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2020–21 NFL playoffs
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2020–21 NFL playoffs
The National Football League playoffs for the 2020 season began with the Wildcard Round on January 9, 2021, and concluded with Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on February 7, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 31–9. This marked the first time a team has played the Super Bowl at their home field, as the Buccaneers reached the title game after winning three playoff games on the road.
The league expanded its playoff system from a 12-team to a 14-team tournament, adding a third wild card team for each conference for the first time since the 2001 season, and only awarding each conference's division winner with the best record a first round bye. The Wild Card round was thus extended from two to three games per day.
The playoffs were played during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and each game's attendance was limited due to local health restrictions . Had a serious outbreak occurred during the regular season, the league had contingency plans to delay the postseason, eliminate the bye week before the Super Bowl and postpone the game itself to as late as February 28. NFL owners also approved an additional alternative plan to implement a 16-team playoff format, with no teams getting a bye, if "meaningful" regular season games were canceled because of the virus.
The Cleveland Browns and eventual Super Bowl champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who had not made it to the playoffs since 2002 and 2007, respectively, and thus held the two longest playoff appearance droughts in the league at the time, both qualified for the postseason in 2020, giving the New York Jets, who had not appeared since 2010, the longest active playoff appearance drought. Conversely, the New England Patriots missed the postseason for the first time since 2008, ending the longest playoff appearance streak in NFL history.
With the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens facing each other in the AFC Divisional playoffs, Buffalo became the third team in NFL history (joining the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles) and the first AFC team to face every team within their respective conference in the postseason at least once.
Within each conference, the four division winners and the top three non-division winners with the best overall regular season records qualified for the playoffs. The four division winners are seeded 1–4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card teams are seeded 5–7. The NFL does not use a fixed bracket playoff system, and there are no restrictions regarding teams from the same division matching up in any round. In the first round, dubbed the Wild Card playoffs, the second-seeded division winner hosts the seventh seed wild card, the third seed hosts the sixth seed, and the fourth seed hosts the fifth seed. The 1 seed from each conference receives a first-round bye. In the second round, the Divisional playoffs, the number 1 seed hosts the lowest-seeded surviving team from the first round (seed 4, 5, 6, or 7), while the other two surviving teams play each other, with the higher-seeded team hosting. The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games then meet in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championships, hosted by the higher seed. Although the Super Bowl, the championship round of the playoffs, is played at a neutral site, the designated home team is based on an annual rotation by conference.
In the event of a COVID-19 outbreak, the league stated playoff games or entire postseason rounds could be postponed, the bye week after the Conference Championships could be eliminated, and the Super Bowl could be moved up to three weeks later to February 28. None of these contingency plans were necessary.
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2020–21 NFL playoffs
The National Football League playoffs for the 2020 season began with the Wildcard Round on January 9, 2021, and concluded with Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on February 7, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 31–9. This marked the first time a team has played the Super Bowl at their home field, as the Buccaneers reached the title game after winning three playoff games on the road.
The league expanded its playoff system from a 12-team to a 14-team tournament, adding a third wild card team for each conference for the first time since the 2001 season, and only awarding each conference's division winner with the best record a first round bye. The Wild Card round was thus extended from two to three games per day.
The playoffs were played during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and each game's attendance was limited due to local health restrictions . Had a serious outbreak occurred during the regular season, the league had contingency plans to delay the postseason, eliminate the bye week before the Super Bowl and postpone the game itself to as late as February 28. NFL owners also approved an additional alternative plan to implement a 16-team playoff format, with no teams getting a bye, if "meaningful" regular season games were canceled because of the virus.
The Cleveland Browns and eventual Super Bowl champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who had not made it to the playoffs since 2002 and 2007, respectively, and thus held the two longest playoff appearance droughts in the league at the time, both qualified for the postseason in 2020, giving the New York Jets, who had not appeared since 2010, the longest active playoff appearance drought. Conversely, the New England Patriots missed the postseason for the first time since 2008, ending the longest playoff appearance streak in NFL history.
With the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens facing each other in the AFC Divisional playoffs, Buffalo became the third team in NFL history (joining the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles) and the first AFC team to face every team within their respective conference in the postseason at least once.
Within each conference, the four division winners and the top three non-division winners with the best overall regular season records qualified for the playoffs. The four division winners are seeded 1–4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card teams are seeded 5–7. The NFL does not use a fixed bracket playoff system, and there are no restrictions regarding teams from the same division matching up in any round. In the first round, dubbed the Wild Card playoffs, the second-seeded division winner hosts the seventh seed wild card, the third seed hosts the sixth seed, and the fourth seed hosts the fifth seed. The 1 seed from each conference receives a first-round bye. In the second round, the Divisional playoffs, the number 1 seed hosts the lowest-seeded surviving team from the first round (seed 4, 5, 6, or 7), while the other two surviving teams play each other, with the higher-seeded team hosting. The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games then meet in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championships, hosted by the higher seed. Although the Super Bowl, the championship round of the playoffs, is played at a neutral site, the designated home team is based on an annual rotation by conference.
In the event of a COVID-19 outbreak, the league stated playoff games or entire postseason rounds could be postponed, the bye week after the Conference Championships could be eliminated, and the Super Bowl could be moved up to three weeks later to February 28. None of these contingency plans were necessary.