Daylight saving time

Nevertheless, the form "daylight savings time" appears without remark as to its nonstandardness in some dictionaries, including The American Heritage Dictionary. See the external Professional Football Researchers Association for more "player named" rules, and background information on how these rules came about. Most compound adjectives are joined with a hyphen, but "daylight-saving time," too, is nonstandard. The following is a partial list of rules that were enacted largely based on a single player's exploits on the field. In the standard form of the name, "daylight saving" is a compound adjective (part of which is a participle) that modifies "time." A common variant is daylight savings time. Although this alternate form is frequently heard in speech, it is nonstandard and appears rarely in edited writing. However, in December 2004, Electronic Arts signed a five-year exclusive agreement with the NFL, meaning only Electronic Arts will publish games featuring NFL team and player names. This is especially important in autumn, just before the heating season causes an increase in home fires. Prior to the 2005-2006 football season, other NFL games were produced by competing video game publishers, such as 2K Games and Midway Games.

For example, the Country Fire Authority of Victoria in Australia has been running a program called "Change Your Clock, Change Your Smoke Alarm Battery" for several years. Electronic Arts publishes an NFL video game for current video game consoles and for PCs each year, called Madden NFL, being named after former coach and current football commentator John Madden. Fire safety officials in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States encourage citizens to use the two annual time changes as a reminder to check the batteries in home and office fire alarms and smoke detectors. shifting of franchises from the central city to the suburbs became popular from the 1970s on, though at the turn of the millenium a reverse shift back to the central city became somewhat evident. Another common mnemonic of equal meaning is "spring ahead, fall behind.". Additionally, with the increasing suburbanization of the U.S. This uses the word "fall" to mean "autumn"; while this usage has died out in British English, it is still very common in North American English. Louis, each of which eventually received teams some years after their original franchises left.

The mnemonic "spring forward, fall back" tells us how to reset clocks when the time changes, regardless of hemisphere (although it has to be remembered that spring and autumn occur during different months in the northern and southern hemispheres). While owners invariably cited financial difficulties as the primary factor in such moves, many fans bitterly disputed these contentions, especially in Cleveland, Baltimore and St. Different people start their day at different times (office workers start their day later than factory workers, who start their day later than farm workers), regardless of daylight saving time. Franchise moves became far more controversial in the late 20th century when a vastly more popular NFL, free from financial instability, allowed many franchises to abandon long-held strongholds for perceived financially greener pastures. Other critics suggest that DST is, at its heart, government paternalism and that people rise in the morning as a matter of choice because many people enjoy nighttime hours and their jobs do not require them to make the most of daylight. Franchise mergers were popular during World War II in response to the scarcity of players. DST is particularly unpopular among people working in agriculture because the animals do not observe it, and thus the people are placed out of synchronization with the rest of the community, including school times, broadcast schedules, and the like. In the early years, the league was not stable and teams moved frequently.

Opponents point to the longer hours of darkness on winter mornings, especially in Scotland, the north of England and Northern Ireland which might well cause an increase in road accidents. In 2003, the NFL lauched its own cable-television channel, the NFL Network. This would make winter evenings longer, thereby reducing traffic accidents and cases of seasonal affective disorder. The league played a regular-season NFL game in Mexico City in 2005 and intends to play more such games in other countries. Alternatively, some would like Britain to adopt Central European Time and jump forward another hour during the summer (adopting a Single/Double Summer Time from Britain's perspective). In 1991, the league formed the World League of American Football, (now NFL Europe), a developmental league now with teams in Germany and the Netherlands. Some campaigners in Britain would like the country to stay on British Summer Time (BST) all year round, or in other words, adopt Central European Time and abolish BST. In recent years, the NFL has expanded into new markets and ventures.

Some studies do show that changing the clock increases the traffic accident rate.^[1] Following the spring shift to daylight saving time (when one hour of sleep is lost) there is a measurable increase in the number of traffic accidents that result in fatalities. However, the USFL failed to make money and folded after three years. For example, during a North American time change, an autumn night where clocks are reset from 3 AM summer to 2 AM winter time, times between 2AM and 3AM will occur twice, causing confusion in transport schedules, payment systems, etc. The USFL was a well-financed competitor with big-name players and a national television contract. No formal studies have been performed, but an enormous amount of time has been spent by software developers to deal with the fact that 2400 hours past 2pm is not necessarily 2pm 100 days later. The founding of the United States Football League in the early '80s was the biggest challenge to the NFL in the post-merger era. It is also speculated that one of the benefits—more afternoon sun—would also actually increase energy consumption as people get into their cars to enjoy more time for shopping and the like. Rules changes in the late '70s ensured a fast-paced game with lots of passing to attract the casual fan.

It was for this reason that Arizona rejected DST and opted to stay on standard time all year. Monday Night Football, which first aired in 1970 brought in high ratings by mixing sports and entertainment. Air conditioning often uses more energy than artificial lighting. The Super Bowl became an unofficial national holiday and the top-rated TV program most years. When air conditioning was not widely available, the change did save energy; however, air conditioning is much more widespread now than it was several decades ago. In the 1970s and '80s, the NFL solidified its dominance as America's top spectator sport and its important role in American culture. While many people use more sunlight under DST, most people also experience more heat, which prompts many people to turn on the air conditioner during the warmer afternoon hours. After the merger, the then-renamed Super Bowl became the NFL's championship game.

