The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and the highest professional level of American football in the world. Each NFL season begins annually with a three-week preseason in August, followed by the 18-week regular season which runs from early September to early January, with each team playing 17 games and having one bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament that culminates in the Super Bowl, which is contested in February and is played between the winners of the AFC and NFC championship games.
Rosevelt Colvin, III is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Purdue Boilermakers and was selected by the Chicago Bears in the fourth round of the 1999 NFL Draft.
The 1961 NFL season was the 42nd regular season of the National Football League (NFL). The league expanded to 14 teams with the addition of the Minnesota Vikings, after the team's owners declined to be charter members of the new American Football League. The schedule was also expanded from 12 games per team to 14 games per team where it would stay for 16 years. The Vikings were placed in the Western Conference, and the Dallas Cowboys were switched from the Western Conference to the Eastern. The addition of the Vikings returned the NFL to an even number of teams.
The 1940 NFL season was the 21st regular season of the National Football League. The season ended when the Chicago Bears defeated the Washington Redskins in the NFL Championship Game by 73–0; this result still stands as the most one-sided victory in NFL history as of the 2023 season.
Olin George Kreutz is an American former professional football player who was a center in the National Football League (NFL) for fourteen seasons. He played college football for University of Washington, and earned consensus All-American honors. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 1998 NFL draft and spent 13 seasons with Chicago where he was selected to six Pro Bowls. He also played four games for the New Orleans Saints in 2011. Kreutz was a semi-finalist for the NFL Hall of Fame in 2020 after being named to the 2000s All-Decade Team.
Lance Marell Briggs is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Arizona Wildcats and was selected by the Bears in the third round of the 2003 NFL draft, where he played his entire 12-year career. He was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection. Briggs played alongside Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher during his tenure with the Bears. The two would be regarded as one of the greatest linebacker tandems in NFL history.
Jay Brian Schroeder is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the UCLA Bruins, after which he was selected in the third round of the 1984 NFL draft by the Washington Redskins, where he played for four seasons. He then played for the Los Angeles Raiders for five seasons and spent one season each with the Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals.
Jonathan Beason is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes, and was selected by the Carolina Panthers in the first round of the 2007 NFL draft. He also played for the New York Giants.
Dale Fike Dodrill was an American football defensive tackle who played nine seasons for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He attended Colorado A&M, now known as Colorado State University.
Butler B'ynote' is a former professional American football running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ohio State University, and professionally for the Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers, Barcelona Dragons, Orlando Predators, New York/New Jersey Hitmen and Colorado Crush. He was drafted in the seventh round of the 1994 NFL Draft by the Broncos. He ran on Ohio State's 4 × 400 metres relay team that set an NCAA record. During his playing career, he went by the spelling By'not'e because Ohio State misspelled it and he never corrected it.
Robert Louis Briggs is a former American football fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins. He played college football at the University of Central Oklahoma and was drafted in the tenth round of the 1965 NFL Draft. Briggs went to Carver High School in Amarillo, Texas.
Major Wright is a former American football safety. He played college football for the University of Florida, and was a member of a BCS National Championship team. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft.
Isaiah Demetryst Frey is a former American football safety. He was selected by the Chicago Bears in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft. He played college football for Nevada.
Greg Briggs is a former American football safety in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings. He was also a member of the Frankfurt Galaxy in Frankfurt Galaxy the World League of American Football (WLAF). He first enrolled at Copiah-Lincoln Community College before transferring to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Texas Southern University.
Paul Leonard Briggs was an American football tackle who played one season with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Lions in the seventh round of the 1944 NFL Draft. He played college football at the University of Colorado and attended Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, Colorado. Briggs was the head football coach of Bakersfield High School in Bakersfield, California from 1953 to 1985. He was head coach of Rocky Ford High School in Rocky Ford, Colorado from 1949 to 1950 and head coach of Natrona County High School from 1951 to 1952. Briggs was also an assistant coach at Orange Coast College from 1985 to 2005. He was inducted into the University of Colorado Hall of Honor in 1974, Citizens Athletic Foundation High School Hall of Fame in 1975, California Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1977, Bob Elias Kern County Sports Hall of Fame in 1978 and Bakersfield High School Football Hall of Fame in 2006. He joined the United States Navy in 1943 and was stationed on the USS Daly. Briggs earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart after being hit in the nose and back by shrapnel during a Japanese kamikaze attack.
The Cleveland Rams were a professional American football team that played in Cleveland from 1936 to 1945. The Rams competed in the second American Football League (AFL) for the 1936 season and the National Football League (NFL) from 1937 to 1945, winning the NFL championship in 1945, before moving to Los Angeles in 1946 to become the first of only two professional football champions to play the following season in another city.
Marcus Davenport is an American football defensive end for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at UTSA and was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft.
Ryan Kenneth Hunter is a Canadian football offensive lineman for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He has also been a member of the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL).
Reggie Travon Gilliam is an American football fullback for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Toledo, and has played professionally as a fullback, though he spent the 2020 season as a tight end.
Jowon Briggs is an American football defensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Virginia Cavaliers and Cincinnati Bearcats and was selected by the Browns in the seventh round of the 2024 NFL draft.
