American Football League (Colony Crisis Averted)

The American Football League (AFL) is a professional American football league that constitutes one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America. It is composed of 41 teams divided equallybetween the Canadian Football Conference (CFC), National Football Conference (NFC), and the American Football Conference (AFC). As of 2014, the league will feature a 20-week regular season, which traditionally runs from late June to early November; each team plays 18 games with at least two bye weeks. Following the regular season, six teams compete in the league's three-week divisional playoffs, which culminate in the late-November Grey Cup championship, the country's largest annual sports and television event. The champions of the Grey Cup are awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The AFL was officially founded on January 19, 1958, making it the oldest professional gridiron football league in North America still in operation, although most of its teams long predate the modern formation of the league. The AFL is the second-most popular major sports league in the NAU, after the National Hockey League.