There is also a question whether the decrease in lighting costs justifies the increase in summertime air conditioning costs. Another result of the merger was the creation of an AFL-NFL Championship game that for four years determined the so-called "World Championship of Professional Football". It is also noted that much effort is spent reminding everyone twice a year of the change, and thousands are inconvenienced by showing up at the wrong time when they forget. The remaining 13 NFL teams became the National Football Conference. The disruption in sleep patterns associated with setting clocks either forward or backward correlates with a spike in the number of severe auto accidents, as well as lost productivity as sleep-disrupted workers adjust to the schedule change. The ten AFL teams joined three existing NFL teams to form the NFL's American Football Conference. Opponents claim that there is not enough benefit to justify the need to adjust clocks twice every year. By 1966, the leagues agreed to merge as of the 1970 season.

DST is not universally accepted; many localities do not observe it. The ensuing costly war for players between the NFL and AFL almost derailed the sport's ascent. (Stats from this article). It is most likely that if the AFL had never existed, neither would have the Cowboys, the Vikings, or the Falcons. $28 million in traffic costs. The AFL also forced the NFL to expand in order to compete: The Dallas Cowboys were created to drive the AFL's Dallas Texans out of business; the Minnesota Vikings were the NFL franchise given to Max Winter for abandoning the AFL; and the Atlanta Falcons franchise went to Rankin Smith to dissuade him from purchasing the AFL's Miami Dolphins. went on extended DST in 1974 and 1975 in response to the 1973 energy crisis, Department of Transportation studies found that observing DST in March and April saved 10,000 barrels of oil a day, and prevented about 2,000 traffic injuries and 50 fatalities saving about U.S. The newer league also secured itself financially after it established the precedents for gate and television revenue sharing between all of its teams, and network television broadcasts all of its games.

When the U.S. The AFL introduced features that the NFL did not have, such as wider-open passing offenses, flashier uniforms with players' names on their jerseys, and an official clock visible to fans so that they knew the time remaining in a period (the NFL kept time by a game referee's watch, and only periodically announced the actual time). Other benefits cited include prevention of traffic injuries (by allowing more people to return home from work or school in daylight), and crime reduction (by reducing people's risk of being targets of crimes that are more common in dark areas). As more people wanted to cash in on this surge of popularity than the NFL could accommodate, a rival league, the American Football League (AFL), was founded in 1960. Most people plan outdoor activities during the increased hours of sunlight. The rise of professional football was so fast that by the mid-'60s, it had surpassed baseball as Americans' favorite spectator sport in some surveys. Another perceived benefit of DST is increased opportunities for outdoor activities. The 1958 NFL championship in New York -- considered by many to be the most-important game in the rise of the NFL -- drew record TV viewership and made national celebrities out of Unitas and his Baltimore Colts teammates.

During the summer most people would wake up after the sun rises, regardless of whether daylight saving time is in effect or not, so there is no increased need for morning lighting to offset the afternoon drop in energy usage. The NFL embraced television, giving Americans nationwide a chance to follow stars like Bobby Layne, Paul Hornung and Johnny Unitas. Part of the reason that it is normally observed in the late spring, summer, and early autumn is because during the winter months the amount of energy saved by moving sunset one hour later is negated by the increased need for morning lighting by moving sunrise by the same amount. In the 1950s, pro football finally earned its place as a major sport. United States Department of Transportation studies showed that DST reduces the country's electricity usage by one percent while DST is in effect. In 1950, the NFL accepted three teams from the defunct All-America Football Conference, expanding to 13 clubs. Because people tend to observe the same bedtime year-round, by artificially moving sunset one hour later, the amount of energy used is theoretically reduced. In 1945, the Cleveland Rams moved to Los Angeles, becoming the first big-league sports franchise on the West Coast.

Theoretically, the amount of residential electricity needed in the evening hours is dependent both on when the sun sets and when people go to bed. The spread of the T formation led to a faster-paced, higher-scoring game that attracted record numbers of fans. One of the major reasons given for observing DST is energy conservation. By the end of World War II, pro football began to rival the college game for fans' attention. Starting and ending dates are variable: normally, Brazilian DST starts at 00:00 on an October (rarely November) Sunday and ends at 00:00 on a February Sunday. One factor in the league's rising popularity was the institution of an annual championship game in 1933. Brazil adopted DST for the first time in 1931, but uninterruptedly since 1985 in southern states (south, southeast regions and states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul). By 1934 all of the small-town teams, with the exception of the Green Bay Packers, had moved to or been replaced by big cities.

In specific years the starting and ending dates have been modified for political or climatic reasons. Yet as former college stars like Red Grange and Benny Friedman began to test the professional waters, the pro game slowly began to increase in popularity. The current law which affects the entire country was enacted in 1970, but it had observed the practice as early as 1927 when the country had been divided into two distinct time zones. Franchises included such colorful representatives as the Oorang Indians, an all-Native American outfit that also put on a performing dog show. Chile switches to DST at 24:00 on the second Saturday in October and reverts to Local Standard Time (LST) at 24:00 on the second Sunday the following March. Teams entered and left the league frequently. Standard Time Zone Boundary in the State of Indiana (a 139 KB pdf file) has some history, public comments from each county, the final DOT determination, and the resulting time zone boundary. However, the NFL was hardly a major league in the '20s.

