A year later, the 16-game schedule debuted, with a Sept. 3 Sunday kickoff and a Jan. 21 Super Bowl. Over the next two decades ...

For over 40 years the NFL calendar was static and predictable. Sixteen games in a season. All on American soil. With the Super Bowl in late January or early February.

The NFL has stood at 32 teams since the Texans’ 2002 entrance. That expansion effort realigned the divisions and schedule, ...