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This Web Page covers
American Football
whether NFL or Other Pro/Amateur Football,
including the annual NFL Superbowl.
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American FootballPictured below: The NFL’s Most Valuable Teams 2019: Cowboys Lead League At $5.5 Billion (Forbes)
​American football, referred to as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end.

The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or passing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves.

The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins.

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. The first American football match was played on November 6, 1869, between two college teams, Rutgers and Princeton, using rules based on the rules of soccer at the time.

A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward by Walter Camp, the "Father of American Football", established the snap, the line of scrimmage, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs. Later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone and specified the size and shape of the football.

The sport is closely related to Canadian football, which evolved in parallel with and at the same time as the American game (although their rules were developed independently from that of Camp's). Most of the features that distinguish American football from rugby and soccer are also present in Canadian football.

The two sports are considered the primary variants of gridiron football.

American football is the most popular sport in the United States. The most popular forms of the game are professional and college football, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. As of 2012, nearly 1.1 million high school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually.

The National Football League, the most popular American football league, has the highest average attendance of any professional sports league in the world. Its championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched club sporting events in the world. The league has an annual revenue of around US$10 billion.

Other professional leagues exist worldwide, but the sport does not have the international popularity of other American sports like baseball or basketball.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for more about American Football:






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​NCAA College Bowl Games including Heisman Trophy Winners
YouTube Video Clemson vs Ohio State | Orange Bowl | ACC Football Highlights
Pictured: The Rose Bowl (Pasadena, CA: 2016) and the Orange Bowl (Miami Gardens, FL: 1968)
Click here for a list of Heisman Trophy Winners.

Six bowl games are currently part of the College Football Playoff, a selection system that creates bowl matchups involving twelve of the top-ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. There are also a number of other college football postseason invitationals, as well as several all-star games.

For nearly a century, bowl games were the purview of only the very best teams, but a steady proliferation of new bowl games required 70 participating teams by the 2010–11 bowl season. With NCAA bylaw changes in 2010, teams no longer required a winning record (allowing any 6-6 team to participate), with a further change in August 2012 allowing teams with outright losing records (5-7) to be invited by the particular bowl's sponsoring agency.

For the 2015–16 bowl season, the number of team-competitive (excluding all-star) bowl games increased to 41 (including the College Football Playoff final game which matches two bowl game winners) requiring 80 teams to participate, of which 15 did not have a winning record.

Bowl games are not limited to the Bowl Subdivision; teams in the three lower divisions of the NCAA (the championship subdivision, and Divisions II and III) are also allowed to participate in bowl games.

The playoff structure in those three divisions discourages most high-caliber teams from participating in bowl games, as teams would rather contest for the national championship than play in a bowl game. The same basic guidelines for bowl eligibility apply for those contests.

As of 2015, one bowl game exists for the championship subdivision, three bowls serve Division II and none exist for teams in Division III (with the exception of the Stagg Bowl, which is not a bowl in the same sense but a name for the Division III playoff tournament's championship game).

Past and present community college bowl games, not sanctioned by the NCAA, are also listed.








​National Football League (NFL) including the Superbowl and Pro Football Hall of Fame and its Inductees ​Pictured: The NFL includes 32 teams divided up into 2 Conferences: The NFC and the AFC. Each 16-team conference is divided up into 4 divisions: The North, East, South and West. Each division therefore has 4 teams in it that are roughly in the part of the country the division is named for. Here they are below:

The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The NFL is one of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, and the highest professional level of American football in the world.

The NFL's 17-week regular season runs from the week after Labor Day to the week after Christmas, with each team playing 16 games and having one bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, six teams from each conference (four division winners and two wild card teams) advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Super Bowl, played between the champions of the NFC and AFC.

​Today, the NFL has the highest average attendance (67,591) of any professional sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States. The Super Bowl is among the biggest club sporting events in the world and individual Super Bowl games account for many of the most watched television programs in American history, all occupying the Nielsen's Top 5 tally of the all-time most watched U.S. television broadcasts by 2015. 

The NFL's executive officer is the commissioner, who has broad authority in governing the league.

