<P> The National Football League (NFL) playoffs are a single - elimination tournament held after the end of the National Football League regular season to determine the NFL champion . Six teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season records, and a tie - breaking procedure exists in the case of equal records . The tournament ends with the Super Bowl, the league's championship game, which matches the two conference champions . </P> <P> 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, pitting the league's two division winners (pending any one - game playoff matches that needed to be held to break ties in the division standings). The NFL playoffs then expanded in 1967, when four teams qualified for the tournament . When the league merged with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970, the playoffs expanded to eight teams . The playoffs were expanded to 10 teams in 1978 and 12 teams since 1990 . </P> <P> The NFL is the only one out of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States to use a single - elimination tournament in all four rounds of its playoffs; Major League Baseball (MLB) (not including their wild - card postseason round), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL) all use a "best - of" series format instead . </P>

Number of nfl teams that make the playoffs