<P> The National Football League (NFL) regular season begins the weekend after Labor Day in early September and ends in December or early January . It consists of 256 games, where each team (32 total) plays 16 games during a 17 - week period . Since 2012, the NFL schedule generally has games in one of five time slots during the week . The first game of the week is played on Thursday night, kicking off at 8: 25 PM (ET). The majority of games are played on Sunday, most kicking off at 1: 00 PM (ET), some late afternoon games starting at 4: 05 or 4: 25 PM (ET). Additionally, one Sunday night game is played every week at 8: 30 PM (ET). One Monday night game then starts at 8: 30 PM (ET) every week with the exception of the first week of the regular season, in which two Monday night games are played back - to - back (the second game always occurring on the West coast), as well as the last week of the season, in which no Monday night game is held . In addition to these regularly scheduled games, there are occasionally games at other times, such as a Saturday afternoon or evening, or the annual Thanksgiving Day games in which three games are played . During the final week of the regular season, all games are held on Sunday . </P> <P> In place since 2006, the current broadcasting contract establishes broadcast partners for each game . The Sunday afternoon games are broadcast either on CBS or Fox . CBS has the broadcast rights for teams in the American Football Conference while Fox has the rights for teams in the National Football Conference . In games where teams from both conferences play each other, the network with the broadcast rights for the "away" team will broadcast the game . In each local television market, three Sunday afternoon games are shown . One of the two networks gets a doubleheader, while the other network has the right to broadcast a single game; the networks alternate weeks when each has the right to the doubleheader . Doubleheader games are broadcast at 1: 00 (ET) and 4: 25 PM (ET). The network with the single game will have an official kick - off time at either 1: 00 PM (ET) or 4: 05 PM (ET). In addition to the regular Sunday afternoon games, there are three prime time games each week . The Thursday night game is broadcast by the NFL Network (with, starting in 2016, five of those Thursday games also being simulcast by CBS and another five on NBC). The Sunday night game is broadcast by NBC, while the Monday night game is broadcast by ESPN . </P>

How many weeks are in the regular nfl season