Every NFL Champion From Akron to Seattle
Trace every NFL champion from Akron in 1920 through Seattle in 2025, including standings titles, merger-era splits, title games and Super Bowls.
The NFL champion for the first season was the Akron Pros, awarded the 1920 title after an 8-0-3 campaign; the champion for the latest completed season in this record is the Seattle Seahawks, winners of Super Bowl LX for the 2025 season. Between them, the league used standings, an NFL Championship Game and the Super Bowl to determine its champion.
These records use season year, not the calendar year in which a postseason game was played. Seattle is therefore the 2025 champion even though Super Bowl LX was played in February 2026. From 1966 through 1969, the NFL and AFL also crowned separate league champions before their winners met in the game now called the Super Bowl.
Enter a season to see its NFL champion and how the title was decided.
Find The NFL Champion By Season
2025 NFL champion
Seattle Seahawks
Decided by Super Bowl
Defeated New England 29-13 in Super Bowl LX.
Era: Since 1970, the Super Bowl winner has been the NFL champion.
Sources: Pro Football Hall of Fame season register; NFL Super Bowl LX recap.
How The NFL Has Determined Its Champion
| Seasons | Championship method | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| 1920–1931 | Regular-season standings | Based on winning percentage |
| 1932 | One-game playoff | Result counted in the standings |
| 1933–1965 | NFL Championship Game | Division or conference winners met |
| 1966–1969 | NFL title game, then Super Bowl | AFL also crowned a champion |
| 1970–present | Super Bowl | AFC champion met NFC champion |
The history begins with the American Professional Football Association, founded in 1920 and renamed the NFL in 1922. For the longer path from the early organized game to the modern league, see the timeline of American football history.
The 1920–1932 Champions Were Decided Through Standings
The early league had no fixed championship game. The Pro Football Hall of Fame says the champion was determined by the best regular-season record. In 1920, when the league did not maintain official standings, owners awarded Akron the title at their April 1921 meeting. Its historical list records the Pros at 8-0-3 (Pro Football Hall of Fame).
| Season | Champion | Season | Champion |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | Akron Pros | 1927 | New York Giants |
| 1921 | Chicago Staleys | 1928 | Providence Steam Roller |
| 1922 | Canton Bulldogs | 1929 | Green Bay Packers |
| 1923 | Canton Bulldogs | 1930 | Green Bay Packers |
| 1924 | Cleveland Bulldogs | 1931 | Green Bay Packers |
| 1925 | Chicago Cardinals | 1932 | Chicago Bears |
| 1926 | Frankford Yellow Jackets |
These names belong to their own periods. The Chicago Staleys became the Bears, while the Chicago Cardinals are the franchise now based in Arizona. Several other champions in the table folded.
The 1925 championship requires a qualification. Pottsville defeated Chicago late in the season but was suspended after playing an exhibition in another club’s protected territory. Chicago finished with the league’s best record and was named champion. The official champion remains the Chicago Cardinals (Pro Football Hall of Fame chronology).
The standings system reached its breaking point in 1932, when the Bears and Portsmouth Spartans finished their scheduled games tied. Chicago won a hastily arranged playoff 9-0 inside Chicago Stadium, on a field only 80 yards long and 30 feet narrower than regulation.
Although the result counted in the standings, the experiment prompted the NFL to create divisions and a formal championship game for 1933 (Pro Football Hall of Fame).
The NFL Championship Game Decided The 1933–1965 Titles
Chicago beat the New York Giants 23-21 in the first scheduled NFL Championship Game. From then through 1965, division or conference winners met to settle the championship on the field. The Hall of Fame’s season-by-season register records these winners:
| Season | Champion | Season | Champion |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1933 | Chicago Bears | 1950 | Cleveland Browns |
| 1934 | New York Giants | 1951 | Los Angeles Rams |
| 1935 | Detroit Lions | 1952 | Detroit Lions |
| 1936 | Green Bay Packers | 1953 | Detroit Lions |
| 1937 | Washington | 1954 | Cleveland Browns |
| 1938 | New York Giants | 1955 | Cleveland Browns |
| 1939 | Green Bay Packers | 1956 | New York Giants |
| 1940 | Chicago Bears | 1957 | Detroit Lions |
| 1941 | Chicago Bears | 1958 | Baltimore Colts |
| 1942 | Washington | 1959 | Baltimore Colts |
| 1943 | Chicago Bears | 1960 | Philadelphia Eagles |
| 1944 | Green Bay Packers | 1961 | Green Bay Packers |
| 1945 | Cleveland Rams | 1962 | Green Bay Packers |
| 1946 | Chicago Bears | 1963 | Chicago Bears |
| 1947 | Chicago Cardinals | 1964 | Cleveland Browns |
| 1948 | Philadelphia Eagles | 1965 | Green Bay Packers |
| 1949 | Philadelphia Eagles |
Cleveland’s appearance in 1950 marks a league boundary. The Browns won all four championships of the rival All-America Football Conference from 1946 through 1949, entered the NFL and immediately won the NFL title.