Currently, Pulaski and Martin counties are reconsidering their bid to join the Central time zone. In 1921, the APFA began releasing official standings, and the following year, the group changed its name to the National Football League. These counties are: Starke and Pulaski Counties in the Northwest, and Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin, Perry, and Pike in the Southwest. In the early years, APFA members continued to play non-APFA teams. As a result of the review, the United States Department of Transportation moved eight more counties to the Central time zone, effective when DST begins on April 2, 2006. The group of 11 teams, all but one in the Midwest, was originally less a league than an agreement not to rob other teams' players. The bill to observe DST also required the governor to request federal review of the time zone divisions in the state. Legendary athlete Jim Thorpe was elected president.

On April 29, 2005, the Indiana legislature voted to begin observing daylight saving time statewide in 2006. The American Professional Football Association was founded in 1920 at a Hupmobile dealership in Canton, Ohio. From 1991 until April 1, 2006 the state had three kinds of time zones and DST observances:. Over the next few decades, while most attention was paid to football at elite colleges on the East Coast, the professional game spread widely in the Midwest. Opponents claimed that daylight saving time created costs and inconvenience associated with changing clocks twice a year and had little or no real value. Professional football in the United States dates at least to 1892, when an athletic club in Pittsburgh paid William "Pudge" Heffelfinger $500 to take part in a game. Some supporters claimed that some businesses had located out-of-state due to the time-related confusion. from Canada in 1874, and then transformed into American college football.

Being out of sync with neighboring states and the national changing of clocks, supporters argued, had a negative economic impact on the state. English Association Football or "soccer" developed into rugby, which was imported to the U.S. In the past, neighboring communities sometimes ended up one or even two hours apart. Like the Amerian college football game from whch it sprung, NFL football is a descendant of the sport nowadays called soccer in the United States. DST has been a long-standing controversy in Indiana, not only as an agricultural state, but also because the border separating the Eastern and Central time zones divides the state. Since then, NFL broadcasts have become among the most-watched programs on American television, and the fortunes of entire networks have rested on owning NFL broadcasting rights. Hawaii does not observe DST. In fact, it was television that brought pro football into prominence in the modern era of technology.

However, the large Navajo Indian Reservation within it does. The television rights to pro football are the most lucrative (and most expensive) rights of any sport available. Most of Arizona does not observe DST. Whites make up the majority of the remaining players, followed by Pacific Islanders, Hispanics, and Asians. Certain types of information systems (those that schedule future events with reference to UTC, for example) are almost guaranteed to encounter serious desynchronization problems unless both computers and databases are carefully updated—in some cases by hand. Since then, the percentage of black players has increased steadily to its present 2005 level of 69%. More difficult to quantify is the amount of labor and money that may be spent correcting errors that arise due to a failure to update computers. In the early 1980s, blacks and whites each made up roughly half of the players.

A two-minute procedure for updating a computer, multiplied by a hundred million computers, represents nearly 1700 years of full-time labor. Increasingly, positions such as tight end, fullback, and linebacker are being filled by blacks. In order to change the dates and times at which the automatic jump to or from DST occurs, these tables must be modified, which requires some sort of manual intervention by a human being in the great majority of cases. Most quarterbacks, punters, and kickers are white, while almost all running backs, wide receivers, defensive backs, defensive linemen, safeties, punt returners, and kickoff returners are black. Most computers are programmed to adjust automatically for DST, but they do so based on static tables stored directly on the computer itself. In 2005, a slim majority of offensive linemen are white, while no whites are listed as Tailbacks or Cornerbacks on NFL rosters. An additional issue raised by this extension is that it requires reconfiguration of virtually every computer in the United States. White running backs, defensive backs, and receivers have become less and less common over the last 25 years.

The extension was greeted by criticism from the airline industry and those concerned for the safety of children traveling to school in the dark before the late sunrise. White skill players have become increasingly rare in the modern NFL, as most positions are filled by blacks. (See this article, for example.). (disputed — see talk page). There is very little recent research on what the actual positive effects, if any, might be. To this day, the NFL's head-coach hiring policies are questioned, and it has had to institute measures to attempt to have black head coach candidates be treated more equitably. Department of Energy information from the 1970s, the accuracy and relevance of which the DoE no longer stands by. It took until 1988 before a black quarterback started for a Super Bowl team, when Doug Williams won it for the Redskins.

Proponents claimed that the extension would save "the equivalent of" 10,000 barrels of oil per day, but this figure was based on U.S. 1978 Rose Bowl MVP Warren Moon played for six seasons in the CFL before his abilities finally landed him the starting role with the Houston Oilers. The change was introduced by the Energy Policy Act of 2005; the House had originally approved a motion that would have extended DST even further. Even after that, for many NFL teams the door would remain closed to black quarterbacks through the 1970s. Starting March 11, 2007, daylight saving time will be extended another four to five weeks, from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November. After that, no old-line NFL team had a black starting quarterback until the Steelers' Joe Gilliam in 1972. In response to the 1973 energy crisis, daylight saving in the United States was begun earlier in both 1974 and 1975, commencing on the first Sunday in January (January 6) in the former year and the last Sunday in February (February 23) in the latter. The Chicago Bears had a black quarterback in 1953, Willie Thrower, who played in only one game and did not start in any games.

