Not For Long (National Football League or NFL nickname)
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league, headquartered in New York City. In 1988, Houston Oilers head coach Jerry Glanville said to an NFL official (video is at the 2011 citation below):
“This is the NFL which stands for Not For Long when you make those f———calls. I’ll be bagging groceries.”
In September 1990, Glanville was quoted as saying, “If you’re a head coach, NFL stands for ‘not for long.’” The playing career of an NFL player is short, and “Not For Long” is perhaps most often applied to NFL players.
Other NFL nicknames include “National Felons League,” “National Fixed League,” “NFHell,” “No Fun League,” “No Fan Left” and “No Fan Loyalty.”
Wikipedia: National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing its name to the National Football League in 1922. The league currently consists of thirty-two teams from the United States. The league is divided evenly into two conferences—the American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC), and each conference has four divisions that have four teams each, for a total of 16 teams in each conference. The NFL is an unincorporated 501(c)(6) association, a federal nonprofit designation, comprising its 32 teams.
Wikiquote: Jerry Glanville
Jerry Glanville (born October 14, 1941, in Perrysburg, Ohio) is a career American football coach who is currently the head coach for Portland State University.
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Unsourced
This is the NFL which stands for Not For Long when you make those f———calls. I’ll be bagging groceries.
. Said to a referee while coaching the Houston Oilers.
Abbreviations.com
What does NFL stand for?
Not For Long
25 September 1988, Boston (MA) Globe, “Glanville’s a tough act” by Ron Borges, Sports, pg. 66:
Since he often tells his team NFL stands for “Not For Long,” the word was not intimidating.
20 December 1988, Daily News of Los Angeles (CA), “Rams on Right Track”:
Consistency has been so hard to come by this pro football season that NFL has seemed to stand for Not For Long. Last week’s dynasty is next week’s dinosaur.
19 September 1990, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), pg. C1, col. 1:
And We Quote
Jerry Glanville, Atlanta Falcons coach: “If you’re a head coach, NFL stands for ‘not for long.’”
Google Books
Football’s Greatest Insults
By Kevin Nelson
New York, NY: Perigee Books
1991
Pg. 66:
Most NFL players have the life expectancy of kamikaze pilots. As Jerry Glanville has said, the NFL stands for “Not For Long.”
Google Books
The Best Things Anybody Ever Said About Sports, Management, & Marketing
By Louis E. Boone and David L. Kurtz
Australia: Thomson South-Western
2006
Pg. 144:
“If you’re a coach, NFL stands for ‘Not for Long.’”
Jerry Glanville (b. 1941)
former NFL coach and TV commentator
NFL.com
Pick Six: Glanville: ‘NFL means ‘Not For Long’
Published: Aug. 5, 2011 at 01:57 p.m.
00:15 – In 1988, Jerry Glanville coined the now famous acronym, “NFL, it means ‘Not For Long’.”
NFL.com
NFL referee Corrente steps away to continue cancer treatment
By Dan Hanzus
Published: Jan. 10, 2012 at 05:36 p.m. Updated: Jan. 10, 2012 at 07:29 p.m.
The 17th season of Tony Corrente’s career began with a painful thud. It also might have saved the NFL referee’s life.
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“You hear it’s the No Fun League, or it’s Not For Long,” Corrente told King. “I’ll tell you what the league is—it’s the National Family League. I’ve learned my glass isn’t half-full. It’s been full my whole life, and it’s full now.”
New York (NY) Times
In Comfortable Retirement, and Getting Tired of It
By TREVOR PRYCE
Published: April 21, 2012
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The players who are drafted this week will hear the same warnings. The N.F.L. stands for Not for Long, and if you don’t heed that advice, you will be another statistic. To avoid that fate, I started thinking about the end before my career even started.