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.
An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports and closed leagues. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansion draft. Although how each league conducts them varies, and they vary from occasion to occasion, the system is usually something similar to the following:
The National Football League draft, also called the NFL draft or (officially) the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reverse order relative to its record in the previous year, which means that the last place team is positioned first and the Super Bowl champion is last. From this position, the team can either select a player or trade its position to another team for other draft positions, a player or players, or any combination thereof. The round is complete when each team has either selected a player or traded its position in the draft. The first draft was held in 1936, and has been held every year since.
David Duke Carr is an American former football quarterback who played 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Fresno State Bulldogs and was selected first overall by the Houston Texans in the 2002 NFL Draft. Carr also played for the Carolina Panthers, the New York Giants, and the San Francisco 49ers. With the Giants, Carr was a member of the team that won Super Bowl XLVI. He currently serves as the offensive coordinator at Bakersfield Christian High School.
Adrian Jamal McPherson is an American former football quarterback. He was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the fifth round of the 2005 NFL Draft. He played college football at Florida State before being dismissed from the team as a result of a November 2002 arrest. As a professional, McPherson was also a member of the Indiana Firebirds, Utah Blaze, Austin Wranglers, Grand Rapids Rampage, Tampa Bay Storm and Los Angeles KISS of the Arena Football League (AFL), the Montreal Alouettes, Calgary Stampeders and Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and the Jacksonville Sharks of the National Arena League (NAL).
Martin John Bibla is a former American football guard. He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the fourth round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He played college football at the University of Miami.
Wendell Bryant is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals 12th overall in the 2002 NFL draft. He played college football for the Wisconsin Badgers.
Rodney Jay Soward is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for the USC Trojans and was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars in the first round of the 2000 NFL draft. Multiple suspensions derailed his career and he was indefinitely suspended by the NFL in 2002. He later played for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL), with whom he won the Grey Cup.
Idrees Kenyatta Walker is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons. Walker played college football for the University of Florida. A first-round pick in the 2001 NFL draft, he played professionally for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL.
The 1979 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 3–4, 1979, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, New York. The league also held a supplemental draft after the regular draft and before the regular season.
Troy Edwards is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for seven seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, became one of the most prolific receivers in college football history. He earned All-American honors and won the Fred Biletnikoff Award. Edwards was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the 1999 NFL Draft, and he played professionally for the Steelers, St. Louis Rams, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Detroit Lions of the NFL. He also played for the Grand Rapids Rampage of the Arena Football League (AFL).
NFL Total Access was a television news program on the NFL Network.
The 2001 Oklahoma State Cowboys football team represented Oklahoma State University in the 2001 NCAA Division I-A football season. Les Miles was in his first season at Oklahoma State as head coach. In the three years prior to Miles' arrival in Stillwater, the Cowboys finished 5–6, 5–6, and 3–8. Oklahoma State posted another losing record (4–7) in Miles' first season at the helm.
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football franchise based in the Washington metropolitan area. They are members of the East division in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League (NFL). The Commanders were founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves, named after the local baseball franchise. The franchise changed its name the following year to the Redskins and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1937. In 2020, the team retired the Redskins name after longstanding controversies surrounding it and briefly played as the Washington Football Team before becoming the Commanders in 2022.
The 2002 National Football League expansion draft is the most recent National Football League (NFL) draft in which a new expansion team, named the Houston Texans, selected its first players. On October 6, 1999, in Atlanta, NFL owners had unanimously voted to award the 32nd NFL franchise and Super Bowl XXXVIII to the city of Houston, Texas. In order for the Texans to become competitive with existing teams, the league awarded them the first pick in the 2002 NFL Draft and gave them the opportunity to select current players from existing teams. That selection was provided by the expansion draft, held on February 18, 2002.
The 1961 NFL expansion draft was a National Football League (NFL) draft in which a new expansion team, named the Minnesota Vikings, selected its first players. That selection was provided by the expansion draft, held on January 26, 1961.
The Cleveland Browns had spent three years with its operations suspended after Art Modell had relocated the Browns' organization and players to Baltimore, Maryland to form the Baltimore Ravens at the end of the 1995 NFL season. Upon returning to the league, in order to become competitive with existing teams, the Browns were awarded the first pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, and the league gave the Browns the opportunity to select current players from the other teams. That selection was provided by the 1999 National Football League expansion draft, held on February 9, 1999. 150 players were left unprotected by their teams for the Browns to draft.
The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers have competed in the National Football League (NFL) since 1921, two years after their original founding by Curly Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) and play their home games at Lambeau Field in central Wisconsin. In 1936, the Packers took part in the first NFL draft of college football players and have participated in every NFL draft since. With the seventh pick of the first round of the 1936 draft, Russ Letlow, a guard out of the University of San Francisco, became the Packers' first draft selection.