The law was amended again in 1986 to begin daylight saving time on the first Sunday in April, to take effect the following year. The next year 1969, another American Football League team, the Buffalo Bills were the first professional football team of the modern era to begin the season with a black, James Harris as their starting quarterback. The law was amended in 1972 to permit states that straddle a time zone boundary to exempt the entire area of the state lying in one time zone. The AFL's Denver Broncos were the first modern-era team to have a black starting quarterback, Marlin Briscoe, who started the fourth game of the 1968 season, and broke pro football rookie records for passing yardage and touchdowns. Any state that wanted to be exempt from daylight saving time could do so by passing a state law, provided that it exempt the entire state. This action, and pressure by another competing league, the more racially-liberal American Football League, slowly managed to reverse the NFL's racial quotas. federal Uniform Time Act of 1966 mandated that daylight saving time begin nationwide on the last Sunday of April and end on the last Sunday of October. Stadium, which was at the time controlled by the United States Department of the Interior, would be voided if he continued to refuse to sign any black players.

The U.S. Still, Marshall refused to sign black players until threatened with civil rights legal action by the Kennedy administration in 1962, in which it was explained to him that his lease on the then-new D.C. This resulted in a patchwork where some areas observed DST while adjacent areas did not, and it was not unheard of to have to reset one's clock several times during a relatively short trip (e.g., bus drivers operating between Moundsville, West Virginia, and Steubenville, Ohio had to reset their watches seven times over 35 miles). Another theory holds that the NFL, like most of the United States during the Great Depression, simply fired black workers before white workers, but this could hardly account for the league's apparent "all-white" policy during this period. States and localities were free to observe daylight saving time or not. Marshall's policies not only excluded blacks from his Washington Redskins team but may have influenced the entire league to drop blacks until 1946, when pressure from the competing All-America Football Conference induced the NFL to be more liberal in its signing of blacks. federal law did not address daylight saving time. The league had a few black players until 1933, one year after entry to the league of George Preston Marshall.

From 1945 to 1966, U.S. Although the current NFL is well-represented at virtually every position by African-American athletes, that was not always the case. This remained in effect until World War II began winding down and the requirement was removed on September 30, 1945. The NFL's current CBA (collective bargaining agreement) expires in 2008. Daylight saving time was reinstated in the United States on February 9, 1942, again as a wartime measure to conserve resources. Furthermore, they attribute NFL competitive parity instead to the league's extensive revenue sharing policies. Beginning in 2007, it will start DST on the second Sunday in March, and change back to standard time on the first Sunday in November. They also note that the salary cap could hypothetically drive prospective athletes to other sports that do not cap the salaries of players; while NFL's large rosters lead to high total payrolls, star players earn more in baseball and basketball (it should however be noted that talent in football does not necessary translate into talent in basketball or baseball, and that star players typically make more money from endorsements than from their team salaries).

Through the end of 2006, the United States starts its DST on the first Sunday in April, and changes back to standard time on the last Sunday in October. Critics of the salary cap note that the driving reason for the cap was to maximize the profitability of the NFL teams, and limit the power of NFL players to command the high salaries they are said to deserve in exchange for bringing in large numbers of paying fans to the stadiums. state of Arizona, which also does not observe DST. These concerns, among others, led in part to modified salary cap adoption in the National Basketball Association in 1984 and the National Hockey League in 2005. The Mexican state of Sonora does not observe DST because it borders on the U.S. They claim fans end up paying higher ticket prices to help pay for escalating player salaries. Mexico has adopted DST nationwide, even in its tropical regions, because of its increasing economic ties to the United States. They point to the relative parity of competition that exists in the NFL as of 2005 compared to Major League Baseball as evidence that the NFL salary cap preserves competitive balance.

Since April 2004, Cuba has remained on DST. This has been seen as a problem in American baseball, long dominated since the advent of free agency by large market teams. Cuba always starts its DST on April 1 but the end date varies. Proponents of the salary cap note that it prevents a well-financed team in a major city from simply spending giant amounts of money to secure the very best players in every position and thus dominating the entire sport. Saskatchewan Government Relations gives further details on Saskatchewan's time policies. The cap for the 2005 season is expected to be approximately $85.5 million. Lloydminster and its immediately surrounding region in Saskatchewan use the same timekeeping routine used by Alberta, DST with Mountain Standard Time. For the 2004 season, the NFL's salary cap was $80.582 million, an increase of $5.5 million from 2003.

The charter of the city of Lloydminster, which is bisected by the Saskatchewan–Alberta border, gives it a special exception (among areas in Saskatchewan) to use DST. The cap is determined via a complicated formula based on the revenue that all NFL teams receive during the previous year. Observationally, this is equivalent to the province being on Mountain Daylight Time year-round, though officially the province is considered to be part of the Central time zone. Escalating player salaries throughout the 1980s and the advent of free agency in 1992 led to the NFL's adoption of a salary cap in 1994, a maximum amount of money each team can pay its players in aggregate. (This policy was implemented when the Saskatchewan Time Act was passed in 1966, to solve the problems that arose when time zones varied from town to town.) Thus, in the summer months Saskatchewan is in sync with Mountain Daylight Time and in the winter months it is in sync with Central Standard Time. These numbers are of course exceeded dramatically by the best players in each position. Saskatchewan is bisected by 105° west meridian, the central meridian of the Mountain Standard Time Zone (UTC−7), yet clocks are kept at UTC−6 all year long. These numbers are set by contract between the NFL and the players' union, the National Football League Players' Association.

