NFL Trivia Questions and Answers: 54 for Game Day

How to Run This NFL Quiz

The five rounds move from things every viewer sees on a Sunday to things only the history buffs know. Questions marked (Hard) usually need a name, a date or an exact number, so drop them for casual fans or save them for the last round.

Give each question about thirty seconds, then read the answer and the short note. The notes settle arguments, and in football there is always someone who remembers a different score.

If your group follows more than one sport, pair this list with our sports trivia questions, which cover soccer, the Olympics, basketball and baseball. Its football section is built around Hall of Fame receivers and running backs, so none of those players repeat here.

Round 1: The Rulebook and the Field

All ten answers come from the 2026 Official Playing Rules of the National Football League. This is the round where casual viewers score as well as die-hard fans.

1. How many players does each team have on the field at one time?
   Answer: Eleven. The rulebook says the game is played by two teams of 11 players each.
2. The rulebook sets the field at 360 feet by 160 feet. What is that in yards?
   Answer: 120 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide. The length includes two end zones, because each goal line sits 10 yards from its end line.
3. How long is an NFL game, and how is it divided?
   Answer: 60 minutes, split into four quarters of 15 minutes each.
4. Which scoring play is worth exactly two points?
   Answer: A safety. A touchdown is worth 6 points and a field goal 3.
5. After a touchdown, how many points can the try add?
   Answer: One point for a kick through the uprights, or two points for getting the ball into the end zone again.
6. How many charged timeouts does each team get per half?
   Answer: Three.
7. How many seconds does the offense have to snap the ball once the next play is ready?
   Answer: 40 seconds on the standard play clock. Going over is a delay of game.
8. What is the automatic timeout near the end of each half called?
   Answer: The two-minute warning.
9. How long is overtime in a regular-season game? (Hard)
   Answer: One period of 10 minutes. If the score is still tied at the end, the game ends in a tie. Playoff overtime periods last 15 minutes and continue until there is a winner.
10. Under the 2026 rules, can a team win regular-season overtime with a touchdown on the opening drive? (Hard)
    Answer: No. Both teams must have the chance to possess the ball once, unless the kicking team scores a safety on the first possession.

Round 2: How the League Began

These answers come from the Pro Football Hall of Fame's chronology of the game. They cover the years before television, when teams came and went every season.

1. In which Ohio city was the league founded on September 17, 1920?
   Answer: Canton. It is also why the Pro Football Hall of Fame is there.
2. What was the league called before it became the National Football League?
   Answer: The American Professional Football Association. It changed its name to the NFL on June 24, 1922.
3. Which famous athlete was elected the league's first president in 1920?
   Answer: Jim Thorpe. The Hall of Fame says the owners hoped to capitalize on his fame.
4. The first organizational meeting in August 1920 took place in what kind of business? (Hard)
   Answer: A car showroom: the Jordan and Hupmobile auto showroom in Canton.
5. Who became the first person known to be paid to play football, and how much did he receive? (Hard)
   Answer: William "Pudge" Heffelfinger, a former Yale guard, paid $500 for a game on November 12, 1892.
6. In 1922 the Chicago Staleys took a new name. What was it?
   Answer: The Chicago Bears.
7. Which team was the first to win two NFL titles?
   Answer: The Canton Bulldogs, champions in 1922 and 1923.
8. In the 1934 title game, the New York Giants swapped their cleats for what to grip an icy field? (Hard)
   Answer: Basketball shoes. They came back to beat the Bears 30-13 in what became known as the Sneakers Game.
9. Which expansion team, the NFL's 32nd franchise, joined the league for the 2002 season?
   Answer: The Houston Texans. Their arrival split the league into eight divisions of four teams.
10. In that 2002 realignment, which team moved from the AFC to the NFC?
    Answer: The Seattle Seahawks.

Round 3: Super Bowl History

This is the round to save for halftime. It runs from the first AFL-NFL title game in 1967 to the game scheduled for February 2027.

1. Which two teams played the first Super Bowl, and what was the score?
   Answer: The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 on January 15, 1967, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
2. Which quarterback was named MVP of both Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II?
   Answer: Bart Starr of the Packers.
3. Which team became the first AFL champion to win the Super Bowl?
   Answer: The New York Jets, who beat the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III on January 12, 1969. The Hall of Fame notes it was also the first time the NFL officially recognized the name Super Bowl.
4. The Super Bowl trophy is named after which coach?
   Answer: Vince Lombardi. It was renamed on September 10, 1970, a week after his death.
5. Which team completed the first perfect season in NFL history, 17-0?
   Answer: The 1972 Miami Dolphins, who beat Washington 14-7 in Super Bowl VII.
6. Which team was the first to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium?
   Answer: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who beat the Chiefs 31-9 in Super Bowl LV.
7. How many Super Bowls did Tom Brady win, and how many Super Bowl MVP awards did he collect?
   Answer: Seven titles and five MVP awards, both records.
8. What is the official name of the Super Bowl MVP trophy? (Hard)
   Answer: The Pete Rozelle Trophy, used since Super Bowl XXV.
9. Who won Super Bowl LX, and by what score?
   Answer: The Seattle Seahawks, 29-13 over the New England Patriots at Levi's Stadium in February 2026.
10. Who was the MVP of Super Bowl LX?
    Answer: Running back Kenneth Walker III, with 135 rushing yards. He was the first running back to win the award since Terrell Davis in Super Bowl XXXII.
11. Where and when will Super Bowl LXI be played?
    Answer: At SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on February 14, 2027.

