NFC North

• 1. Introduction

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  The NFC North is a division where grudges are measured in decades. Four franchises - the Chicago Bears, the Detroit Lions, the Green Bay Packers, and the Minnesota Vikings - have spent more than 60 years beating each other twice a year, and the bruises have a nickname to show for it. The division earned the moniker "Black and Blue Division" for its intense rivalries and physical style of play, a name still used regularly today. Three of the four teams rank among the ten NFL franchises with the highest winning percentages in the history of the league. Yet for all that heritage, the division has spent recent years watching other conferences collect Super Bowl rings. How did four of the oldest franchises in professional football end up sharing the same geography, the same cold, and the same bitter history? And what does it say about a division when even its least successful team finally put together a 15-win season?

• 2. Deep Roots

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  The Green Bay Packers were founded in 1919, making them the oldest of the four current members. The Bears followed in 1920, the Lions in 1930, and the Vikings arrived last in 1961. That gap of more than 40 years between the oldest and newest member has not stopped them from accumulating one of the most tangled rivalry histories in American sport. The Bears began life as the Decatur Staleys in 1920 and briefly operated as the Chicago Staleys in 1921 before settling on their permanent name. The Lions were known as the Portsmouth Spartans until 1934. The Packers, Bears, and Lions have been in the same division or conference since the NFL adopted a conference format in 1933. When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined as an expansion team in 1976, they were folded into this division a year later in 1977. They remained members until 2002, when the league realigned into eight four-team divisions and Tampa Bay moved to the NFC South. The four current members have played each other at least twice a season, with the sole exception of the strike-shortened 1982 season, for more than 60 years. For the Bears, Lions, and Packers specifically, that shared history stretches past 90 years.

• 3. A Division Named in Cold and Pain

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  Chris Berman, the ESPN sportscaster, coined the phrase "NFC Norris" for this division, comparing its grittiness to the National Hockey League's old Norris Division. The parallel has a twist: the NHL dropped the Norris name in favor of Central almost a decade before the NFL dropped its own Central name in favor of North. The division also carries the nickname "Frostbite Division," reflecting the late-season cold all four teams played in until the mid-1970s. Detroit moved its home games indoors in 1975, and Minnesota followed suit from 1982 to 2013, then returned to indoor play when U.S. Bank Stadium opened in 2016. The entire NFC North sits geographically further north than the AFC North, with Chicago barely edging out Cleveland for the southernmost position. That AFC division currently plays all its games outdoors, yet the nickname belongs to the NFC North, whose teams spent decades pounding each other in open-air winter conditions before roofs became an option.

• 4. Champions and the Ones Who Kept Losing

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  Five Super Bowl championships belong to this division. The Packers have won four of them, and the Bears have won one, with the most recent coming at the conclusion of the 2010 season. The Packers hold an overall regular season record of 810-604-38 through the end of the 2024 season, along with a playoff record of 37-27 and nine pre-Super Bowl league titles. The Bears have eight pre-Super Bowl league titles to their name, a regular season record of 798-646-42, and a playoff record of 17-20. The Vikings have made four Super Bowl appearances without winning any of them, while posting a regular season record of 537-438-11. Then there are the Lions, who hold a regular season record of 606-709-34 and have never appeared in a Super Bowl. Detroit does hold four pre-Super Bowl league titles, but those belong to an era before the modern championship game existed. The Lions also own the distinction of completing the first winless 16-game regular season in NFL history, which happened in 2008. All four teams have at some point finished a regular season with 15 wins - the Bears in 1985, the Vikings in 1998, the Packers in 2011, and the Lions in 2024. The NFC North is the only division where every member has achieved that mark.

• 5. The Modern Playoff Drought

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  Despite those franchise records, the NFC North has struggled in the postseason era that followed the first decade of the 2000s. The division holds the second-longest active Super Bowl drought among all NFL divisions, trailing only the AFC South. Since 2007, division teams have gone 1-9 in conference championship games, with the lone win belonging to the Packers over the Bears in 2010. In the entire 21st century, NFC North teams have reached the Super Bowl only twice, while each of the other three NFC divisions has produced six or more Super Bowl berths in that same span. The Vikings alone have carried much of the divisional postseason volume, earning 21 division championships and 32 total playoff berths as members of the NFC Central and NFC North - more division titles than any other team in the division's history. The Packers follow with 17 division championships and 28 playoff berths. The Bears have 12 division championships. The Lions have five. The structure of the division - four highly competitive teams eating into each other's records twice a year - may itself be part of why none of them has broken through consistently in January.