In 2023, the greatest share of players by ethnic group in the National Football League (NFL) were black or African American athletes, constituting just over 53 percent of players within the NFL. Despite the large population of Hispanic or Latino people within the United States, there is a substantial underrepresentation within the NFL, with only 0.5 percent of players identifying as such.

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that was established in 1920 and now consists of 32 clubs divided into two conferences, the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The league culminates in the Super Bowl, the NFL's annual championship game. As the league’s championship game, the Super Bowl has grown into one of the world's largest single-day sporting events, attracting high television ratings and generating billions of dollars in consumer spending.

NFL revenues The NFL is one of the most profitable sports leagues in the world, generating a staggering 18.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. This total revenue of all 32 NFL teams has constantly increased over the past 15 years and, although this figure dropped significantly in 2020, this was largely as a result of the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) containment measures. This significant drop in revenue demonstrates one of the primary impacts of COVID-19 on professional sports leagues.

NFL franchises As a result of this profitability in non-pandemic times, the franchises of the NFL are attributed extremely high market values. The Dallas Cowboys were by far the most valuable franchise in the NFL, with a market value of nine billion US dollars in 2023. The high value of NFL franchises can be seen clearly when compared to those of the NBA, MLB, and NHL. Franchises within the NFL had an average market value of approximately 5.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

Of the big four professional sports leagues in North America, the NFL and the NBA have the highest percentage of African American players. In 2024, around 53.5 percent of NFL players were African American, as well as around 36.6 percent of assistant coaches.

The National Football League comprises 32 teams from across the United States competing in two conferences split roughly by region. The NFL is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the United States, with televised games attracting millions of viewers each week. This survey depicts the level of interest in the NFL in the United States, and it showed that 42 percent of Black respondents were avid fans of the NFL as of April 2023.

The National Football League comprises 32 teams from across the United States competing in two conferences split roughly by region. The NFL is one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the United States, with televised games attracting millions of viewers each week. A January 2025 survey found that 32 percent of Americans aged 34 to 54 considered the NFL to be their top interest.

The National Basketball Association has one of the highest percentages of African American players from the big four professional sports leagues in North America. In 2023, approximately 70.4 percent of NBA players were African American. Meanwhile, ethnically white players constituted a 17.5 percent share of all NBA players that year. After the WNBA and NBA, the National Football League had the largest share of African Americans in a professional sports league in North America.

How do other roles in the NBA compare?

When it comes to African American representation in the NBA, no other role in the NBA is as well represented by African Americans as players. Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the scale, less than five percent of team governors in the NBA were African American in 2023. During the 2022/23 season, the role with the second-highest share of African Americans was head coach, with a share of 50 percent. That season, the number of African American head coaches in the NBA exceeded the number of white head coaches for the first time.

African Americans in the NFL

In 2022, the greatest share of players by ethnicity in the NFL were African American, with more than half of all NFL players falling within this group. The representation of African Americans in American Football extended beyond the playing field, with 36.3 percent of NFL assistant coaches being African American in 2022 as well. However, positions such as vice presidents and head coaches were less representative of the African American population, as less than 10 percent of the individuals fulfilling these roles in 2022 were African American.

During the 2023/24 season, the Baltimore Ravens had the highest player payroll among the 32 teams competing in the National Football League (NFL). The team had a payroll amounting to approximately 345 million U.S. dollars. By comparison, the two NFL teams with the lowest player payroll during the 2023/24 season were the Los Angeles Rams and the Indianapolis Colts at 239 million U.S. dollars. What is the average ticket price for a Los Angeles Rams game? The average ticket price for a Los Angeles Rams home game was around 103 U.S. dollars in the 2023 season. During that period, the Los Angeles Rams recorded an average home attendance of 73,150 spectators. The Los Angeles Rams average regular season home attendance peaked in 2016 at 83,164. What NFL team has the highest franchise value? Even though the Dallas Cowboys have neither won nor competed in a Super Bowl since 1996, the team is still by far the most valuable franchise in the NFL. In 2024, the Cowboys has a franchise value of 10.1 billion U.S. dollars; this was over two billion U.S. dollars more than its closest rival, the Los Angeles Rams. Meanwhile, the New England Patriots had the third-highest franchise value that year at 7.4 billion.

