By Erin Irish
The first round of the NFL playoffs is called the Wild Card Round. There are six teams from each conference that make the playoffs. Four are the division leaders and two are wild card teams. The division leaders are seeded #1-#4 and the wild card teams are seeded #5 and #6. Teams are seeded based upon their regular season record. The Wild Card Round is composed of the two wild card teams and the #3 and #4 seeds from both conferences. The #1 and #2 divisional leaders for each conference do not compete in this round and automatically advance to the next Divisional Round. The #6 wild card team plays the #3 division leader and the #4 seeded divisional leader plays the #5 wild card team. The division champions have home-field advantage. The NFL has never seen two wild card teams faceoff in the Super Bowl, but there have been multiple instances where the wild card team has advanced to the Championship. It’s almost as if the #5 and #6 teams are given a final chance to make their dreams come true, and so their internal fight is even more aggressive when compared with a team that has been complacently expecting to make the playoffs. The wild card teams are the underdogs and have the desire to prove their worth. There have been six wild card teams to win the Super Bowl and there have been four others who have lost. The term wild card was adopted from the media in the mid-1970s; therefore, there have been other teams that would now be known as wild card teams that have advanced.
