2024/25 NFL season: Dates, teams, schedule and history

The NFL pre-season matches are coming to an end and the 2024/25 regular season is fast approaching as the 32 teams chase the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The Kansas City Chiefs are bidding for a third successive championship after beating the San Francisco 49ers in February to win the NFL Championship for the fourth time.

Let's look ahead to the 2024 NFL season including dates, schedule and more.

2024/25 NFL season dates

The 2024 NFL season runs from Thursday 5th September 2024 until Sunday 9th February 2025, when the NFL Championship will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The opening game sees defending champions the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Baltimore Ravens at Arrowhead Stadium in a game that kicks off at 01:20 BST on Friday 6th September in the UK and Ireland.

2024/25 NFL season teams

The 32 NFL teams are unchanged for the 2024 regular season. The last new team to be added were the Houston Texans, who were formed when the NFL moved to a format of eight four-team divisions in 2002.

2024/25 NFL season schedule

The NFL regular season consists of 18 weeks, with each team playing 17 games and having one bye week, which are included in the schedule from Week 5 through to Week 14.

The eight division winners and six wild-card teams will form the 14-team field for the playoffs.

The post-season action begins with the wild-card round from 11th-13th January, 2025, followed by the divisional round from 18th-19th January, 2025 and the AFC and NFC Championship games on 26th January, 2025.

The NFL Championship match will be contested at the Superdome in New Orleans on 9th February, 2025.

NFL history

The NFL began in the 1920s with its current name of the National Football League first being used in 1922. The modern era of the game is widely considered to have begun in 1970 following the merger of the American Football League and National Football League.

The leagues had met in four NFL Championship games before that, starting on January 15th, 1967 when the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10.

The NFL expanded from 26 teams to 28 in 1976, to 30 in 1995, to 31 in 1999 and to the current number of 32 teams in 2002.

View the latest NFL Championship odds on site.

Any odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and are subject to fluctuation.