The province of Saskatchewan is the largest part of that country that does not use DST, that is, it does not adjust clocks in spring and fall. Exhibition game minimum is $10,000. The remaining provinces and territories will continue change time on the first Sunday of April and last Sunday of October unless they change their legislation. The minimum salary for an NFL player is $235,000 in his first year, and rises after that based on the number of years in service. In 2007, their DST will start on the second Sunday of March, and return to standard time on the first Sunday in November. However, these players usually begin as second- or third-string backups, only playing games if the first-stringer is injured, or if there has been a runaway score and the coach decides to put a backup in the game for a little experience, and to ensure his first-stringer does not get injured at the end in a play that is not meaningful to the team. rules (The Calgary Sun). Occasionally a player drafted out of college will go right into a "first-string" position as the team's primary player in that position.

The governments of Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec, and Alberta have pledged to change their daylight saving rules to match the new U.S. For example, before the draft occurs, Team A might trade its first-round draft pick plus a certain player (who already plays for Team A) to Team B in exchange for another particular player who already plays for Team B. In Canada, time is under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, not federal. Draft picks are frequently traded in advance for players and other draft picks. Also, in 1988, they experimented with Double Daylight Time, when the clocks went ahead by two hours, instead of the usual one hour. Draft picks continue, in the order from the weakest team to the strongest team, and once all teams have picked one player, they all pick again starting with the weakest team. The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador is an exception in that the time changes take place at 00:01 local standard time and 00:01 local daylight time respectively. The idea is that weak teams can thereby become strengthened over time, in the specialties where they need strengthening.

In 2007, the starting and ending dates for DST will change in the United States and parts of Canada (see below). That is, the team is the first to select a player from a pool of all eligible college players in the country. North America generally follows the same procedure, going by local time in each zone, each time zone switching at 02:00 LST (local standard time) to 03:00 LDT (local daylight time) on the first Sunday in April, and again from 02:00 LDT to 01:00 LST on the last Sunday in October. The NFL team with the worst record in the previous year gets first pick of the draft. Polar or near-polar locations such as Iceland often opt out, as summer in these locations usually brings nearly uninterrupted daylight. There is a highly organized and formal process called the draft (currently consisting of seven rounds) that takes place over two days in April, in which all NFL teams participate. With Iceland observing UTC all year round, despite being at a longitude which would indicate UTC-1, the country may be said to be on continuous DST. Many of the USA's college football players want to play in the NFL.

Thus in Moscow (local time = UTC+3 in winter, UTC+4 in summer), daylight-saving time commences at 23:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in March, and ends at 23:00 UTC on the day before the last Sunday in October. For the history of the process see National Football League championships. In Russia, however, although the changeover dates are the same, clocks are moved forward or back at 02:00 winter time in all zones. The NFL's method for determining its champions has changed over the years. (See also: European Summer Time). To date, a coin toss has never been used by the league to break a tie. from local times of 01:00/02:00/03:00 to 02:00/03:00/04:00 in March, and vice versa in October. If the teams remain tied after comparing all of these statistics, then the tie is broken using a coin toss.

In the West European (UTC), Central European (UTC+1), and East European (UTC+2) time zones the change is simultaneous: on both dates the clocks are changed everywhere at 01:00 UTC, i.e. Other data that is then compared include their record against teams in their division, their record against teams in their conference, their record against common opponents, net points scored, and net touchdowns scored. All countries in Europe, except Iceland as noted below, observe daylight-saving time and change on the same date: moving clocks forward one hour on the last Sunday in March and back one hour on the last Sunday in October. The first criterion that is always compared first is head-to-head, how the tied teams fared when they played each other during the regular season. The Department of Internal Affairs gives further historical information on their website. The process basically involves comparing a set of each team's season statistics, one record at a time, until one club has a higher value than the others. In New Zealand, daylight saving time begins at 2am (standard time) on the first Sunday in October each year, and ends at 2am (standard time) on the third Sunday of March. The tiebreaking rules are also used to help determine playoff seedings and the order in which teams pick in the NFL draft (see below).

See the Australian time zones article or this site for maps and further information on standard and daylight saving time in Australia. As mentioned above, each team's order of finish in their respective divisions (first-place, second-place, etc.) determine the opponents in two of their games during the following season. Queensland experimented with it for a year or two in the early 1970s, but it was not popular and was abandoned. teams that have the same regular season won-lost-tied record. Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland do not have daylight saving. The league uses a set of rules to break ties in the final season standings, i.e. Tasmania starts DST earlier than the others, usually near the beginning of October. For example, the Jacksonville Jaguars finished the 2005 regular season with a 12-4 record, but only qualified as a wild card team and thus had to face the New England Patriots, the AFC East division champions with a 10-6 record, at the Patriots' home field, Gillette Stadium.

New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and South Australia apply daylight saving time. A major disadvantage that critics cite in the current system is that a divisional winner could host a playoff game against a wild card team that earned a better regular season record. Some states/territories implement it and some do not. Only the wild card teams played during the first round, while all of the division winners received a bye, automatically advancing to the second round. In Australia, daylight saving time is a state/territory-based initiative. During that time, three division winners and two wild card teams from each conference qualified for the playoffs. It has not used DST since then. The terms "Wild Card Playoffs" and "Divisional Playoffs" originated from the playoff format that was used before 1990.

