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 Originally Posted by kingnat
The NFL teams have a Pro Bowl game after week 8... none of the stars really play hard, but the winner of the game has an enormous impact on the post-season... i think this pretty much clears it up...
This is blatantly wrong. The Pro Bowl is played after the Super Bowl (the NFL's championship game).
Everything is from memory so I hope I don't screw anything up.
Teams play each team in their division twice a year. That accounts for 6/16 regular season games.
Teams also play the (4) teams in two pre-determined divisions; 1 is in the AFC and the other in the NFC. All teams in any given division are "matched" up with the same division. That accounts for 8/16 of the games.
The last 2 games are a bit tricky-- for any given team, they will be playing against the team that finished in the same respective spot in their division in each of the remaining 2 divisions in the same conference. So, for instance, the Browns play in the AFC North. They are matched up with the AFC South and NFC East (as an aside-- a team can potentially send 3 teams to the playoffs, meaning they got both wild card births and only division winners outside that division will go to the playoffs. It rarely happens. Last year it happened in both conferences-- with the AFC South and NFC East.) *back on topic* -- The Browns already play games with the AFC North and AFC South. They finished 2nd in the division last year. So their last 2 games will be against the 2nd place finishers of the AFC East (Bills) and AFC West (Broncos). Hopefully I didn't make that too confusing.
Conferences and divisions are organized like so:
AFC East - New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, Miami Dolphins
AFC North - Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Cincinatti Bengals, Baltimore Ravens
AFC South: Indinapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans
AFC West: San Diego Chargers, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders
NFC East: Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowl Champion New York Giants, Washington Redskins, Philadelphia Eagles
NFC North: Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears
NFC South: Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons
NFC West (lol division): Seattle Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals, San Fransisco 49ers, St. Louis Rams
other guys handled the playoffs well so no need to re-hash that.
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