The National Football League (NFL) is a professional football league in the United States comprising 32 teams spread out over two conferences. As one of the biggest professional sports leagues in the country, it is no surprise that the NFL attracts fans from all walks of life. In a 2020 survey, it was found that 25 percent of Los Angeles fans were Hispanic, while 22 percent were Black.

The NFL is one of the most widely televised sporting leagues in the world. The average television viewership of a regular season NFL game in 2024 was calculated to be 17.5 million. Attendance In addition to this record-breaking TV viewership, the NFL attracts thousands of fans to the stadiums each week to see their favorite teams in action. The NFL has consistently been the major American sports league with the highest average attendance, with an average of almost 70 thousand people attending each game in the 2023 season. Moreover, during the 2024 regular season, the average total home attendance per team across the entire NFL was calculated to be 588,088. The franchise with the highest total attendance for its eight regular-season home games was the Dallas Cowboys, perhaps in part to their comparatively reasonably priced tickets, costing nearly 117 U.S. dollars on average, just less than the average ticket price across the NFL at 120 U.S. dollars per ticket. Best players Since 1957, the Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award has been given to the NFL player considered to have been the most outstanding during the season. Since the award's introduction, Peyton Manning has received the award the greatest number of times during his career, closely followed by Aaron Rodgers, who has received the award on four occasions. One other potential indicator of the success of an NFL player is their annual salary. The highest-paid NFL player in 2024 was Dak Prescott, quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, who earned 86.3 million U.S. dollars from salary and bonuses and 14 million U.S. dollars from endorsement deals during the 2024 season.

In 2024, the most well-represented college football program in the NFL was Alabama, with 77 Crimson Tide players on NFL Week 1 team rosters. College football is seen as the final stepping stone for student athletes before hitting the big time in the NFL. Some of the hottest prospects from college football turn into first round picks in the NFL Draft and are handed lucrative professional contracts by NFL franchises. Who has the most successful college football program? While Alabama’s football program was the most well-represented in the NFL in 2024, there are other ways to measure the success of a program. For instance, looking at the college football programs with the most NFL Draft picks in the same year shows Notre Dame at the top, ranked five positions above Alabama. However, the college football program which has produced the most Super Bowl winners was also Alabama, which reported 54 graduates winning the NFL championship game at some point during their careers. How popular is the NFL Draft? The National Football League Draft is the official player recruitment meeting for the NFL in the United States. Although any player who has not been in high school for three or more years is eligible to feature in the NFL Draft, the vast majority of those who are featured have participated in a college football program. The event is followed closely by fans of the NFL, with the number of NFL Draft Round One TV viewers in the U.S. amounting to more than 12 million in 2024. When fans were asked why they watched the NFL Draft, most respondents stated that their desire to see who their favorite team picked as the major reason for doing so.

Professional sports leagues in North America have traditionally been home to athletes from many backgrounds and ethnicities. In the 2023 season, over 70 percent of the players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) were African American. In comparison, 17.5 percent of NBA athletes were white and 2.2 percent were Hispanic.

During the 2023-24 school year, over one million high school students in the United States participated in 11-player football. The sport was especially popular among boys, who accounted for 99 percent of participants.

The number of U.S. Americans playing tackle football increased in 2023 for the fourth year in a row. In total, around 5.6 million people above the age of six years were engaged in that sport at least once in that year. Tackle football vs flag football Football is a popular recreational sport in the United States - for adults, adolescents and children alike. Played with almost the same rules as professional football, children can start playing tackle football around the age of five. Over the past few years, there has been a decline in the number of people participating in tackle football. Comparatively, more and more people have been turning to flag football, where rather than tackling players to the ground (as done in tackle football) the defensive team must remove a flag from the player carrying the ball. In 2021, the U.S. participation in flag football was approximately 6.9 million people, a number that has seen an overall raise of 18.2 percent between 2015 and that year. Too old for outdoor activities? It would seem that younger generations participate more often in outdoor activities than people of older age groups do. A survey found that around 60 percent of the Millenials and Gen Z respondents participated at least once in an outdoor activity in 2021. Meanwhile, the outdoor participation of respondents who belonged to the boomers generations amounted to 40 percent.

