1983–84 NFL playoffs
The Los Angeles Raiders playing the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII
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| Dates | December 24, 1983–January 22, 1984 | ||
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| Teams | 10 | ||
| Defending champions | Washington Redskins | ||
| Champions | Los Angeles Raiders | ||
| Runners-up | Washington Redskins | ||
| Matches played | 9 | ||
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The National Football League playoffs for the 1983 season began on December 24, 1983. The postseason tournament concluded with the Los Angeles Raiders defeating the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII, 38–9, on January 22, 1984, at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Due to Christmas, the two wild card playoff games were played in a span of three days.
Within each conference, the three division winners and the two wild card teams (the top two non-division winners with the best overall regular season records) qualified for the playoffs. The three division winners were seeded 1 through 3 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card teams were seeded 4 and 5. The NFL did not use a fixed bracket playoff system. In the first round, dubbed the wild-card playoffs or wild-card weekend, the fourth seed wild card hosted the fifth seed. All three division winners from each conference then received a bye in the first round. The second round, the divisional playoffs, had a restriction where two teams from the same division could not meet: the surviving wild card team visited the division champion outside its own division that had the higher seed, and the remaining two teams from that conference played each other. The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games then meet in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, hosted by the higher seed. Although the Super Bowl, the fourth and final round of the playoffs, was played at a neutral site, the designated home team was based on an annual rotation by conference.
Both teams came into the game with remarkably similar seasons. Each had a 9-7 record, and both had gone through multiple starting quarterbacks. The Seahawks were starting Dave Krieg, who had replaced Jim Zorn in the ninth game of the season. Steve DeBerg started for the Broncos, returning to the lineup for the first time in seven weeks after suffering a separated shoulder.
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