The NFL consists of 32 teams. The league started play in 1925 with 20 teams, and was quite unstable for its first eight seasons. However, beginning in 1933, the league remained fairly steady with 10 teams for several years. The NFL absorbed four teams from the All-America Football Conference in 1950, but didn't have its first true expansion until 1960.
1960-'61 Expansion
By 1960, the NFL had ignored all previous requests to expand. In 1959 there were 12 teams in the NFL, and they shared revenues equally. Addition of new teams meant each owner would get a smaller piece of the pie. However, when Lamar Hunt started the American Football League prior to the 1960 season, the NFL realized it would lose valuable territories if it didn't expand. In 1960, the NFL added the Dallas Cowboys. They added the Minnesota Vikings at the same time, but the Vikings would not begin play until one year later. The Cowboys went 0-11-1 in their first season, while the Vikings went 3-11 in their first season.
1966-'67 Expansion
The NFL added the Atlanta Falcons in 1966 and the New Orleans Saints a year later. The NFL had virtually ignored the Deep South, which was a football crazy area. The expansion Falcons finished their first season with a 3-11, record while the Saints finished with the same record a year later.
NFL Merger and 1976 expansion
The NFL merged with the rival AFL in 1967, but the first season the leagues played a combined schedule was 1970. The league divided into the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference, with 13 teams in each conference. The NFL would add two more teams in 1976, with the addition of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Seattle Seahawks. The Bucs were blanked in their first season with an 0-14 record. They would also lose their first 12 games of the following season before they won for the first time. The Seahawks were 2-12 in their first season.
1995 Expansion
The league would not expand again until 1995. The league had announced in 1993 that it was planning to expand, and 10 cities pitched the NFL with expansion bids. The league settled on adding the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The league was a bit more liberal in giving the Panthers and Jaguars higher quality players than had been done in previous expansions. The Panthers finished 7-9 in 1995, while the Jaguars were 4-12. Remarkably, one year later, the Panthers made it all the way to the NFC championship game before losing to the Green Bay Packers, while the Jaguars got to the AFC title game where they lost to the New England Patriots.
Cleveland and Houston Expansions
During the 1995 season, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell announced he would move his team to Baltimore. In 1996, the Browns relocated and were renamed the Baltimore Ravens. A year later, the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee. Cleveland had supported its team rabidly for decades, while Houston was one of the top football cities in the nation. To make up for those losses, the NFL gave Cleveland an expansion team in 1999 and Houston a new team in 2002. Because the team that had been in Cleveland took a new name with new colors when it moved to Baltimore, the NFL gave the expansion team the old name of the Cleveland Browns. The expansion team in Houston did not go that route. They are known as the Texans. The Browns went 2-12 in their expansion season, while the Texans went 4-12 in their first season.
References
- Pro-Football Reference: NFL Teams
- NFL.com: History
- 2010 NFL Record and Fact Book; NFL Publishing; Jon Zimmer
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