1933 – 1966: NFL Championship Game

Starting in 1933, the NFL decided its champion through a single postseason playoff game, called the NFL Championship Game. During this period, the league divided its teams into two groups, through 1949 as divisions and from 1950 onward as conferences.Divisions (1933–1949): Eastern and Western Conferences (1950–1952): American and National conferences (1953–1966): Eastern and Western Conferences and Divisions (1966–1969): Eastern (Capitol and Century) and Western (Central and Coastal) The home team for the NFL Championship Game was determined by a yearly rotation between the conferences (or divisions), not by regular-season records. If there was a tie for first place within the conference, an extra playoff game determined which team would play in the NFL Championship Game. (This occurred nine times in these 34 seasons: 1941, 1943, 1947, 1950 (both conferences), 1952, 1957, 1958, and 1965.)This last occurred during the 1965 season, when the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Colts tied for first place in the Western Conference at 10-3-1. Green Bay had won both its games with Baltimore during the regular season, but because no tie-breaker system was in place, a conference playoff game was held on December 26 (the scheduled date for the NFL championship game). The Cleveland Browns, the Eastern champion at 11-3-0, did not play this week. The playoff pushed the championship game to January 2, 1966, the first time the NFL champion was crowned in January. Green Bay won both post-season games at home, beating the injury-riddled Colts (with third-string QB Tom Matte) in overtime by a field goal, and taking the title 23-12 on a very muddy field (in Jim Brown's final NFL game).For the 1960 through 1969 seasons, to compete with the rival American Football League's championship games, the NFL staged an additional postseason game called the "Playoff Bowl" (aka the "Bert Bell Benefit Bowl" or the "Runner-up Bowl"). These games matched the second-place teams from the two conferences; the CBS television network advertised them as "playoff games for third place in the NFL." All ten of these consolation games were played in the Orange Bowl in Miami in January, the week after the NFL championship game. The NFL now classifies these contests as exhibition games and does not include the records, participants, or results in the official league playoff statistics. The Playoff Bowl was discontinued after the AFL-NFL merger; the final edition was played in January 1970.Starting with the 1934 game the winning team received the Ed Thorp Memorial Trophy. The trophy was named after Ed Thorp, a noted referee, rules expert, sporting goods dealer. Thorp died in 1934 and a large, traveling trophy was made that year, passed along from champion to champion each season with each championship team's name inscribed on it. Teams would also receive a replica trophy. The trophy was last awarded to the Minnesota Vikings in 1969. The actual trophy however is now missing.

1946 – 1949: AAFC Championship Game

The All-America Football Conference was created in June of 1944 to compete against the NFL. Even though the league outdrew the NFL in attendance, the continuing dominance of the Cleveland Browns led to the league's downfall.For its four seasons, the league was divided into two divisions: Eastern and Western (1946–1948) and a single division in 1949. The site of the championship game just as in the NFL was determined by divisional rotation except for 1949 when the remaining teams with the best record hosted the game.The Browns behind the guiding of Otto Graham won all four of the league championship games. A playoff game was played in 1948 to break a tie between the Baltimore Colts and Buffalo Bills (AAFC) and in 1949 to set up a championship game between the Browns and the San Francisco 49ers.In 1948, the Browns became the first professional football team to complete an entire season undefeated and untied — 24 years before the 1972 Miami Dolphins of the NFL would accomplish the task, but this feat is not recognized by NFL record books. Unlike the AFL statistics which are treated as NFL statistics, records of the AAFC and its teams (most of which folded) are not recognized. However, individual AAFC player statistics are included in Pro Football Hall of Fame records, and the defunct conference is memorialized in the Hall.

1960 – 1966: AFL Championship Game

With its creation in 1960, the AFL determined its champion via a single playoff game between the winners of its two divisions, the Eastern and Western. The AFL Championship games featured classics such as the 1962 double-overtime championship game between the Dallas Texans and the defending champion Houston Oilers. At the time it was the longest professional football championship game ever played. Also in 1963, an Eastern Division playoff was needed to determine the division winner between the Boston Patriots and Buffalo Bills.