Total attendance at National Football League (NFL) games reached a record 18.85 million fans across the regular season in 2023. This high came represented continued growth in attendance following the significantly low turnout in the 2020 season when many games were played behind closed doors as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Attendance at NFL games Over the last few years the total attendance at regular season games of the National Football League has consistently been at more than 18 million per season. The NFL is composed of 32 teams and each team plays a minimum of eight home games during the regular season for a total of 256 games per season. The average attendance at National Football League games was at around 69,500 in the 2023 season.

Dallas Cowboys drew record crowds In 2023, the Dallas Cowboys drew the most spectators to their home games with a total attendance of more than 748 thousand. The Cowboys also had the highest average attendance that season with around 93,600 people attending each home game. The average price for a ticket to an NFL game was at 120.94 U.S. dollars in 2023. On average, tickets to Las Vegas Raiders games were the most expensive (168.83 U.S. dollars), while tickets for Arizona Cardinals games were the least expensive, with an average price of 98.54 U.S. dollars.

The National Football League (NFL) is a professional football league in the United States comprising 32 teams spread out over two conferences. As one of the biggest professional sports leagues in the country, it is no surprise that the NFL attracts fans from all walks of life. In a 2020 survey, it was found that 43 percent of Seattle Seahawks fans identified as Democrats, while 27 percent were Republicans.

There are millions of sports fans across the United States, from those religiously following an NFL team to avid tennis fans or those who watch every Formula One Grand Prix. During an April 2023 survey in the United States, 44 percent of male respondents stated that they were avid sports fans. Meanwhile, this figure was just 15 percent among female respondents.

National Football League fans in the U.S.

Football is a widely enjoyed sport in the United States, as is evident from the millions of fans who tune in to watch their favorite teams compete every Monday night. The sport enjoys a diverse viewer demographic, with more than two thirds of white, Hispanic, and Black participants in an online survey identifying as either an avid or casual fan of football in January 2023. The survey also investigated the level of interest in the NFL in the U.S. broken down by gender, with a significantly larger share of men identifying as avid fans of the sport than women.

Women’s professional sports fans in the U.S.

Women’s professional sports viewership in the U.S. has grown significantly in recent years, helped at least partially by tournament victories across a wide range of sporting categories. When asked about the reason behind their interest in women’s sport in the U.S., nearly a third of respondents highlighted international events such as the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup as primary motivators for their interest. Meanwhile, when asked about the role of advertisers in promoting the growth of women’s sport in the U.S., more than half of survey participants believed that media agencies had a responsibility to do so.

Starting in the 2007 season, several games of each NFL season have taken place outside of the United States in what is collectively known as the NFL International Series. Many of the games have taken place in London, including at Wembley Stadium and Twickenham Stadium. The 2024 contest between the New England Patriots and the Jacksonville Jaguars was played in front of over 86 thousand fans at Wembley Stadium.

Of the big four professional sports leagues in North America, the NFL and the NBA have the highest percentage of African American players. In 2023, 70.4 percent of NBA players were African American, as well as half of the head coaches within the league.

During an August 2023 survey in the United States, over 60 percent of NFL fans aged 18 to 29 stated that they participated in a fantasy football league in 2022. In comparison, this figure fell to just 26 percent among NFL fans aged 30 or older.

There are widely considered to be four major professional men's sports leagues in the United States and Canada - NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. The professional soccer league (MLS) has also achieved some popularity in the United States in recent years. During a 2019 survey, 27 percent of Hispanic respondents stated that the National Football League, NFL, was their favorite men's U.S. professional sports league to follow.

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest events on the sporting calendar. The main game attracts millions of viewers every year, but the event is about more than just a game of football. The halftime show, which features some of the biggest stars in music, has grown to be almost as significant and hotly-anticipated as the game itself. The 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, which starred Kendrick Lamar, attracted an audience of over 133 million viewers, making it the most watched Super Bowl halftime show on record.