For 33 years, the NFL playoffs consisted of one game featuring the two conference winners. In 1967, the league expanded its playoff field to a four-team single-elimination tournament and three years later it expanded to eight.
A steady progression of NFL playoff expansion evolved to 10 teams in 1978, 12 in 1990, and eventually to the current format of 14 in 2020, allowing more Super Bowl competition and NFL betting opportunities.