NFL Football Games Today is an independent website. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the National Football League or any NFL team.
Where the data comes from
Schedules, scores and game statistics come from a third-party sports data service (the Sports Information API, accessed through RapidAPI). They are not official league data. The provider’s data can be delayed, incomplete or corrected after the fact, and so can ours.
Our servers request updates from the provider on a schedule. Your visit never triggers a request to the provider: pages are built from data we have already stored.
How often data updates
- While games are in progress, we check for new scores about every 30 seconds and refresh player and team statistics about every 2 minutes.
- Every game shows when its data was last updated, in US Eastern Time.
- If a live game has not been refreshed recently (about 90 seconds), we label it Delayed instead of Live.
- Final scores are checked again shortly after each game and about an hour later. Statistics are marked provisional until that check is done.
- Games first loaded a day or more after they ended are treated as already checked.
Times
Kickoff times are shown in US Eastern Time (ET), which is how the league schedules games. Late games that end after midnight ET still belong to the day they kicked off.
Standings
We calculate standings ourselves from final scores. A tie counts as half a win and half a loss. Canceled games are not counted, so teams can have played different numbers of games, and that is why we rank by winning percentage. The NFL’s official standings always take precedence over ours.
Tiebreakers and the playoff picture
We apply the NFL’s published tie-breaking procedures for division and wild-card ties, including the rules for three or more tied teams. Each team’s tiebreak column shows which step decided its place.
- Steps that depend on points or touchdowns are used only when every game involved has been played. If a tie can only be settled by those steps, or by a coin toss, we show the teams as tied (marked “=”) rather than guessing.
- The coin toss is never simulated.
- The playoff picture shows seeds if the season ended today. We do not label teams as having clinched or been eliminated unless that has been mathematically proven.
The playoff predictor
The predictor shows your own projection, built from the winners you pick. It is not an official standing, a prediction by us, or betting advice. Games you do not pick are not counted. Your picks are kept in the page address so you can share them; we do not store them.
TV listings
Networks are shown only after an editor has checked them against an official source. We never guess a broadcaster. Always check your local listings.
Corrections
If you spot an error, please tell us through the contact page. See our editorial policy.