The 1941 National Football League (NFL) playoffs occurred after the conclusion of the regular season to determine the champion of the 1941 NFL season. At the conclusion of the regular season, there was a tie for the Western Division championship between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers, requiring an unscheduled one-game playoff, making this the debut edition of the NFL playoffs. The two teams had finished the regular season with identical 10–1 records and had split their season series.[1] The teams had developed a rivalry; the Bears were defending league champions and the Packers had won the NFL title in 1939.
The 1941 season was the 22nd regular season of the National Football League (NFL). The league's ten teams were split into two divisions of five teams each: the Eastern and Western Divisions. Each team played a regular season schedule of 11 games, for a total of 55 regular season contests. Prior to the start of the season, the NFL bylaws were changed to provide for playoffs in cases where division races are tied after the regular season and new rules for sudden-death overtimes in case a playoff game was tied after four quarters were added. The Eastern Division was won by the New York Giants with a record of 8–3, beating out the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Washington Redskins. In the Western Division, the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears—who were the defending NFL Champions—battled throughout the season for the division lead. The two teams, who had developed a rivalry, played each other twice, splitting the games and giving them each their only loss of the season. Each team finished with a record of 10–1, both coming-from-behind in their last game of the season. The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred the same day the Bears won to tie the Packers' record. With the same record, a playoff game was scheduled to determine who would go to, and host, the 1941 NFL Championship Game.
