1981–82 NFL Playoff Bracket
The 1981 NFL playoffs exactly as they were played, on one printable page: every seed, every score, and Super Bowl XVI, which ended San Francisco 49ers 26, Cincinnati Bengals 21.
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- Prints on one page
- Every seed and every score
1981–82 NFL Playoff Bracket
San Francisco 49ers won Super Bowl XVI.
AFC
Wild Card
Divisional
Conference Championship
Super Bowl XVI
Champion
San Francisco 49ers
NFC
Wild Card
Divisional
Conference Championship
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How this bracket works
1981: ten teams, with one Wild Card game in each conference
Every game above is the record: the seeds each team carried, the score, and who hosted. The AFC is on the left and the NFC on the right, each conference's rounds running in toward Super Bowl XVI in the middle, which was played at Pontiac Silverdome.
1981 used the ten-team format of 1978 to 1989: in each conference the two wild cards met in a single Wild Card game, and the three division winners, San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, waited in the Divisional round.
One game went to overtime, marked OT on the sheet: San Diego Chargers 41, Miami Dolphins 38.
Questions people ask
Who won the 1981 NFL playoffs?
San Francisco 49ers won Super Bowl XVI, San Francisco 49ers 26, Cincinnati Bengals 21, at Pontiac Silverdome. Cincinnati Bengals were the runners-up. The bracket above shows how both got there.
How many teams made the 1981 NFL playoffs?
10. 1981 used the ten-team format of 1978 to 1989: in each conference the two wild cards met in a single Wild Card game, and the three division winners, San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, waited in the Divisional round.
Can I print the 1981 NFL playoff bracket?
Yes, free. Press "Print this bracket" and it prints landscape on one page with no navigation and no browser header. Switch to "Blank to fill in" first for a copy with the results removed, which keeps the teams that had a bye and empties every slot a team had to win its way into.
Every NFL playoff bracket, 1970 to 2025
One printable bracket per season, drawn the way that postseason actually ran: eight teams through 1977, ten from 1978, the strike season’s sixteen in 1982, twelve from 1990 and fourteen since 2020. Each page has every seed and every score, and the Super Bowl it ended in.
Want the pool, not just the paper?
A printed bracket is for following along. To give your office or group something riding on every game, run playoff squares with a grid per game, Super Bowl squares, or a playoff pick’em that scores itself as the results come in.
Run NFL playoff squares