Pakistan experimented with DST in 2002 going from +5:00 to +6:00. The two surviving teams from the Divisional Playoff games meet in Conference Championship games, with the winners of those contests going on to face one another in the Super Bowl. For more on this subject, see Israeli Daylight Saving Law. the game is held at the higher seed's home field). Israel's Daylight Saving Time rules have changed repeatedly in recent years; there has been trouble reaching a consensus regarding Gregorian calendar end dates for DST as they are dependant on Jewish Holidays, which follow the lunar Hebrew calendar. And in any given playoff game, whoever has the higher seed gets the home field advantage (i.e. Israel adopts Daylight Saving Time on the last Friday before April 2 at 02:00, and returns to standard time at 02:00 of the Sunday of the month of Tishrei between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In any given playoff round, the highest surviving seed always plays the lowest surviving seed.

Thus, DST in Iran starts on the first day of Farvardin (around 21-22 March) and ends on the first day of Mehr (around 22 September). The first and the second seeds from each conference receive a bye in the first round, which entitles these teams to automatically advance to the second round, the Divisional Playoff games (even though the participants may be from different divisions) to face the Wild Card survivors. Iran uses the Persian calendar. The third and the sixth seeded teams, and the fourth and the fifth seeds, face each other during the first round of the playoffs, dubbed the Wild Card Playoffs. India used DST briefly during its wars with Pakistan and China. At the conclusion of each 16-game regular season, six teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament, which culminates in the Super Bowl:. The PRC now uses one universal time zone for all of the nation from Urumqi in the northwest to Fujian in the southeast; the size of the nation was a major factor why DST was not considered practical in China. Festivities and a pre-game concert would kick off the season.

The People's Republic of China experimented with DST from 1986, but abandoned it in the 1990s. In 2002, the NFL began scheduling a Thursday night special opening game, which would be nationally televised. Egypt operates Daylight-Saving Time between the last Friday in April and the last Thursday in September when the clocks are 3 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT+3). In addition, it would leave the three-day holiday weekend alone to the opening weekend of college football, preventing conflicts, and maximizing exposure. In the Southern Hemisphere, the beginning and ending dates are switched (thus the time difference between, e.g., the United Kingdom and Chile may be three, four, or five hours). Television ratings seemed to be sagging due to the holiday, and the stadium crowds were apparently lacking due to vacationing fans and higher average temperatures of early September. DST commonly begins in the Northern Hemisphere on either the first Sunday in April or the last Sunday in March, and ends on the last Sunday in October. In 2001, the NFL decided to move opening week to the weekend after Labor Day.

With a few exceptions, switchovers between standard time and daylight saving time generally occur in the early morning hours of a Sunday morning, presumably because doing so then causes less disruption than a change on a weekday would. In 1994, the schedule was changed back to seventeen weeks. The dates of the beginning and ending of DST also vary by country. In 1993, the league adjusted the schedule to include two bye weeks per team, and the sixteen games were played over eighteen weeks. The amount of the time shift varies, but one hour is the most common. As a result, opening weekend was moved up to Labor Day weekend. state in the tropics, does not observe DST. One week during the season, on a rotating basis, each team would have the weekend off.

Hawaii, the only U.S. Each team would play sixteen regular season games over seventeen weeks. Daylight saving time is generally a temperate zone practice; day lengths in the tropics do not vary enough to justify DST. In 1990, the NFL introduced a bye-week to the schedule. The law, however, proved so unpopular (mostly because people rose and went to bed earlier than in current times) that the law was later repealed. From 1978-1989, the sixteen games were played over sixteen weeks. It was observed for seven months in 1918 and 1919. In 1978, the league changed the schedule to include sixteen regular season games and four exhibition games.

Congress established several time zones (which were already in use by railroads and most cities since 1883) and made daylight saving time official (which went into effect on March 31) for the remainder of World War I. Teams played six, or even seven exhibition games. Then on March 19, 1918, the U.S. Opening weekend typically was the weekend after Labor Day, or even two weekends after Labor Day. Shortly afterward, the United Kingdom followed suit, first adopting DST between May 21 and October 1, 1916. From 1961 through 1977, the NFL schedule consisted of fourteen regular season games played over fourteen weeks. The idea of daylight saving time was first put into practice by the German government during the First World War between April 30 and October 1, 1916. Competition from the new league caused the NFL to expand and follow suit with a fourteen-game schedule in 1961.

It was first seriously proposed by William Willett in the "Waste of Daylight", published in 1907, but he was unable to get the British government to adopt it despite considerable lobbying. In 1960, the American Football League began play and introduced a balanced schedule of 14 games per team over a fifteen week season, in which each of the eight teams played each of the other teams twice, with one bye week. (Read the full text.) However, the article was humorous; Franklin was not proposing DST, but rather that people should get up and go to bed earlier. From 1947 through 1960, each NFL team played 12 games per season. It is sometimes asserted that DST was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in a letter to the editors of the Journal of Paris. From 1926 through 1946, they played from eleven to fifteen games per season, depending on the number of teams in the league. . In its early years after 1920, the NFL did not have a set schedule, and teams played as few as eight and as many as sixteen games, some against college or other amateur squads.