The team with the most NFL championships is the Green Bay Packers with thirteen (nine NFL titles before the Super Bowl era, and four Super Bowl championships afterwards); the team with the most Super Bowl championships is the Pittsburgh Steelers with six. The current NFL champions are the Denver Broncos, who defeated the Carolina Panthers 24–10 in Super Bowl 50.

Click on any of the following blue hyperlinks for further amplification:






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​Brothers Eli Manning and Peyton Manning: former NFL Star Quarterbacks Pictured below: Peyton, Eli glad to be getting Manning Bowl III out of way
Peyton Williams Manning (born March 24, 1976) is a former American football quarterback who played 18 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Indianapolis Colts.

Considered to be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time due to his numerous career achievements, he spent 14 seasons with the Colts and was a member of the Denver Broncos in his last four seasons. Manning played college football for the University of Tennessee, leading the Tennessee Volunteers to the 1997 SEC Championship in his senior season. He is the second son of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning and older brother of New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (see below).

Manning was selected by the Colts as the first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft. From 1998 to 2010, he improved the fortunes of the struggling Colts franchise and helped transform them into consistent playoff contenders.

During his tenure as starting quarterback, Manning led the team to eight division championships, two AFC championships, and one Super Bowl title, the franchise's first in over three decades, as well as their first since relocating to Indianapolis.

After undergoing neck surgery that forced him to miss the entire 2011 season, Manning was released by the Colts and signed with the Broncos. Serving as the team's starting quarterback from 2012 to 2015, he contributed to the Broncos reaching the top of their division each year and his playing career concluded with a victory in Super Bowl 50.

Manning holds many NFL records, including touchdown passes (539), AP MVP awards (5), Pro Bowl appearances (14), 4,000-yard passing seasons (14), single-season passing yards (5,477 in 2013), single-season passing touchdowns (55 in 2013), tied for most First-Team All Pros for a quarterback with 7, and is second in career passing yards (71,940).

A two-time Super Bowl winner and the most valuable player of Super Bowl XLI, Manning is also the only quarterback to start the Super Bowl for two franchises more than once each, with different coaches at each Super Bowl start (Dungy, Caldwell, Fox, Kubiak), and the only starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl with two franchises. At 39 years of age,

Manning was the oldest quarterback to start in and win a Super Bowl until Tom Brady surpassed him by winning a Super Bowl at 41.

During a 2009 Monday Night Football game, Manning received the nickname "The Sheriff" from color commentator Jon Gruden due to his tendency to audible prior to the snap, and he was one of the most recognizable and parodied players in the NFL. Teams led by Manning typically utilized the hurry-up offense in place of the standard huddle.

Click here for more about Peyton Manning.
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Elisha ("Eli") Nelson Manning IV (born January 3, 1981) is an American football quarterback for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at the University of Mississippi from 2000 to 2003. He was drafted as the first overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers and was immediately traded to the Giants who in return gave up a package, highlighted by fourth overall selection Philip Rivers.

Manning is the son of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning and the younger brother of former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning (see above).

Manning holds Giants franchise records for most passing yards, touchdown passes, and completed passes in a career. In 2012, in a 41–34 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he threw for 510 yards, 3 yards short of Phil Simms' record of 513. He led the Giants to victory in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI, defeating the New England Patriots in both games.

Manning was named Most Valuable Player in both Super Bowls, becoming one of five players to have multiple Super Bowl MVP awards (Bart Starr and Terry Bradshaw also have two, Joe Montana three and Tom Brady four).

Manning started 210 straight games from 2004 to 2017, the second-longest consecutive starts streak by a quarterback in NFL history. He is the seventh all-time leader in passing yards and eighth in touchdowns.

Though lacking his brother's regular-season consistency and high-caliber performances, Manning is known for his two improbable Super Bowl-winning postseason runs in 2007 and 2011, in which he led an underdog Giants squad to Super Bowl victories twice against the Patriots

Click here for more about Eli Manning.







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Quarterback Tom Brady and the two NFL Teams He  has Quarterbacked: 
  1. ​England Patriots 
  2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
​YouTube Videos below:
[Updated 1/27/2022]

Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots, where he was a central contributor to the franchise's dynasty from 2001 to 2019. Brady is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback of all time.

After playing college football at Michigan, Brady was selected 199th overall by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft, later earning him a reputation as the NFL's biggest draft steal. He became the starting quarterback during his second season, which saw the Patriots win their first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVI. As the team's primary starter for 18 seasons. 