Bonus for the table: no team has won three Super Bowls in a row. As of Super Bowl LX, the record is two straight, most recently by the Chiefs in Super Bowls LVII and LVIII.

Round 4: Team Names and Traditions

Team names often come from sponsors, owners and old baseball clubs. The Hall of Fame's history of franchise nicknames and the teams' own sites supply these answers.

1. Where does the name Packers come from?
   Answer: The team's early sponsors, first the Indian Packing Company and later the Acme Packing Company.
2. Which team has been a publicly owned, nonprofit corporation since 1923?
   Answer: The Green Bay Packers. None of their stockholders receives a dividend.
3. Which head coach are the Cleveland Browns named after?
   Answer: Paul Brown. A 1945 fan contest favored "Browns," and he agreed after the runner-up choice, "Panthers," turned out to belong to a local businessman.
4. What were the Pittsburgh Steelers called when they started in 1933?
   Answer: The Pirates, after the city's baseball team. Art Rooney Sr. changed the name in 1940 to reflect the steel industry.
5. Which franchise calls itself the oldest continuously run pro football team, dating to a Chicago club in 1898? (Hard)
   Answer: The Cardinals, who began as the Morgan Athletic Club and have played in Arizona since 1988.
6. The 1934 Thanksgiving game between the Lions and the Bears set which broadcasting first?
   Answer: It became the first NFL game broadcast nationally, on NBC radio.
7. In which city did the Raiders play their first home game at Allegiant Stadium in 2020?
   Answer: Las Vegas, where they beat the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football.
8. On what date did the Washington Football Team become the Washington Commanders? (Hard)
   Answer: February 2, 2022.

The Lions still open the holiday slate. On November 26, 2026 they host the Bears in their 86th Thanksgiving game, according to the NFL's schedule announcement. If your family plays games after the meal, our Thanksgiving games list has ideas that fit between the early and late kickoffs.

Round 5: Records Through the 2025 Season

Records change, so every answer in this round comes from the 2026 NFL Record & Fact Book, which covers the league through the 2025 season. Check it again after the 2026 season before you reuse the round.

1. Who holds the record for career passing yards?
   Answer: Tom Brady, with 89,214.
2. Who has thrown the most career touchdown passes?
   Answer: Tom Brady, with 649. Drew Brees is second with 571.
3. Who is the career rushing leader?
   Answer: Emmitt Smith, with 18,355 yards.
4. Who holds the single-season rushing record?
   Answer: Eric Dickerson, with 2,105 yards for the Los Angeles Rams in 1984.
5. In 2013, which quarterback set the single-season records for passing yards and touchdown passes?
   Answer: Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos, with 5,477 yards and 55 touchdowns.
6. Who leads the league in career sacks? (Hard)
   Answer: Bruce Smith, with 200. Sacks have only been an official statistic since 1982.
7. Which player has scored the most points in NFL history?
   Answer: Kicker Adam Vinatieri, with 2,673. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame with the Class of 2026 on August 8, 2026.
8. How long is the longest field goal in NFL history?
   Answer: 68 yards, by Jacksonville's Cam Little against the Raiders on November 2, 2025. Justin Tucker's 66-yarder from 2021 had held the record before.
9. In 1970, which New Orleans kicker set a record with a 63-yard field goal against Detroit? (Hard)
   Answer: Tom Dempsey. The kick won the game.
10. Which head coach has the most career victories, counting playoffs?
    Answer: Don Shula, with 347.

Five Closest-Number Tiebreakers

Each team writes one number. The closest answer wins, over or under, so a team can score without knowing the exact figure.

1. How many fans attended Super Bowl I at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum?
   Answer: 61,946.
2. How much did each winning Packers player receive for Super Bowl I?
   Answer: $15,000. Each losing Chiefs player received $7,500.
3. About how many stockholders own shares in the Green Bay Packers?
   Answer: 538,967, according to the team's shareholder page.
4. How large is the Pro Football Hall of Fame museum today, in square feet?
   Answer: 118,000, up from 19,000 when it opened in 1963.
5. How long is the crossbar of an NFL goal post?
   Answer: 18 feet, 6 inches, with its top face 10 feet above the ground.

If a tie survives all five, ask for the members of the Hall of Fame Class of 2026. The team that names the most of Drew Brees, Roger Craig, Larry Fitzgerald, Luke Kuechly and Adam Vinatieri wins.