Note that the term commonly used in the United States, daylight savings time, is incorrect, for both historic (the correct name as provided by the act which inaugurated it in the United States is daylight saving time) and grammatical reasons.
. DST is most commonly used in temperate regions, due to the considerable variation in the amount of daylight versus darkness through the seasons in those regions. Interconference
. This is intended to provide a better match between the hours of daylight and the active hours of work and school. Intraconference
. The official time is adjusted forward, (usually) one hour from its official standard time, remaining that way for the duration of the spring and summer months.
For the 2006 season, the assignments will be:.

Daylight saving time (also called DST) is a term used for a system intended to "save" daylight (It is also known as summer time in both Britain and Europe).
. American Journal of Public Health 85, 92–95. Interconference
. (1995) Daylight saving time and motor vehicle crashes: the reduction in pedestrian and vehicle occupant fatalities. Intraconference
. et al.
For the 2005 season, the assignments were as follows:.

^  Ferguson, S.A. This formula has been regarded as very successful, rekindling old rivalries while starting new ones, as teams will play in each other's stadiums eventually, which makes for a more consistent and attractive schedule each year. Their observance of DST was unofficial in this case, as a strict reading of the Uniform Time Act would not allow for this situation, but by observing DST, they remained synchronized with the greater Louisville and Cincinnati metropolitan areas. Currently, each team's regular season schedule is set using a pre-determined formula: ^[2]. 2 counties near Cincinnati, Ohio and 3 counties near Louisville, Kentucky were on Eastern Standard time but did observe DST. In 2005, with Christmas falling on a Sunday, the NFL has flipped their normal schedule for that weekend, having the normal slate (less the Sunday night contest) of Sunday games on Saturday (Christmas Eve day), with two nationally televised games on Sunday (Christmas Day), similar to what the NFL did in 1994 with the afternoon games on Saturday, and the primetime games the following two days (Detroit at Miami on Sunday, San Francisco at Minnesota on Monday). 5 northwestern counties near Chicago, Illinois and 5 southwestern counties near Evansville, Indiana were on Central Standard Time and did use DST. For the last three weeks or so of the regular season, after the end of the college football season, the league typically schedules two or three nationally televised games on Saturday afternoons or evenings.

77 counties — most of the state — were on Eastern Standard Time but did not use DST. In addition, the Dallas Cowboys and the Detroit Lions each host a game on Thanksgiving Day. In recent years, the league has started scheduling a nationally telecast regular season game on the Thursday night prior to the first Sunday of NFL games to "kickoff" the season. Traditionally, every game is played on Sunday afternoon with the exception of one game per week being played in Sunday night, and another game being played on Monday night. Each team plays 16 games during a 17-week period.

The NFL season begins the weekend after Labor Day. This is especially true of the television networks, which now telecast many exhibition games nationally. The NFL publicity machine has relentlessly called the exhibition games "pre-season" games, to the point where most media have jumped on board and use the same expression. Pro football is so popular that fans pay the price of the exhibition games for the right to have a guaranteed seat during the season.

A judgment in 1974^[1] stated: "No fewer than five lawsuits have been instituted from Dallas to New England, each claiming that the respective National Football League (NFL) team had violated the Sherman Act by requiring an individual who wishes to purchase a season ticket for all regular season games to buy, in addition, tickets for one or more exhibition or preseason games.". Supreme Court, but have failed to change the policy. Such complaints have gone all the way to the U.S. The exhibition games are unpopular with many season ticket holders who point out that regular-season prices are charged for meaningless games, in which teams seldom play their stars and starters for more than a quarter of each game.

Two "featured" exhibition games, the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game and American Bowl, do not count toward the normal allottment of four games, so the four teams playing in those games each end up playing five exhibition games. Summers see most NFL teams playing four "pre-season" exhibition games from early August through early September. . One week later, selected all-star players from both the AFC and NFC meet in the Pro Bowl, currently held in Hawaii.

This game is held at a pre-selected site which is usually a city that hosts an NFL team or a popular college stadium. At the end of each regular season, six teams from each conference play in the NFL playoffs, a 12-team single-elimination tournament that culminates with the NFL championship, the Super Bowl. During the league's regular season, each team plays 16 games over a 17-week period generally from September to December. The divisions are labeled East, West, North, and South; the teams do not consistently follow geographic boundaries as the NFL wanted to keep certain rivalries intact.

Each conference is then further divided into four divisions consisting of four teams each. Currently, the league's 32 teams are divided into two conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). After the 1958 NFL Championship Game (which went into overtime), the NFL's greatest spurt in popularity came in the 1960s and 1970s with the merger of the rival American Football League, or AFL (1960-1969). Prior to the 1960s, the most popular version of American football was played collegiately.

The NFL is one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. The league was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, which adopted the name "National Football League" in 1922. The National Football League (NFL) is the largest professional American football league, consisting of thirty-two teams from American cities and regions. ^  NFL scheduling formula at NFL.com.

^  Examples of Exhibition Game Lawsuits. Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. NFL Comeback Player of the Year. Super Bowl MVP.

Defensive Rookie of the Year. Offensive Rookie of the Year. Defensive Player of the Year. Offensive Player of the Year.

Coach of the Year. Most Valuable Player. Halas Trophy. George S.

