NFC Championship Game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| NFC Championship Game | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| League | NFL |
| Founded | 1970 |
| Trophy | George Halas |
| No. of champions | 13 |
| Current champions | Chicago Bears |
The NFC Championship Game is one of the two semi-final matches of the National Football League, the largest professional American football league in the United States. The game is currently played on the penultimate Sunday in January and determines the champion of the National Football Conference. The winner receives the George Halas Trophy and advances to face the winner of the AFC Championship Game in the Super Bowl on the first Sunday in February. The current NFC Champions are the Chicago Bears.
It began in 1970 after the merger between the NFL and the American Football League. The NFC was formed with most of the teams that played in the NFL before the merger.
[edit] Playoff Structure
- For more details on this topic, see NFL playoffs.
At the end of each football season, a series of playoff games involving the top six teams in the NFC are conducted, consisting of the four division champions and two wild card teams. The two teams remaining play in the NFC Championship game.
[edit] Game History
See List of NFC Championship Game winners for the results of all past Championship Games.
[edit] Trivia
- A team from the NFC South has appeared in every NFC Championship Game since the 2002 realignment: Tampa Bay in 2003, Carolina in 2004 and 2006, Atlanta in 2005, and New Orleans in 2007. The NFC South is also the first division since the realignment that has had each team in the division make at least one Conference Championship Game appearance.
- The winning team is rewarded with t-shirts and hats after the game that usually declare them "NFC Conference Champions", an example of a redundant acronym
