NFL плей-оффы: жеңіліс-жеңіліс жүйесімен өтетін турнир

Single elimination postseason tournament from the National Football League

The National Football League (NFL) playoffs is the single elimination tournament to determine the annual league champion. The four round tournament is held after the league's regular season. Since the 2020 season, seven teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season winning percentage, with a tie breaking procedure if required. The top team in each conference receives a first round bye, automatically advancing to the next round. The tournament culminates in the Super Bowl, the league's championship game, competed between teams from each conference. NFL postseason history can be traced to the first NFL Championship Game in 1933, though in the early years, qualification for the game was based solely on regular season records. From 1933 to 1966, the NFL postseason generally only consisted of the NFL Championship Game, which pitted the league's two division winners against each other (pending any one game playoff matches that needed to be held to break ties in the division standings). In , the playoffs were expanded to four teams (division winners). When the league completed its merger with the American Football League (AFL) in , the playoffs were expanded to eight teams, which increased to ten in 1978, twelve in 1990, and fourteen in 2020. Among the four major professional sports leagues in the United States, the NFL postseason is the only one to use a single elimination tournament in all of its rounds. Major League Baseball (MLB) has traditionally used "best of" series formats, though its Wild Card postseason round, initiated in 2012, was a single game until 2022 when it was replaced with a best of three series. Both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Hockey League (NHL) continue to use "best of" series formats.

The NFL introduced overtime for any divisional tiebreaker games beginning in and for championship games beginning in The first postseason game to be played under these rules was the 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants (the so called "Greatest Game Ever Played"), decided by a one yard touchdown run by Colts fullback Alan Ameche after eight minutes and fifteen seconds of extra time. Overtime under the original format was sudden death, the first team to score would be declared the winner. In March , the NFL amended its rules for postseason overtime, with the rule being extended into the regular season in March 2012. If a team scores a touchdown, or if the defense scores a safety on the (other team's) first possession, it is declared the winner. If it scores a field goal on its first possession, however, it then kicks off to the opposing team, which has an opportunity to score; if the score is tied again after that possession, true sudden death rules apply and whoever scores next will win. True sudden death rules would continue from double overtime hereafter.

Since postseason games cannot end in a tie, unlike the preseason or regular season, additional overtime periods are played as necessary until a winner is determined. Furthermore, all clock rules apply as if a game had started over. Therefore, if the first overtime period ends with the score still tied, the teams switch ends of the field before the second overtime. With two minutes to go in the second overtime, there would be a two minute warning (but not during the first overtime period as in the regular season). If it were still tied at the end of the second overtime, the team that lost (or deferred) the coin toss before the first overtime would have the option to kick off, receive, or choose a side of the field to defend. However, unlike in the first overtime period, true sudden death rules would continue from the start of any third and subsequent overtime period. If a game reached a fifth overtime, another coin toss would be held and timing rules would be as if another new game started. Although a contest could theoretically last indefinitely, or last several overtime periods like several National Hockey League postseason games, no NFL playoff game has ever gone past two overtime periods. The longest NFL overtime game played to date is 82 minutes, 40 seconds: Miami Dolphins kicker Garo Yepremian made the walk off 37 yard field goal after 7:40 of the second overtime to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs, 27–24, in an AFC playoff game on December 25, 1971. + Playoff games that went into at least two overtimes Length of game Date Away team Score Home team Winning score 82:40 December 25, 1971 Miami Dolphins 27–24 Kansas City Chiefs Garo Yepremian 37 yard field goal 77:54† December 23, 1962 Dallas Texans 20–17 Houston Oilers Tommy Brooker 25 yard field goal 77:02 January 3, 1987 New York Jets 20–23 Cleveland Browns Mark Moseley 27 yard field goal 76:42 January 12, 2013 Baltimore Ravens 38–35 Denver Broncos Justin Tucker 47 yard field goal 75:43 December 24, 1977 Oakland Raiders 37–31 Baltimore Colts Dave Casper 10 yard touchdown pass from Ken Stabler 75:10 January 10, 2004 Carolina Panthers 29–23 St. Louis Rams Steve Smith 69 yard touchdown pass from Jake Delhomme † AFL game prior to the AFL–NFL merger.

From the league's founding in 1920 until 1932, there was no scheduled championship game. From 1920 to 1923, the championship was awarded to a team by a vote of team owners at the annual owners' meeting. From 1924 to 1932, the team having the best winning percentage was awarded the championship (the de facto standard owners had been using anyway). As each team played a different number of games, simply counting wins and losses would have been insufficient. Additionally, tie games were not counted in the standings in figuring winning percentage (under modern rules, ties count as ½ win and ½ loss). There was a head to head tiebreaker, which also was weighted toward the end of the season: for two teams that played each other twice, each winning once, the team winning the second game was determined to be the champion (the criteria used to decide the 1921 title).

