| Dates | December 23–31, 1967 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | 1967 | ||||
| Teams | 4 | ||||
| Games played | 3 | ||||
| NFL Championship Game site | |||||
| Defending champions | Green Bay Packers | ||||
| Champions | Green Bay Packers | ||||
| Runners-up | Dallas Cowboys | ||||
| |||||
The NFL playoffs following the 1967 NFL season culminated in the NFL championship game on New Year's Eve, and determined who would represent the league against the American Football League champions in Super Bowl II.
With 16 teams in the league in 1967, this was the first season that the NFL used a four-team playoff tournament. The four division winners advanced to the postseason, with the two division winners in each conference meeting in the first round (effectively being conference championship games). The championship game this year was the famous Ice Bowl, played in Green Bay on December 31.
Although the Baltimore Colts (11–1–2) had tied for the best record in the league, they lost the new division tie-breaker (point differential in head-to-head games) to the Los Angeles Rams and were excluded from the postseason. The teams had tied in mid-October in Baltimore and the Colts entered the last game undefeated, but lost 34–10 to the Rams in Los Angeles on December 17.[1][2][3] In previous seasons, unscheduled tiebreaker games were played (with head-to-head results disregarded); the last was just two years earlier. Prior to 1967, the teams with the best record in the eastern and western divisions, went to the NFL Championship game.
- ^ "Unitas watches Roman carnival from turf". Reading Eagle. (Pennsylvania). Associated Press. December 18, 1967. p. 26.
- ^ "Rams swamp Colts, gain play-off, 34–10". Milwaukee Journal. press dispatches. December 18, 1967. p. 17, part 2.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Maule, Tex (December 25, 1967). "The year of the Ram". Sports Illustrated. p. 12.