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All games are listed under the year in which the majority of regular season games were played: especially since the 1960s, many championship games have been played in the January or, since 2002, February of the following year (i.e. the Championship Game of the 2011 NFL season was played in February 2012, but is listed here under 2011).
The rival All-America Football Conference (AAFC) and American Football League (AFL) have since merged with the NFL (the only two AAFC teams that currently exist, the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers, joined the NFL in 1950), but AAFC Championship Games and records are not included in the NFL's record books.
The 1920 Akron Pros were named the first APFA (NFL) champions. The National Football League champions, prior to the merger between the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL) in 1970, were determined by two different systems. The National Football League was established on September 17, 1920, as the American Professional Football Association (APFA). The APFA changed ...
The NFL championships describes both the Championship games of the National Football League, which ran from 1920 to 1969; and the Super Bowl, which has run from 1966 to the present. Many players and teams have won these championships on multiple occasions, both during the NFL championships and the Super Bowl era.
The NFL, which had played a 12-game schedule since 1947, changed to a 14-game schedule in 1961, a year after the American Football League instituted it. The AFL also introduced the two-point conversion to professional football 34 years before the NFL instituted it in 1994 (college football had adopted the two-point conversion in the late 1950s).
The Packers defeated the Chiefs in the first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (Super Bowl I). The Super Bowl is the annual American football game that determines the champion of the National Football League (NFL). The game culminates a season that begins in the previous calendar year, and is the conclusion of the NFL playoffs.
The rival American Football League (AFL) began play in 1960 with its own Eastern and Western divisions and AFL Championship Game. Following an agreement to merge the NFL with AFL, the Super Bowl was first held at the conclusion of the 1966 season to determine a champion between the best teams from the two leagues.
The NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association (APFA) before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season. After initially determining champions through end-of-season standings, a playoff system was implemented in 1933 that culminated with the NFL Championship Game until 1966.