NFC North
The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference in the National Football League. Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and tough rivalry games between the teams, it currently has four members: the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Minnesota Vikings, with the latter three based within most definitions of the Upper Midwest.
History
This division has some of the oldest and most storied franchises in the NFL, including the Packers, the Bears, the Lions, and the most recently-founded team being the Minnesota Vikings. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were also members from 1977, one year after they joined the league as an expansion team, until 2002 when they moved to the NFC South.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. After the merger, it was renamed the NFC Central in 1970 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 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, 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. 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.
The Packers hold an overall regular season record of 810–604–38 with an overall playoff record of 37–27, four Super Bowl 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 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 21–32, no Super Bowl 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 9–15, and four pre-Super Bowl league titles. They have yet to appear in a Super Bowl.
In recent years, the division has been less successful in the playoffs than their contemporaries, holding the second-longest active Super Bowl drought 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.
Nicknames
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. The entire division is geographically further north than its American Football Conference counterpart, the AFC North, though that division currently has all four teams playing outdoors and all receive brutal winters.ESPN 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's former Norris Division, 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.Division champions
Wild Card qualifiers
Total playoff berths
Total playoff berths as members of the NFC Central/North
| Team | Division championships | Playoff berths | NFL league titles | Super Bowl appearances | Super Bowl wins |
| Minnesota Vikings | 21 | 32 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Green Bay Packers | 17 | 28 | 13 | 5 | 4 |
| Chicago Bears | 12 | 17 | 9 | 2 | 1 |
| Detroit Lions | 5 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Does not include Green Bay's 1966 season Super Bowl I win
Does not include Tampa Bay's 1976 season and 2002+ seasons
Total playoff berths in team history
| Team | Division championships | Playoff berths | NFL league titles | Conference wins | Super Bowl wins | Total championships |
| Chicago Bears | 20 | 29 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| Green Bay Packers | 21 | 38 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 13 |
| Minnesota Vikings | 21 | 32 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Detroit Lions | 6 | 20 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Season results
- 2002: The NFC Central was realigned for 4 members and was renamed the NFC North. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers moved to the newly formed NFC South.
Schedule assignments