Brady led the Patriots to:
  • 17 division titles (including 11 consecutive titles from 2009 to 2019),
  • 13 AFC Championship Games (including eight consecutive from 2011 to 2018),
  • nine Super Bowl appearances,
  • and six Super Bowl titles,
  • all NFL records for a player and franchise. 

Brady joined the Buccaneers in 2020 and led them to win Super Bowl LV, extending his individual records to 10 Super Bowl appearances and seven victories.

Brady holds many career quarterback records, including:
  • passing yards,
  • completions,
  • touchdown passes,
  • and games started,
  • in addition to the most Pro Bowl selections.

Never having a losing season, he is the NFL leader in career quarterback wins, quarterback regular season wins, quarterback playoff wins, and Super Bowl MVP awards, as well as the only Super Bowl MVP for two different teams.

Brady has also been noted for the longevity of his success, being the only quarterback to win a Super Bowl in three consecutive decades. At age 43 in Super Bowl LV, he is the oldest player to be named Super Bowl MVP and win a Super Bowl as the starting quarterback, along with being the oldest NFL MVP at age 40 in 2017. Brady is the only NFL quarterback named to two all-decade teams (2000s and 2010s) and was unanimously named to the 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019.

​Click here for more about Tom Brady.
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The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division.

The team plays its home games at Gillette Stadium in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is located 28 miles (45 km) southwest of downtown Boston. The Patriots are also headquartered at Gillette Stadium.

Founded in 1959 as the Boston Patriots, an original member of the American Football League (AFL), the team joined the NFL in the leagues' 1970 merger, then changed its name when it moved to Foxborough in 1971. The New England Patriots played their home games at Foxboro Stadium through 2001, then moved to Gillette Stadium at the start of the 2002 season. The Patriots' rivalry with the New York Jets is considered one of the most bitter rivalries in the NFL.

Since the arrival of head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady (below) in 2000, the Patriots have become one of the most successful teams in NFL history, claiming 16 AFC East titles as part of 18 consecutive winning seasons since 2001.

The franchise has since set numerous notable records, including:
  • most wins in a ten-year period (126, in 2003–2012),
  • an undefeated 16-game regular season in 2007,
  • the longest winning streak consisting of regular season and playoff games in NFL history (a 21-game streak from October 2003 to October 2004),
  • and the most consecutive division titles won by a team in NFL history (11 straight division titles from 2009 to 2019).

The team owns the record for most Super Bowl appearances (nine) and wins (six) by a head coach–quarterback tandem, most conference championships overall (11), most Super Bowl appearances overall (11).

The Patriots are tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Super Bowl wins (six), and with the Denver Broncos for the most Super Bowl losses (five).

Following the 2019 season, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski left for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Click here for more about the New England Patriots.
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division.

The club joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team, along with the Seattle Seahawks, and played its first season in the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Prior to the 1977 season, Tampa Bay switched conferences and divisions with Seattle, becoming a member of the NFC Central division. As a result of the league's realignment prior to the 2002 season, the Buccaneers joined three former NFC West teams to form the NFC South.

The club is owned by the Glazer family and plays its home games at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

The Buccaneers have won two Super Bowl championships and, along with the Baltimore Ravens, are the only two NFL franchises who are undefeated in multiple Super Bowl appearances. They were regarded as a perennial losing franchise for most of their first two decades due to suffering 26 consecutive losses in their first two seasons (including a winless inaugural season) and 14 consecutive losing seasons from 1983 to 1996.

Despite these early struggles, Tampa Bay is the first post-merger expansion team to clinch a division title, win a playoff game, and host a conference championship; feats they accomplished by their fourth season in 1979.

The team's image improved by the time of their first championship in 2002, also the first for a franchise built after the merger, but they would not win another playoff game until their second Super Bowl championship season in 2020.

Concurrent to the lack of success outside of their Super Bowl wins, the Buccaneers hold the NFL's lowest winning percentage at .404.

Click Here for More About the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.







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National Football Conference (NFC)Pictured below: The National Football Conference Divisions and teams
The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL). The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference (AFC), each contain 16 teams organized into 4 divisions.