In , the Chicago Bears (6–1–6) and the Portsmouth Spartans (6–1–4) were tied at the end of the season with identical winning percentages Of note, the Green Bay Packers (10–3–1) had more wins, but a lower winning percentage as calculated under the rules of the day, which ignored ties. The Bears and Spartans had played to ties in both of their matchups, so the head to head tiebreaker did not apply. An additional game was therefore needed to determine a champion. It was agreed that the game would be played at Chicago's Wrigley Field, but severe winter weather and fear of a low turnout forced the game to be moved indoors to Chicago Stadium. The game was played under modified rules on a shortened 80 yard dirt field, and the Bears won with a final score of 9–0. As a result of the game, the Bears had the better winning percentage and won the league title. The loss gave the Spartans a final winning percentage of and moved them to third place behind the Packers. While there is no consensus that this game was a real "championship" game (or even a playoff game), it generated considerable interest and led to the creation of the official NFL Championship Game in
During the three years (1967–69) that this playoff structure was in effect, there was one use of the tie breaker system. In 1967, the Los Angeles Rams and Baltimore Colts ended the season tied at 11–1–2 for the lead in the Coastal Division. The Colts came into the last game of the season undefeated but were beaten by the Rams. Though the Colts shared the best win–loss record in the NFL that year, they failed to advance to the playoffs while three other teams with worse records won their divisions. This event figured into the decision in 1970 to include a wild card team in the playoff tournament after the AFL–NFL merger. During the 1960s, a third place game was held in Miami, called the Playoff Bowl. It was contested in early January following the –69 seasons. Though official playoff games at the time they were played, the NFL now officially classifies these ten games (and statistics) as exhibitions, not as playoff games.

During its brief history, the AAFC, which would merge into the NFL for the season, used an identical playoff format to the NFL from 1946 to 1948. In 1949 (its last year), the AAFC merged its two conferences when one of its teams folded, and used a four team playoff system. In 1948, the aforementioned issue of playoff inequity came into play when the San Francisco 49ers would miss the playoffs with a 12–2 record; they were in the same conference as the 14–0 Cleveland Browns, who would go on to win the Western Conference and then the AAFC's championship game against the 7–7 Buffalo Bills (AAFC).

For the 1960–68 seasons, the AFL used the two divisional format identical to the NFL to determine its champion. There was no tie breaker system in place, so ties atop the Eastern Division final standings in 1963 and Western Division in 1968 necessitated playoff games to determine each division's representative in the championship. In both years, the playoff winner went on the road for the AFL title game and lost. For 1969, the final season before its merger with the NFL, the AFL added a first round whereby each division winner played the second place team from the other division. The winners of these games met in the AFL Championship Game.

Following an expansion of the regular season from 14 to 16 games in , the league added one more wild card team for each conference. The two wild card teams played the week before the division winners. The winner of this game played the top seeded division winner as was done from 1970 to 1977. However, the league continued to prohibit intra divisional games in the divisional playoffs but allowed such contests in the wild card round. This ten team playoff format was used through the 1989 season. During the strike shortened season, only nine regular season games were played, and a modified playoff format was instituted. Divisional play was ignored (there were some cases where division rivals had both games wiped out by the strike, although each division ultimately sent at least one team to the playoffs), and the top eight teams from each conference (based on W L T record) were advanced to the playoffs. As a result, this became the first time that teams with losing records qualified for the playoffs: the 4–5 Cleveland Browns and the 4–5 Detroit Lions. Several times between 1978–89, the two wild card games had to be played on different days. Normally they both would be held on Sunday. In 1983 and 1988, the games were split between Saturday and Monday because Sunday was Christmas, and the NFL had avoided playing on that day at the time. In 1984, both games were played in the Pacific Time Zone, so they had to be played on Saturday and Sunday to accommodate for time differences. In 1985, both the New York Giants and Jets hosted wild card games. As they have shared a home stadium since 1984, the games had to be played on different days. For the 1990 season, a third wild card team for each conference was added, expanding the playoffs to twelve teams. The lowest seeded division winner was then "demoted" to the wild card weekend as the home team. Also, the restrictions on intra divisional games during the divisional playoffs were removed. The season was the first with playoff games in prime time. Thus, the league no longer had the same restrictions like in 1984 as to when to schedule games in the Pacific Time Zone. The 1990 format continued until the 2002 expansion and realignment into eight divisions. In this format, used until the 2019 season, the four division winners and two wild cards in both conferences are seeded 1–6, respectively, with the top two seeds receiving byes, and the highest seed in each round guaranteed to host the lowest seed. Through 2019 however, NFL owners remained adamant that every division winner should still be rewarded with a home playoff game regardless of record. Calls to expand the playoffs to 14 teams began in 2006. Proponents of expansion noted the increased revenue that could be gained from an additional two playoff games. They also noted that the 12 team playoff system was implemented when the league still had 28 teams, four fewer than the 2002 expansion. The opposition to such a move notes that an expansion of the playoffs would "water down" the field by giving access to lower caliber teams. Opponents of expansion further point to the NBA playoffs and the NHL playoffs where more than half of the teams qualify for the postseason, and there is often a decreased emphasis on regular season performance as a result. In October 2013, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced plans to revisit the idea to expand the playoffs to 14 teams, with the increased revenue gained from the two additional postseason games being used to offset plans to shorten the preseason. The 14 team playoff proposal remained tabled until December 2014, when no team in the NFC South could finish better than .500; Goodell stated that the league would vote on it at the March 2015 Owners' Meetings. However, by February 2015, the Washington Post reported that support among team owners had eroded, and league leaders expressed reluctance to make a change until the end of the 2015 season. The proposal then lost all interest by 2017. The league eventually revisited and implemented the 14 team playoff format in 2020, placing a third wild card team in each conference, and only giving the top seed a bye (as explained above).

Correct as of the end of the 2023 regular season (including 2023–24 playoff berths).