What does Wild Card mean in American football?

The NFL has two conferences, the NFC and AFC. Each conference has sixteen teams, and four divisions; each division has four teams. All division winners make the playoffs. The two best teams, by record, in each conference that DO NOT win their divisions, also make the playoffs as so-called "wild card" teams. read more

A term in football refering to a winner who is a non-division winner that qualifies for the playoffs. Sporting Charts explains Wild Card - football In the playoffs division champions from each conference are seeded as 1 through 4. read more

The Pro Football HOF reports that ten Wild Card teams have made it to the Super Bowl and six of those won the title (History of the Wild Card | Pro Football Hall of Fame). Considering that we are heading towards Super Bowl 50, those odds are not that bad for teams that were not strong enough during the season to win their little divisions. read more

The wild-cards round appeared in 1970 after the NFL merged the leagues and realized there are three divisional champions (at the time) and wanted to have four teams in the Divisional round so the best second place team was added to the post-season as a Wild Card team. read more