Both conferences were created as part of the 1970 NFL merger with the rival American Football League (AFL), with all ten of the former AFL teams and three NFL teams forming the AFC while the remaining thirteen NFL clubs formed the NFC. A series of league expansions and division realignments have occurred since the merger, thus making the total of 16 clubs in each conference.

The defending NFC champions are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who defeated the Green Bay Packers in the 2020 NFC Championship Game for their second conference championship.

​Teams:

Since 2002, like the AFC, the NFC has 16 teams that organized into four divisions each with four teams: East, North, South, and West:

Season Makeup:
Main articles: NFL regular season and NFL playoffs

The fourteen opponents each team faces over the 17-game regular season schedule are set using a pre-determined formula:

Each NFC team plays the other teams in their respective division twice (home and away) during the regular season, in addition to eleven other games assigned to their schedule by the NFL: three games are assigned on the basis of a particular team's final divisional standing from the previous season, and the remaining eight games are split between the roster of two other NFL divisions.

This assignment shifts each year and will follow a standard cycle. Using the 2021 regular season schedule as an example, each team in the NFC East plays against every team in the NFC South and AFC West. In this way, non-divisional competition will be mostly among common opponents – the exception being the three games assigned based on the team's prior-season divisional standing.

At the end of each season, the four division winners and three wild cards (non-division winners with best regular season record) in the NFC qualify for the playoffs. The NFC playoffs culminate in the NFC Championship Game with the winner receiving the George S. Halas Trophy.

The NFC champion then plays the AFC champion in the Super Bowl.

History:

Both the AFC and NFC were created after the NFL merged with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970. When the AFL began play in 1960 with eight teams, the NFL consisted of 13 clubs.

By 1969, the AFL had expanded to ten teams and the NFL to 16 clubs. In order to balance the merged league, all ten of the former AFL teams along with the NFL's Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Baltimore Colts formed the AFC, while the remaining 13 NFL teams formed the NFC.

While the newly formed AFC had already agreed upon and set up their divisional alignment plan along almost purely geographic lines, team owners could not agree to a plan on how to align the clubs in the NFC.

The alignment proposals were narrowed down to five finalists (each one sealed in an envelope), and then the plan that was eventually selected was picked out of a glass bowl by then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle's secretary, Thelma Elkjer, on January 16, 1970.

The five alignment plans for the NFC in 1970 were as follows, with Plan 3 eventually selected:
Three expansion teams have joined the NFC since the merger, thus making the total 16.

When the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined the league in 1976, they were temporarily placed in the NFC and AFC, respectively, for one season before they switched conferences. The Seahawks returned to the NFC as a result of the 2002 realignment.

The Carolina Panthers joined the NFC in 1995.

Parity is generally greater among NFC teams than AFC teams. The only NFC team that has never made a Super Bowl appearance is the Detroit Lions.

Since the 2002 division realignment, the NFC has sent 12 different teams to the Super Bowl, whereas the AFC has only sent 7:
The only NFC team to make back to back Super Bowls since 2002 are the Seattle Seahawks.

As of 2021, the only pre-merger team that does not play in its 1969 market is the St. Louis Cardinals, who moved in 1988 to Phoenix suburb of Tempe (they moved to Glendale in 2006).

The Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995, but moved back to Los Angeles in 2016.

None of the expansion teams added after 1970 have relocated.

With the exception of the aforementioned relocations since that time, the divisional setup established in 2002 has remained static ever since.

Logo:

The original NFC logo, in use from 1970 to 2009, depicted a blue 'N' with three stars across it. The three stars represented the three divisions that were used from 1970 to 2001 (Eastern, Central and Western). The 2010 NFL season brought an updated NFC logo. Largely similar to the old logo, the new logo has a fourth star, representing the four divisions that have composed the NFC since 2002.

Television:

CBS aired the NFC's Sunday afternoon and playoffs games from 1970 through the 1993 season.

From 1994 to 2013, Fox was the primary rightsholder to the NFC's games. In those years, all interconference games in which the NFC team was the visiting team were broadcast on either CBS or Fox.

Since 2014, the cross-flex policy allows select NFC games (that involve them playing an AFC team at home or intraconference games) to be moved from Fox to CBS. Since 1990, select NFC playoff games have been seen on ABC or ESPN.

