Dates | January 4–February 2, 2014 | ||
---|---|---|---|
Teams | 12 | ||
Defending champions |
Baltimore Ravens (did not qualify) |
||
Champions | Seattle Seahawks | ||
Runners-up | Denver Broncos | ||
Matches played | 11 | ||
|
The National Football League playoffs for the 2013 season began on January 4, 2014. The postseason tournament concluded with the Seattle Seahawks defeating the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII, 43–8, on February 2, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Within each conference, the four 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 four division winners are seeded 1 through 4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card teams are seeded 5 and 6. The NFL does not use a fixed bracket playoff system, and there are no restrictions regarding teams from the same division matching up in any round. In the first round, dubbed the wild-card playoffs or wild-card weekend, the third-seeded division winner hosts the sixth seed wild card, and the fourth seed hosts the fifth. The 1 and 2 seeds from each conference then receive a bye in the first round. In the second round, the divisional playoffs, the number 1 seed hosts the worst surviving seed from the first round (seed 4, 5 or 6), while the number 2 seed will play the other team (seed 3, 4 or 5). 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, is played at a neutral site, the designated home team is based on an annual rotation by conference.
In a change from previous seasons, CBS was given both late games during the Divisional Playoffs (as opposed to CBS and Fox each having both an early game on one day and a late game on the other day).
In the United States, NBC broadcast the first two Wild Card playoff games, then CBS broadcast the rest of the AFC playoff games. Fox televised the rest of the NFC games and the Super Bowl. All games were broadcast on Westwood One radio.