The NFL: A League For All Seasons

The single most important sport with American fans, the NFL is alone among sports in being able to not only command the attention of the vast majority of US fans, but to hold their attention year-round, even during the off season. From the Super Bowl to the first of the preseason games, the NFL keeps fans interested.

Every professional sport holds a draft, but only the NFL draft is a weekend long event that gets millions of viewers, hour after hour. Held every April, the draft is talked about for months on end before it takes place. People guess which players will be drafted to which team, which team will emerge as the best, who will make a mistake and so on. Then for months after the draft, teams are judged, graded and evaluated on how they did.

Once the Super Bowl is over, the NFL (and its fans) begin getting ready for the draft; this is when players announce free agency and this keeps the NFL in the news during its off season. Even when there are months before any more games will be played, fans are glued to the latest news about the league.

Even as the NBA and NHL are about to enter their playoffs, sports fans are more focused on the NFL draft. Even the opening of the baseball season is smaller news than the draft. Among American sports, only the NFL can manage to remain the center of attention without even having any games on the schedule.

Then the summer comes around and there are training camps. People talk about which players are disgruntled and which new coaches are getting their teams into shape. There is debate about which player will win the battle for the starting job and so on.

The preseason games are also broadcast nationally and even games featuring the second and third string players are still highly watched. No other sport's preseason games receives anywhere near this kind of attention. Not hockey, not basketball, only the NFL is accorded this level of importance.

Once the season proper begins, the excitement builds week after week. With only 16 weeks in the regular season, each game takes on great importance. The NFL is popular enough that the league is discussing the possibility of lengthening the season, something which fans are eager to see - but regardless, the closer the arrival of the postseason, the greater the excitement of fans and the higher the viewership.

Being an NFL fan is truly a year round job. If all you do is watch a few games during the season, you'll be at a loss for who is who on your own team and what the expectations around the league are. This is all discussed endlessly during the off season, during the draft and training camps, as the NFL manages to find a way to stay popular no matter when it is.