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American Football Conference (AFC)Pictured below: The American Football Conference Divisions and teams
​The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. This conference currently contains 16 teams organized into 4 divisions, as does its counterpart, the National Football Conference (See above: NFC).

Both conferences were created as part of the 1970 merger between the National Football League, and the American Football League (AFL). All ten of the AFL teams, and three NFL teams, became members of the new AFC, with the remaining thirteen NFL teams forming the NFC.

A series of league expansions and division realignments have occurred since the merger, thus making the current total of 16 teams in each conference. The current AFC champions are the Kansas City Chiefs, who defeated the Buffalo Bills in the 2020 AFC Championship Game for their second consecutive conference championship.

Teams:

Like the NFC, the conference has 16 teams organized into four divisions each with four
teams: East, North, South and West:
​Season Makeup
Main articles: NFL regular season and NFL playoffs

Currently, the fourteen opponents each team faces over the 17-game regular season schedule are set using a pre-determined formula:
  • Each AFC team plays the other teams in their respective division twice (home and away) during the regular season, in addition to eleven other games assigned to their schedule by the NFL:
  • three games are assigned on the basis of a particular team's final divisional standing from the previous season, and the remaining eight games are split between the roster of two other NFL divisions.
  • This assignment shifts each year and will follow a standard cycle. Using the 2021 regular season schedule as an example, each team in the AFC West plays against every team in the AFC North and NFC East. In this way, non-divisional competition will be mostly among common opponents – the exception being the three games assigned based on the team's prior-season divisional standing.
  • At the end of each season, the four division winners and three wild cards (non-division winners with best regular season record) in the AFC qualify for the playoffs.
  • The AFC playoffs culminate in the AFC Championship Game, with the winner receiving the Lamar Hunt Trophy. The AFC champion then plays the NFC champion in the Super Bowl.

History:

​Both the AFC and the NFC were created after the NFL merged with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970. The AFL began play in 1960 with eight teams, and added two more expansion clubs (the Miami Dolphins in 1966 and the Cincinnati Bengals in 1968) before the merger.

In order to equalize the number of teams in each conference, three NFL teams that predated the AFL's launch (the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, and the then-Baltimore Colts) joined the ten former AFL teams to form the AFC. The two AFL divisions AFL East and AFL West were more or less intact, while the NFL's Century Division, in which the Browns and the Steelers had played since 1967, was moved from the NFL to become the new AFC Central.

Upon the completion of the merger of the AFL and NFL in 1970, the newly minted American Football Conference had already agreed upon their divisional setup along mostly geographical lines for the 1970 season; the National Football Conference, however, could not agree upon their setup, and one was chosen from a fishbowl on January 16, 1970.

Since the merger, five expansion teams have joined the AFC and two have left, thus making the current total 16. When the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined the league in 1976, they were temporarily placed in the NFC and AFC respectively. This arrangement lasted for one season only before the two teams switched conferences.

The Seahawks eventually returned to the NFC as a result of the 2002 realignment. The expansion Jacksonville Jaguars joined the AFC in 1995. There have been five teams that have relocated at least once. In 1984, the Baltimore Colts relocated to Indianapolis.

In 1995, the Cleveland Browns had attempted to move to Baltimore; the resulting dispute between Cleveland and the team led to Modell establishing the Baltimore Ravens with the players and personnel from the Browns, while the Browns were placed in suspended operations before they were reinstated by the NFL. The Ravens were treated as an expansion team.

In California, the Oakland Raiders relocated to Los Angeles in 1982, back to Oakland in 1995, and then to Las Vegas in 2020, while the San Diego Chargers returned to Los Angeles in 2017 after 56 years in San Diego.

The Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee in 1997, where they were renamed the Tennessee Oilers. The team would change its name again, two years later, to the Tennessee Titans.

The NFL would again expand in 2002, adding the Houston Texans to the AFC. With the exception of the aforementioned relocations since that time, the divisional setup has remained static ever since.

Between 1995 and 2020, the AFC has sent only half of its 16 teams to the Super Bowl: 
By contrast, the NFC has sent 13 of the 16 NFC teams during that same time frame with only the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, and Washington Football Team missing out on an appearance in the Super Bowl. 16 of the last 19 AFC champions have started one of just three quarterbacks - Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger - in the Super Bowl. The AFC has started 6 quarterbacks in the last 19 Super Bowls, while the NFC has started 16.

