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The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the
National Football Conference The National Football Conference (NFC) is a conference of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference (AFC), each h ...
(NFC) in the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
(NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and tough rivalry games between the teams, it currently has four members: the
Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...
,
Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...
,
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...
, and
Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...
, with the latter three based within most definitions of the
Upper Midwest The Upper Midwest is a northern subregion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed upon, the region is usually defined to include the states of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wi ...
. This division has some of the oldest franchises in the NFL, with the most recent team to be founded being the Minnesota Vikings in 1960, with the Packers in 1919, the Bears in 1920, and the Lions in 1930. The NFC North was previously known as the NFC Central from 1970 to 2001. The
Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...
were previously members, from 1977, one year after they joined the league as an expansion team, until 2002 when they moved to the
NFC South The National Football Conference – Southern Division or NFC South is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It was created before the 2002 NFL season when th ...
. The division was created in 1967 as the Central Division of the NFL's Western Conference and existed for three seasons before the
AFL–NFL merger The AFL–NFL merger was the merger of the two major professional American football leagues in the United States at the time: the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). It paved the way for the combined league, wh ...
. After the merger, it was renamed the NFC Central and retained that name until the NFL split into eight divisions in 2002. The four current division teams have been together in the same division or conference since the Vikings joined the league in 1961. The Bears, Lions (known as the Portsmouth Spartans until 1934) and Packers have been in the same division or conference since the NFL began a conference format in 1933. Largely because the four teams have played each other at least twice a year, with the exception of the strike-shortened 1982 season, for more than 60 years (more than 80 years in the case of the Bears, Lions and Packers), the entire division is considered one very large rivalry. All four teams currently representing the NFC North have all finished a regular season with 15 regular season wins at some point; the Bears in 1985, the Vikings in 1998, the Packers in 2011, and the Lions in 2024; the only division to do so. The division has a total of five Super Bowl wins. The Packers have won four and the Bears one, with the most recent happening at the conclusion of the 2010 season. Of the ten NFL teams with the highest winning percentage throughout their respective franchise histories, three of them are in the NFC North (the Packers, the Bears, and the Vikings). Conversely, the Lions have one of the lowest winning percentages in the NFL, including the first winless 16-game season in NFL history, in
2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
. The Packers hold an overall regular season record of 810–604-38 (through the end of the 2024 season) with an overall playoff record of 37–26, four
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
titles in five Super Bowl appearances, and nine pre-Super Bowl league titles. The Bears hold an overall regular season record of 798–646–42 with an overall playoff record of 17–20, one
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
title in two Super Bowl appearances, and eight pre-Super Bowl league titles. The Vikings hold an overall regular season record of 537–438-11 with an overall playoff record of 21–31, no
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
titles in four Super Bowl appearances, and one league title. The Lions hold an overall regular season record of 606–709-34 with an overall playoff record of 9–14, and four pre-
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...
league titles. They have yet to appear in a Super Bowl. In recent years, the division has been less successful in the playoffs compared to others, holding the second-longest active Super Bowl drought (only ahead of the
AFC South The American Football Conference – Southern Division or AFC South is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It was created before the 2002 NFL season, 200 ...
) and a 1–9 record in conference championships since 2007, with the only win being the Packers over the Bears in 2010. They have clinched two Super Bowl berths in the 21st century, compared to the other NFC divisions which each have six or more. The division earned the moniker "Black and Blue Division" due to its intense rivalries and physical style of play, and this nickname is still used regularly today. It is also known as the "Frostbite Division" as all teams played home games in late season winter cold until the mid-1970s. The division is also humorously called the "Frozen North", although Detroit has played its home games indoors since 1975, and Minnesota also did so from 1982 to 2013 and returned to indoor home games at U.S. Bank Stadium in 2016.
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
sportscaster Chris Berman often refers to this division as the "NFC Norris" because of its grittiness and its geographical similarity to the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
's former
Norris Division The National Hockey League's Norris Division was formed in 1974 as part of the Prince of Wales Conference. When the NHL realigned into geographic divisions in 1981, the division moved to the Clarence Campbell Conference, where it comprised the ...
, although in a twist of irony the NHL dropped the ''Norris'' name in favor of ''Central'' almost a decade before the NFL dropped the ''Central'' name in favor of ''North.''


Division lineups

Place cursor over year for division champ or Super Bowl team. :The NFL Western Conference was divided into the Coastal and Central divisions. The Packers had won Super Bowl I in 1966 in the NFL Western Conference. :Starting in the 1970 season, the division became the National Football Conference - Central Division (or NFC Central for short), after the AFL–NFL merger. :Tampa Bay moved from the AFC West in 1977 :For the 2002 season, the league realigned to have 8 four team divisions. Division adopts current name. Tampa Bay moves to the NFC South.


Division champions

+ A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games, so the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored; Green Bay had the best record of the division teams.


Wild Card qualifiers

+ A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games, so the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year.


Total playoff berths


Total playoff berths as members of the NFC Central/North

(1967–2024 seasons) To sort table above, click button to right of heading. (1)Does not include Green Bay's 1966 season Super Bowl I win (2)Does not include Tampa Bay's 1976 season (AFC West) and 2002+ seasons (NFC South)


Total playoff berths in team history

(1920–2024 seasons) To sort table above, click button to right of heading. :1 From
1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
to 1969, this means winning both the NFL Championship game AND the Super Bowl. Hence, the Vikings' NFL Championship victory in 1969 isn't counted. The Packers had 2 NFL titles during this time frame and also won Super Bowl I and II.


Season results

*2002: The NFC Central was realigned for 4 members and was renamed the NFC North. The
Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...
moved to the newly formed
NFC South The National Football Conference – Southern Division or NFC South is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It was created before the 2002 NFL season when th ...
.


Schedule assignments


See also

* Bears–Packers rivalry * Bears–Lions rivalry * Bears–Vikings rivalry * Lions–Packers rivalry * Lions–Vikings rivalry * Packers–Vikings rivalry


Former member rivalries

* Buccaneers–Packers rivalry


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nfc North NFL divisions Chicago Bears Detroit Lions History of the Green Bay Packers Minnesota Vikings Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1967 establishments in the United States Sports in the Midwestern United States