The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the NationalFootball Conference in the National Football League. Nicknamed the "Black & 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. The NFC North was previously known as the NFC Central from 1970 to 2001. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were previously members, from 1977, one year after they joined the league as an expansion team, until 2001 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 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 half a century, the entire division is considered one very large rivalry. The division has a total of 11 Super Bowl appearances. The Packers have the most appearances in the Super Bowl with 5, the most recent happening at the conclusion of the 2010 season. The Bears and the Packers have the only Super Bowl wins of this division, a total of 5. Of the top 10NFL teams with the highest winning percentage throughout its franchise history, three of them are in the NFC North. The Lions however, have one of the lowest winning percentages in the NFL, including the first winless 16-game season in NFL history, in 2008. Entering the Bears led the division with an overall record of 752–581–42, victory in Super Bowl XX and eight pre-Super Bowl league titles; Chicago's overall playoff record is 17–18. The Packers hold an overall record of 740–564–38 with an overall playoff record of 34–22, four Super Bowl titles in five Super Bowl appearances, and nine pre-Super Bowl league titles. The Lions hold a record of 555–651–32, four league championships, and a 7–13 playoff record. As the youngest team in the division, the Vikings hold a record of 473–392–11, a playoff record of 20-29, and had won a league title the season before the merger. 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. ESPN sportscaster Chris Berman often refers to this division as the "NFC Norris" because of its geographical similarity to the National Hockey League's former Norris Division.
Division lineups
Place cursor over year for division champ or Super Bowl team.
Division champions
+ A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games, so the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored; Green Bay had the best record of the division teams.