Logo:

The merged league created a new logo for the AFC that took elements of the old AFL logo, specifically the "A" and the six stars surrounding it. The AFC logo basically remained unchanged from 1970 to 2009.

The 2010 NFL season introduced an updated AFC logo, with the most notable revision being the removal of two stars (leaving four representing the four divisions of the AFC), and moving the stars inside the letter, similar to the NFC logo.

Television:

NBC aired the AFC's Sunday afternoon and playoff games from 1970 through the 1997 season. From 1998 to 2013, CBS was the primary broadcast rightsholder to the AFC; in those years, all interconference games in which the AFC team was the visiting team were broadcast on either NBC or CBS.

Since 2014, the cross-flex policy allows select AFC games (that involve them playing an NFC team at home or intraconference games) to be moved from CBS to Fox. Since 1990, select AFC playoff games have been seen on ABC or ESPN.

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National Football Conference North Pictured below left in Clockwise Order: Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, and the Green Bay Packers
The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and tough rivalry games between the teams, it currently has four members: the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Minnesota Vikings.

The NFC North was previously known as the NFC Central from 1970 to 2001. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were previously members, from 1977, one year after they joined the league as an expansion team, until 2002 when they moved to the NFC South.

The division was created in 1967 as the Central Division of the NFL's Eastern Conference and existed for three seasons before the AFL–NFL merger. After the merger, it was renamed the NFC Central and retained that name until the NFL split into eight divisions in 2002.

The four current division teams have been together in the same division or conference since the Vikings joined the league in 1961. The Bears, Lions (known as the Portsmouth Spartans until 1934) and Packers have been in the same division or conference since the NFL began a conference format in 1933.

Largely because the four teams have played each other at least twice a year, with the exception of the strike-shortened 1982 season, for more than 60 years (more than 80 years in the case of the Bears, Lions and Packers), the entire division is considered one very large rivalry.

The division has a total of five Super Bowl wins. The Packers have won four and the Bears one, with the most recent happening at the conclusion of the 2010 season. Of the ten NFL teams with the highest winning percentage throughout their respective franchise histories, three of them are in the NFC North (the Packers, the Bears, and the Vikings).

Conversely, the Lions have one of the lowest winning percentages in the NFL, including the first winless 16-game season in NFL history, in 2008. The division has the second-longest active Super Bowl drought, only ahead of the AFC South. Since 2010, the division has lost the conference championship five times (four for the Packers and one for the Vikings)

The Packers hold an overall regular season record of 763–577–38 with an overall playoff record of 35–23, four Super Bowl titles in five Super Bowl appearances, and nine pre-Super Bowl league titles. The Bears hold an overall regular season record of 774–596–42 with an overall playoff record of 17–19, one Super Bowl title in two Super Bowl appearances, and eight pre-Super Bowl league titles.

The Vikings hold an overall regular season record of 492–409–11 with an overall playoff record of 21–30, no Super Bowl titles in four Super Bowl appearances, and one pre-Super Bowl league title. The Lions hold an overall regular season record of 566–677–33 with an overall playoff record of 7-13, and four pre-Super Bowl league titles. They have yet to appear in a Super Bowl.

The division earned the moniker "Black and Blue Division" due to its intense rivalries and physical style of play, and this nickname is still used regularly today. It is also known as the "Frostbite Division" as all teams played home games in late season winter cold until the mid-1970s.

The division is also humorously called the "Frozen North", although Detroit has played its home games indoors since 1975, and Minnesota also did so from 1982 to 2013 and returned to indoor home games at U.S. Bank Stadium in 2016.

ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman often refers to this division as the "NFC Norris" because of its geographical similarity to the National Hockey League's former Norris Division, although in a twist of irony the NHL dropped the Norris name in favor of Central almost a decade before the NFL dropped the Central name in favor of North.

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Chicago Bears, NFC North Division Pictured below: The 1985 Chicago Bears were the best team in franchise history
​The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NFL Championships, including one Super Bowl, and hold the NFL record for the most enshrinees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the most retired jersey numbers. The Bears have also recorded more victories than any other NFL franchise.

