1967 NFL Championship Game

The 1967 NFL Championship Game, commonly referred to as the Ice Bowl, was the 35th NFL championship, played on December 31 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

It determined the NFL's champion, which met the AFL's champion in Super Bowl II, formerly referred to as the second AFL–NFL World Championship Game. The Dallas Cowboys (9–5), champions of the Eastern Conference, traveled north to meet the Western champion Green Bay Packers (9–4–1), the two-time defending league champions. It was a rematch of the previous year's title game, and pitted two future Hall of Fame head coaches against each other, Tom Landry of the Cowboys and Vince Lombardi of the Packers. The two head coaches had a long history together, as both had coached together on the staff of the late 1950s New York Giants, with Lombardi serving as offensive coordinator and Landry as defensive coordinator.

Because of the adverse conditions in which the game was played, the rivalry between the two teams, and the game's dramatic climax, it has been immortalized as the Ice Bowl and is considered one of the greatest games in NFL history. NFL 100 Greatest Games ranked this game as the 3rd greatest game of all time. With the temperature at kickoff at −13 °F (−25 °C), it is still the coldest game ever played in NFL history.

Leading up to the 50th Anniversary of the game, NFL Films released an episode of its Timeline series about the events that day and the lasting impact. The episode is narrated and co-produced by filmmaker Michael Meredith, whose father Don Meredith was the quarterback for the Cowboys that day.

The NFL added a sixteenth team in 1967 and realigned to four divisions, with each winner advancing to the postseason. Future hall of fame head coach Tom Landry of Dallas led his team to first place in the Capitol Division with a 9–5 record. The Green Bay Packers, and future hall of fame head coach Vince Lombardi, won the Central Division with a 9–4–1 record.

In the first round of the four-team playoffs, the Cowboys met the Century Division champions, the Cleveland Browns (9–5) for the Eastern Conference title. In the Western Conference, the Packers hosted the Los Angeles Rams (11–1–2), the Coastal Division champions (with the league's best record). The Baltimore Colts of the Coastal Division were also 11–1–2, but lost the tiebreaker to the Rams and were excluded from the postseason.

At the Cotton Bowl, in a spectacular game by quarterback Don Meredith, the Cowboys obliterated the Browns 52–14. In the week prior to the Rams game, Vince Lombardi inspired his team all week with a rendition of St. Paul's Run to Win letter to the Corinthians and, in what Bart Starr would later say was Lombardi's most rousing pre-game speech,^{[citation needed]} incited his team to a 28–7 victory over the Rams at Milwaukee County Stadium.

The home field for the NFL Championship alternated between the two conferences; even-numbered years were hosted by the Eastern and odd-numbered by the Western. Starting with the 1975 season, playoff sites were determined by regular season record, rather than a rotational basis.