National Football League
The National Football League now has an elaborate formula for breaking ties in the qualification for its playoffs. One game playoffs are no longer possible - in the highly unlikely event that two teams tied in all relevant statistical criteria, the rules stipulate that a coin toss settle the tie. However, before the merger of the National Football League and the American Football League in 1970, it was possible to have a playoff game if 2 teams tied for a division title. The NFL had 9 of these playoffs occur between 1941 and 1965. The AFL had 2 playoffs in 1963 and 1968. The All-America Football Conference, which merged with the NFL after the 1949 season (with the NFL absorbing three of the AAFC's franchises - the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, and the original Baltimore Colts) also held a playoff tiebreaker game in 1948.
The Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans of the National Football League tied at the end of the 1932 season. They held an extra game to determine the champion. Unlike subsequent post-season playoffs, this game was considered part of the regular season, as are the baseball tie-breaking playoff games described above.
The great interest generated by the 1932 playoff game led the NFL to split into two divisions in 1933, and began playing a single post-season NFL Championship game. If two teams in a single division tied for first place, the rules also provided for a one-game tie-breaking playoff to determine which team would advance to the league championship game. This was the practice from 1933 to 1966. Unlike the 1932 contest, these tiebreakers were not part of the regular season's standings. The league's last one game playoff occurred in 1965. Since 1967, when it split into 4 divisions, the NFL has used a set of tiebreaking rules to break ties. The AFL did not adopt tiebreakers before the merger.
Read more about this topic: One-game Playoff
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