The franchise was founded in Decatur, Illinois, on September 17, 1920, and moved to Chicago in 1921. It is one of only two remaining franchises from the NFL's founding in 1920, along with the Arizona Cardinals, which was originally also in Chicago.

The team played home games at Wrigley Field on Chicago's North Side through the 1970 season; they now play at Soldier Field on the Near South Side, adjacent to Lake Michigan.

The Bears have a long-standing rivalry with the Green Bay Packers.

The team headquarters, Halas Hall, is in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois. The Bears practice at adjoining facilities there during the season, and began hosting Training Camp at Halas Hall in 2020 after major renovations.

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Detroit Lions, NFC North DivisionPictured below: The Detroit Lions Have the NFL’s Most Promising Rebuild
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team plays its home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.

The franchise was founded in Portsmouth, Ohio as the Portsmouth Spartans and joined the NFL on July 12, 1930. Amid financial struggles, the team was relocated to Detroit in 1934. The team was also renamed the Lions in reference to the city's Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, the Tigers.

​The Lions won four NFL Championship Games between 1935 and 1957, all prior to the Super Bowl era. Since the 1957 championship, the franchise has won only a single playoff game during the 1991 season and holds the league's longest postseason win drought. They are the only franchise operational for the entirety of the Super Bowl era to not appear in the Super Bowl.

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Green Bay Packers, NFC North DivisionPictured below: Green Bay Packers: The Key Reasons Why They Are Super Bowl XLV Champs
The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the third-oldest franchise in the NFL, dating back to 1919, and is the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team based in the United States. Home games have been played at Lambeau Field since 1957.

The Packers are the last of the "small town teams" which were common in the NFL during the league's early days of the 1920s and 1930s. Founded in 1919 by Earl "Curly" Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun, the franchise traces its lineage to other semi-professional teams in Green Bay dating back to 1896.

Between 1919 and 1920, the Packers competed against other semi-pro clubs from around Wisconsin and the Midwest, before joining the American Professional Football Association (APFA), the forerunner of today's NFL, in 1921.

In 1933, the Packers began playing part of their home slate in Milwaukee until changes at Lambeau Field in 1995 made it more lucrative to stay in Green Bay full time; Milwaukee is still considered a home media market for the team.

Although Green Bay is by far the smallest major league professional sports market in North America, Forbes ranked the Packers as the world's 27th most valuable sports franchise in 2019, with a value of $2.63 billion.

The Packers have won 13 league championships, the most in NFL history, with nine pre-Super Bowl NFL titles and four Super Bowl victories. The Packers won the first two Super Bowls in 1966 and 1967 and were the only NFL team to defeat the American Football League (AFL) prior to the AFL–NFL merger.

The Vince Lombardi Trophy is named after the Packers' coach Vince Lombardi, who guided them to their first two Super Bowls. Their two subsequent Super Bowl wins came in 1996 under head coach Mike Holmgren and 2010 under head coach Mike McCarthy. 

Additionally, the Packers have recorded the most wins (804) and the highest win–loss record (.571) in NFL history, including both regular season and playoff games. 

The Packers are long-standing adversaries of the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, and Detroit Lions, who today form the NFL's NFC North division (formerly known as the NFC Central Division).

The Packer have played over 100 games against each of those teams through history, and have a winning overall record against all of them, a distinction only shared with the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys. The Bears–Packers rivalry is one of the oldest rivalries in U.S. professional sports history, dating back to 1921.

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Minnesota Vikings, NFC North DivisionPictured below: ​The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
​The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. 

Founded in 1960 as an expansion team, the team began play the following year. They are named after the Vikings of ancient Scandinavia, reflecting the prominent Scandinavian American culture of Minnesota. The team plays its home games at U.S. Bank Stadium in the Downtown East section of Minneapolis.

The Vikings have an all-time overall record of 516–442–11, the highest regular season and combined winning percentage among NFL franchises who have not won a Super Bowl, in addition the most playoff runs, division titles, and (tied with the Buffalo Bills) Super Bowl appearances. 

The Vikings also have the most conference championship appearances of non-winning Super Bowl teams, with them being one of three (along with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams) to appear in a conference championship every decade since the 1970s. The only NFL franchise with winning regular season and combined records to not win a Super Bowl, the Vikings hold the NFL franchise record for most playoff losses in league history at 30.

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