Lamar Hunt Trophy. Vince Lombardi Trophy. Enacted in 2005. the Roy Williams rule -- no horse-collar tackles.

the Peyton Manning rule -- basically more emphasis on the Mel Blount rule after the New England Patriots committed several uncalled pass interference penalties in the 2003 AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. the Terrell Owens rule -- no "foreign objects" on a player's uniform (enacted in response to the 2002 "Sharpie™ incident"). Enacted due to a play in the 1999 NFC Championship Game, where Emanuel, playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a catch ruled incomplete since the ball touched the ground. the Bert Emanuel rule -- the ball can touch the ground during a completed pass as long as the receiver maintains control of the ball.

Another rule, resulting in offensive pass interference, prohibiting WRs to push off CBs, is also often called "the Michael Irvin rule.". the Michael Irvin rule -- no taunting. Enacted in 1978. the Mel Renfro rule -- allows a second player on the offense to catch a tipped ball, without a defender subsequentlly touching it.

Enacted in current form in 1978. the Mel Blount rule -- Officially known as defensive pass interference, defensive backs can only make contact with receivers within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Enacted in 1956. the Lou Groza rule -- no artificial medium to assist in the execution of a kick.

Enacted in 1981. the Lester Hayes rule -- no Stickum™ allowed. A Defensive player can recover and advance at any time of play.Enacted in 1979. the Ken Stabler rule -- on fourth down or any down in the final two-minutes of play, if a player fumbles, only the fumbling player can recover and/or advance the ball.

Enacted in 1965. the Fran Tarkenton rule -- a line judge was added as the sixth official to ensure that a back was indeed behind the line of scrimmage before throwing a forward pass. the Erik Williams rule -- no hands to the facemask by offensive linemen. Enacted in 1997.

the Emmitt Smith Rule -- no taking your helmet off on the field of play. (There is also a college football rule with this nickname.). Enacted after Deion Sanders signed with the Dallas Cowboys in 1995 for a minimum salary and a $13 million signing bonus. the Deion Sanders rule -- Player salary rule which correlates a contract's signing bonus with its yearly salary.

Enacted in 1977. the Deacon Jones Rule -- no head-slapping. Prior to this rule change a player had to be five yards behind the line of scrimmage to throw a forward pass.. Enacted in 1933.

the Bronko Nagurski Rule -- forward passing made legal from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage. The clock didn't stop and New England won. Enacted in 2002 after the Patriots' kicker won Super Bowl XXXVI on a last second kick that went through with three seconds remaining on the clock. the Adam Vinatieri Rule -- the clock stops immediately after a field goal is kicked through the uprights.

Current NFL players. List of American football players. New York, New York (1960-present). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1946-1960).

Chicago, Illinois (1941-1946). Columbus, Ohio (1921-1941). Canton, Ohio (1920-1921). Commissioner Paul Tagliabue (1989-present).

Commissioner Alvin "Pete" Rozelle (1960-1989). Interim President Austin Gunsel (1959-1960, following death of Bell). Commissioner Bert Bell (1946-1959). Commissioner Elmer Layden (1941-1946).

President Carl Storck (1939-1941). President Joseph Carr (1921-1939). President Jim Thorpe (1920). Two wild card qualifiers (those non-division champions with the conference's best won-lost-tied percentages), which are seeded five and six.

The four division champions from each conference (the team in each division with the best regular season won-lost-tied record), which are seeded one through four based on their regular season won-lost-tied record. The Super Bowl bye week was removed to accommodate the longer, expanded playoffs. In the 1982 strike-shortened season, a postseason tournament replaced the traditional playoff format. By the 2003 season, the bye week was restored.

As a result, Super Bowl XXXVI had to be delayed after the league postponed the second week's games following the September 11 attacks. In the 2001 season, the bye week disappeared when the league moved opening weekend a week later. In the 1999 season, the bye week was removed to accommodate the schedule being moved ahead one week. In the 1993 season, there was no bye week since the regular season consisted of eighteen weekends.

In the 1990 season, there was no bye, as the league was still adjusting the schedule from adding the bye week during the season. For most years, there has been an open weekend between the Conference Championship games and the Super Bowl. By moving the season a week later, the NFL hoped to prevent teams traveling complications. The Year 2000 problem sparked travel concerns for the final week of the season, and playoffs.

In 1999, the NFL moved the first week of the season one week later due to the conflict with January 1, 2000. NFC West. AFC West v. NFC East.

AFC South v. NFC South. AFC North v. NFC North.

AFC East v. NFC West. NFC North v. NFC South.

NFC East v. AFC West. AFC North v. AFC South.

AFC East v. NFC East. AFC West v. NFC West.

AFC South v. NFC North. AFC North v. NFC South.

AFC East v. NFC South. NFC North v. NFC West.

NFC East v. AFC South. AFC North v. AFC West.

AFC East v. The second-place, third-place, and fourth-place teams in a conference are matched in the same way each year: one at home, and one on the road. These games match a first-place team against the first-place teams in the two same-conference divisions the team is not scheduled to play that season. Each team plays two games versus two teams within its conference based on the prior year's standings.

Each team plays the four teams from a division in the other conference on a rotating four-year cycle: two at home, and two on the road (four games). Each team plays the four teams from another division within its conference on a rotating three-year cycle: two at home, and two on the road (four games). Each team plays every other team in their division twice: once at home, and once on the road (six games).