Those four AAFC championships are part of the Browns’ franchise history, but they are not NFL championships. The Hall of Fame register shows both league winners for 1946–49 rather than treating the AAFC results as NFL titles.
The 1966–1969 Seasons Had Separate League Champions
The merger agreement announced in 1966 kept the NFL and AFL on separate schedules through 1969. Each league crowned its own champion, and those champions met in an annual AFL-NFL World Championship Game. Full merger and conference play began in 1970 (Pro Football Hall of Fame merger chronology).
That distinction produces two correct title descriptions in 1968 and 1969. Baltimore and Minnesota were NFL champions, while the Jets and Chiefs beat them in the interleague championship game.
| Season | NFL champion | AFL champion | Super Bowl winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Green Bay Packers | Kansas City Chiefs | Green Bay Packers |
| 1967 | Green Bay Packers | Oakland Raiders | Green Bay Packers |
| 1968 | Baltimore Colts | New York Jets | New York Jets |
| 1969 | Minnesota Vikings | Kansas City Chiefs | Kansas City Chiefs |
Green Bay’s 1966 and 1967 seasons each count as one NFL championship, not two titles for winning both the NFL Championship Game and the Super Bowl. The Packers’ official total of 13 comprises three standings titles, six NFL Championship Game seasons from 1936 through 1965, the two combined NFL-and-Super Bowl seasons of 1966 and 1967, and two post-merger Super Bowl titles (Packers championship record).
Before the interleague games began, the AFL had six other champions: Houston in 1960 and 1961, the Dallas Texans in 1962, San Diego in 1963, and Buffalo in 1964 and 1965. Those were AFL championships, not NFL championships.
Every Super Bowl-Era NFL Champion From 1970–2025
Once the merger took full effect, the Super Bowl became the NFL championship game. There is therefore one NFL champion for every season from 1970 onward.
| Season | Champion | Season | Champion |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Baltimore Colts | 1998 | Denver Broncos |
| 1971 | Dallas Cowboys | 1999 | St. Louis Rams |
| 1972 | Miami Dolphins | 2000 | Baltimore Ravens |
| 1973 | Miami Dolphins | 2001 | New England Patriots |
| 1974 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 2002 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| 1975 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 2003 | New England Patriots |
| 1976 | Oakland Raiders | 2004 | New England Patriots |
| 1977 | Dallas Cowboys | 2005 | Pittsburgh Steelers |
| 1978 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 2006 | Indianapolis Colts |
| 1979 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 2007 | New York Giants |
| 1980 | Oakland Raiders | 2008 | Pittsburgh Steelers |
| 1981 | San Francisco 49ers | 2009 | New Orleans Saints |
| 1982 | Washington | 2010 | Green Bay Packers |
| 1983 | Los Angeles Raiders | 2011 | New York Giants |
| 1984 | San Francisco 49ers | 2012 | Baltimore Ravens |
| 1985 | Chicago Bears | 2013 | Seattle Seahawks |
| 1986 | New York Giants | 2014 | New England Patriots |
| 1987 | Washington | 2015 | Denver Broncos |
| 1988 | San Francisco 49ers | 2016 | New England Patriots |
| 1989 | San Francisco 49ers | 2017 | Philadelphia Eagles |
| 1990 | New York Giants | 2018 | New England Patriots |
| 1991 | Washington | 2019 | Kansas City Chiefs |
| 1992 | Dallas Cowboys | 2020 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| 1993 | Dallas Cowboys | 2021 | Los Angeles Rams |
| 1994 | San Francisco 49ers | 2022 | Kansas City Chiefs |
| 1995 | Dallas Cowboys | 2023 | Kansas City Chiefs |
| 1996 | Green Bay Packers | 2024 | Philadelphia Eagles |
| 1997 | Denver Broncos | 2025 | Seattle Seahawks |
Seattle defeated New England 29-13 in Super Bowl LX, giving the Seahawks their second Lombardi Trophy (NFL recap).
Green Bay Has Won The Most NFL Championships
Green Bay leads all franchises with 13 NFL championships, followed by the Chicago Bears with nine and the New York Giants with eight. The Patriots and Steelers have six each. Dallas, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington each have five, according to the Packers’ league-history summary.
That all-era ranking differs from a ranking based only on Super Bowl victories. Nine of Green Bay’s 13 championships came before the Super Bowl existed. New England and Pittsburgh share the high of six Super Bowl wins, but neither franchise won a pre-Super Bowl NFL championship.
The categories should not be combined without explanation:
- NFL championships include recognized NFL titles from 1920 onward.
- Super Bowl wins count victories in the AFL-NFL game and its post-merger successor.
- AFL and AAFC titles belong to those leagues and their franchises but are not retroactively NFL championships.
That distinction is why NFL champions history begins 46 seasons before Super Bowl I—and why a franchise’s total league championships may be larger than its Lombardi Trophy count.