AFL teams, were assigned to the AFC following the merger, Cincinnati was also selected because, like their neighbors the Reds, they could draw from several large neighboring cities that are all no more than 110 miles away from downtown Cincinnati. The Bengals won the AFC championship in 1981 and 1988, but lost Super Bowls XVI, after Paul Browns death in 1991, controlling interest in the team was inherited by his son, Mike Brown. In 2011, Brown purchased shares of the owned by the estate of co-founder Austin Knowlton and is now the majority owner of the Bengals franchise. The 1990s and the 2000s were a period of great struggle, following the 1990 season, the team went fourteen years without posting a winning record nor making the playoffs. The Bengals had several head coaches and several of their top draft picks did not pan out, Mike Brown, the teams de facto general manager, was rated as among the worst team owners in American professional sports. Since the mid-2000s, the teams fortunes have improved, two years after becoming head coach, Lewis guided the Bengals to their first winning season and first division title in over a decade. After the acquisition of Andy Dalton as quarterback in 2011, the Bengals had made the playoffs each season until 2016, the Bengals drafts are also highly touted, leading to a consistency that had long escaped the franchise. However, the team has remained unable to win in the postseason and have not won a game since 1990. The Bengals are one of the 13 NFL teams to not have won a Super Bowl as of the 2016 season, the franchise takes its name from an earlier Cincinnati Bengals team, which played from 1937–1941. It also was a nod to Paul Browns Massillon, Ohio, in 1967, an ownership group led by Paul Brown was granted a franchise in the American Football League. Brown named the team the Bengals in order to give it a link with past professional football in Cincinnati, another Bengals team had existed in the city and played in three previous American Football Leagues from 1937 to 1942. The citys world-renowned zoo was home to a rare white Bengal tiger
12.
National Football League
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The National Football League is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The NFL is one of the four professional sports leagues in North America. The NFLs 17-week regular season runs from the week after Labor Day to the week after Christmas, with each team playing 16 games, the NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season. The NFL agreed to merge with the American Football League in 1966, and the first Super Bowl was held at the end of that season, the merger was completed in 1970. Today, the NFL has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States. S. The NFLs executive officer is the commissioner, who has authority in governing the league. The team with the most NFL championships is the Green Bay Packers with thirteen, the current NFL champions are the New England Patriots, who defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34–28 in Super Bowl LI. Another meeting held on September 17,1920 resulted in the renaming of the league to the American Professional Football Association, the league hired Jim Thorpe as its first president, and consisted of 14 teams. Only two of these teams, the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Cardinals, remain, the first event occurred on September 26,1920 when the Rock Island Independents defeated the non-league St. Paul Ideals 48–0 at Douglas Park. On October 3,1920, the first full week of league play occurred, the following season resulted in the Chicago Staleys controversially winning the title over the Buffalo All-Americans. In 1922, the APFA changed its name to the National Football League, in 1932, the season ended with the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans tied for first in the league standings. This method had used since the leagues creation in 1920. The league quickly determined that a game between Chicago and Portsmouth was needed to decide the leagues champion. Playing with altered rules to accommodate the playing field, the Bears won the game 9–0. Fan interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL, beginning in 1933, the 1934 season also marked the first of 12 seasons in which African Americans were absent from the league. The de facto ban was rescinded in 1946, following public pressure, the NFL was always the foremost professional football league in the United States, it nevertheless faced a large number of rival professional leagues through the 1930s and 1940s. Rival leagues included at least three separate American Football Leagues and the All-America Football Conference, on top of regional leagues of varying caliber. Three NFL teams trace their histories to these leagues, including the Los Angeles Rams
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