What Was The Top NFL Championship Round Game? There's A Catch.

We are mere days away from the NFL’s Final Four aka the AFC and NFC championship games. All four teams remaining (Chiefs, Titans, 49ers, and Packers) are just one win away from the Super Bowl. (Have you done your NFL betting yet? Make your Championship game and other sports bet at 888 Sport!.) There have been some exciting games in this postseason leading up to this weekend. Many believe that championship weekend is better than the Super Bowl, and there have been dozens of amazing championship games to back that up. Will the two games this Sunday one day make this list? Only time will tell.

Until then, let’s take a look at ten of the greatest championship games of all-time.

10. 1967 NFL Championship: Packers 21, Cowboys 17

Before my time, yes, but no football fan worth their salt hasn’t seen highlights of this game, forever etched in our memories as “The Ice Bowl”. Technically, this wasn’t an NFC championship game as it happened before the AFL/NFL merger (the merger happened in 1966 but wasn’t consummated until 1970), but it works for this list. Temperatures “reached” -15 degrees, and this was long before moisture-wicking/dry-fit/thermal high-technology athletic wear. These guys rolled out in long-johns and that was it. As icicles formed on player’s noses, the game came down to one final play. Packers quarterback Bart Starr sneaking over the goal-line with 13 seconds left, winning the game for Green Bay and, for all involved, a piece of immortality.

9. 2015 NFC Championship: Seahawks 28, Packers 22 (OT)

In the 2014 NFC championship game, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson picked a bad day to have a bad day, throwing four interceptions. Yet despite that, Wilson brought the Seahawks back from a 19-7 deficit with less than 2:15 remaining to take the lead. The Packers kicked a field goal to send the game to OT, where Wilson led the Seahawks to an opening drive touchdown to win. Further proof that the most important stat is the final score.

8. 2011 AFC Championship: Patriots 23, Ravens 20

Did Lee Evans catch what could’ve been the game-winning touchdown, or was he really stripped of the ball by Sterling Moore? An argument can be made that he caught it when watching it in slo-mo, but that wasn’t the decision. The Ravens couldn’t punch it in from the 14-yard line, so kicker Billy Cundiff came in to kick the chip shot 32-yarder to take the game to overtime...and shanked it. Pats win, and Cundiff would forever be known as “Billy F**king Cundiff” in Baltimore sports lore.

7. (tie) 1986 AFC Championship: Broncos 23, Browns 20 (OT)

1987 AFC Championship: Broncos 38, Browns 33

These two games go together like peanut butter and jelly, so it’s only fair that they are together on this list. Very rarely do you get a rematch of championship game opponents the following calendar year, and even more rarely are both games instant classics as these two were. The ‘86 game came to be known for “The Drive”, as Broncos quarterback John Elway led a 98-yard touchdown drive to force overtime (not often mentioned is the fact that he was having a poor game until then). The ‘87 game was the better of the two, and simply became known for “The Fumble”, as Browns running back Ernest Byner was seemingly about to run in for the game-tying touchdown from the 8-yard line but was stripped of the ball from behind, game over. One could say this was a metaphor for Browns football fans as well as they were eventually stripped of the Browns eight years later and have been irrelevant ever since. Oh well.

6. 1998 NFC Championship: Falcons 30, Vikings 27 (OT)

The ‘98 Vikings went 15-1 and set all kinds of offensive records. They had an in his prime Cris Carter and a not even yet in his prime Randy Moss dominating defensive backs all season, and they were well on their way to a win here and a Super Bowl appearance here. All they needed was for veteran kicker Gary Anderson, one of the greatest kickers of all-time (he should be in the Hall of Fame he was that good) and who hadn’t missed a field goal ​all ​season, to make a 38-yarder to ice the game. He missed it wide left, the Falcons would march down and score a TD to send the game to overtime, and they eventually won.

