When Did the NFL Playoffs Start?
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The NFL playoffs have been a staple of American football for decades. But when did they first start? Let’s take a look at the history of the NFL playoffs.
Introduction
The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Prior to the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, the two leagues had separate playoff systems; the NFL played a 14-team single-elimination tournament while the AFL had a four-team double-elimination tournament. When the two leagues merged in 1970, they adopted a four-team playoff system. The number of teams was increased to six in 1975 and to eight in 1978. The number of teams has been fixed at 12 since 1990, when a sixth seed was added for each conference. Currently, three division winners and three wild card teams (the top two non-division winners with the best records) from each conference advance to the playoffs.
The Early Years of the NFL
The National Football League (NFL) playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the NFL regular season to determine the NFL champion. Seven teams from each of the league’s two conferences qualify for the playoffs. A fourth qualifying team is added in each conference if one or more teams have clinched a first-round bye as a result of having won their division and/or having had a better record than all wild card teams.
The First NFL Playoff Game
The first NFL playoff game was played on December 28, 1932, between the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans. The game was played to determine who would represent the NFL in the first ever NFL Championship Game. The Bears won the game 9-0 and went on to win the championship.
The First Super Bowl
The first Super Bowl was played on January 15, 1967, four weeks after the regular season ended. The Green Bay Packers, who had posted a 9-4-1 record during the regular season, defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, who had gone 11-2-1, by a score of 35-10.
Recent NFL Playoffs
In the current NFL Playoff format, which began in 2002, there are four rounds of playoff games. The Wild Card round consists of four games, two in each conference. The top two seeds in each conference receive a bye for the first round. In the Divisional Playoffs, the four winners from the previous round face off against the top two seeds in each conference. The Conference Championships are then held, pitting the winners of the previous round against each other to decide who goes to the Super Bowl.
Conclusion
The NFL playoffs have been around since the league’s inception in 1920, but they have undergone quite a few changes over the years. The biggest change came in 1967, when the league expanded from 12 teams to 14 teams. This meant that there were now more teams competing for the Lombardi Trophy, and the playoffs became more competitive as a result.
In 2010, the league expanded again to 32 teams, which resulted in even more changes to the playoff format. The most notable change was the addition of a wild card game, which gave teams that did not win their division a chance to compete for the Super Bowl.
The NFL playoffs are a time of excitement for football fans all over the world, and they are sure to continue evolving in the years to come.
