The National Football League divided its teams into divisions in 1933 and began holding a single playoff championship game between division winners. In 1967, the NFL expanded and created four divisions, which led to the institution of a larger playoff tournament. After the merger with the American Football League, the NFL began to use a single wild card team in each conference in its playoffs, in order to produce eight contenders out of six divisions; this was later expanded so that more wild card teams could participate.
1932 - Chicago Bears and Portsmouth Spartans tie with the best record during the season, and thus play a playoff game to determine the NFL Champion.
1933 - NFL champion is decided by one single game between the two conference winners.
1967 - League expansion leads to a four-team playoff tournament.
1970 - With the AFL-NFL Merger, a eight-team playoff is designed. Along with the six division winners, one wild card team from each conference, the second place team with the best record, is added to the tournament.
1978 - Playoffs are expanded to a ten-team tournament, adding a second wild card team from each conference. The wild card teams play each other in the first round, called the Wild Card Playoffs. The six division winners would then automatically advance to the second round, called the Divisional Playoffs.
1990 - The NFL expands the playoffs to 12 teams by adding another wild card from each conference.
2002 - The 12-team playoff tournament is modified after the league expands to 32 teams. Four division winners and two wild cards from each conference now advance to the playoffs.
Current playoff system
At the conclusion of each 16-game regular season, six teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs, which culminate in the Super Bowl:
The four division champions, which are seeded #1 through #4 based on their regular season won-lost-tied record, and
Two wild card qualifiers (those non-division champions with the conference's best won-lost-tied percentages), who are seeded #5 and #6 within the conference.
The #3 and #6 seeded teams, and the #4 and #5 seeded teams, face each other during the first round of the playoffs, dubbed the "Wild Card Round." The #1 and #2 seeds from each conference do not participate in this round, earning an automatic berth in the following week's "Divisional Playoff" games, where they face the Wild Card survivors. The #1 seeded team plays against the lowest remaining seed while the #2 seeded team plays the other remaining team. In a given game, whoever has the higher seed gets the home field advantage.
The two surviving teams from the Divisional Playoff games meet in Conference Championship games, with the winners of those contests going on to face one another in the Super Bowl.
NFL Playoff History
For playoff games of the American Football League, see AFL playoffs