5. 1990 NFC Championship: Giants 15, 49ers 13

Essentially the game that ended Joe Montana’s career in San Francisco, the 49ers were going for a Super Bowl title three-peat and were heavy favorites in this one. The two teams had played a 7-3 game earlier in the season and this game was no different. The Niners were on their way to winning this one but two plays crushed their dreams. One was a massive hit by Giants defensive lineman Leonard Marshall that knocked Montana out of the game late. The hit still makes you cringe watching it to this day. The other was a fumble by running back Roger Craig that came as the Niners were trying to run out the clock. The Giants recovered the fumble and eventually drove down to kick the winning field goal as time expired. This was the symbolic end of the 49ers dynasty of the 1980s.

4. 2009 NFC Championship: Saints 31, Vikings 28 (OT)

The last hurrah for the old gunslinger Brett Favre. And he went down like he played, firing from the hip, touchdowns and interceptions be damned. The Vikings were driving late in the game for the game-winning field goal but, surprise surprise, Favre threw an interception to end regulation and would never see the ball again. The saints won the toss in overtime and marched down the field to win on a field goal. This would be the last time an NFL game ended in sudden death as the overtime rule was changed in that offseason.

3. 2014 NFC Championship: Seahawks 23, 49ers 17

The vicious early 2010’s rivalry between the Niners and Seahawks reached its apex in this one. This game was mainly remembered for the chippy, trash-talking battle between Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman and Niners wide receiver Michael Crabtree, but it was also just a great game altogether. The Niners had one last chance to win at the end, getting inside the Seahawks’ red zone, but Colin Kaepernick’s pass to Crabtree was a little underthrown and Sherman-who else?-was able to deflect it into the hands of future Super Bowl hero Malcolm Smith for the interception. Game over.

2. 2006 AFC Championship: Colts 38. Patriots 34

By and large, the Tom Brady-led Patriots owned the Peyton Manning Colts through much of the early 2000’s, winning six straight (including two playoff games) before the Colts finally took both regular season meetings in 2005 and 2006. The 2006 AFC title game looked like it was going to be more same old same, however, as the Pats jumped out to an early 21-3 lead. Usually Manning and the Colts would’ve buckled here, but they stormed all the way back, tying the game 21-21 with four minutes left in the third quarter. Then the game went bonkers. Neither offense could be stopped, and the game turned into a shootout. The Colts went ahead 38-34 but Brady still had a minute. He drove the pats down to the Colts 45-yard line but was intercepted by Marlin Jackson on the next play to end the game. This game is also notable for the Colts comeback being the largest in conference championship history.

1. 1981 NFC Championship: 49ers 28, Cowboys 27

One of the greatest games in NFL history, this game kicked off the 49ers dynasty of the 1980’s and will always be referred to with two simple words: The Catch. The Cowboys were the glory franchise, dominating the NFC throughout the 1970’s, while the 49ers were the young upstarts without much history or relevancy on their side. This was their first winning season in about ten years. The Cowboys scored ten unanswered points to go up 27-21 with almost five minutes left to play. A young Joe Montana drove the Niners down the field from their own 11-yard line to the Cowboys 6-yard line where they faced a 3rd-and-three with under a minute left. The rest, as they say, is history.

Montana fading to his right toward the sideline, Cowboys defensive lineman Ed “Too Tall” Jones breathing down his neck, Montana pumping the ball, throwing up a pass that seemed to stay in the air forever and seemingly on its way out of bounds, and then 49ers wide receiver Dwight Clark coming out of nowhere to extend and make the catch. Niners hold on to win. In the author's own memory this play lives on but in slow motion, almost balletic. I even remember where I was when it happened. Most football fans alive at the time do as well. This play, and this game, exists somewhere on a plane between legend and mythology (thus it is immortalized as a statue.) Of all the great games on this list, none can say that.

*Credit to the main photo of this article belongs to Tony Avelar/Associated Press (Montana), Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press (Sherman), Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press (Sherman)