AFC West
The AFC West is a division of the National Football League's American Football Conference.
The AFC West was formed as a result of the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. The new NFL was aligned into six divisions (two conferences of three divisions each). The original AFC West had four members - the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers. All four teams were previously members of the American Football League's Western Division. These four teams have remained in the AFC West since its inception, and are currently the only teams in the division. When the Raiders played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994, they remained in the AFC West.
When the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers began play in 1976, the Buccaneers were put into the AFC West and the Seahawks were put into the NFC West. After one year, Seattle was moved into the AFC West and Tampa Bay was moved into the NFC Central. The Seahawks played in the AFC West until the 2002 re-alignment, when they were put back into the NFC West, thus restoring the pre-1976 alignment.
ESPN's Chris Berman often calls this division the "AFC Smythe" due to its geographical similarity to the old Smythe Division of the NHL, now known as the Pacific Division.
In recent years, the division is often cited as one of the NFL's "Toughest Divisions" due partially to the home-field advantages of Invesco Field, Arrowhead Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium and McAfee Coliseum(The Black Hole).
Division champions
- #A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Thus, the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored, the Los Angeles Raiders had the best record of the division teams.
Wild Card qualifiers
- A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Thus, the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year. Division standings were ignored, the Los Angeles Raiders had the best record of the division teams.
Total playoff berths
| Team | Championships | Playoff Berths | Super Bowls/Wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders1 | 12 | 18 | 5/3 |
| Denver Broncos | 10 | 17 | 6/2 |
| San Diego Chargers | 8 | 10 | 1/0 |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 5 | 11 | 2/1 |
| Seattle Seahawks2 | 2 | 5 | 0/03 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers4 | 0 | 0 | 0/03 |
1 Known as the Los Angeles Raiders from 1982 until 1994, before moving back to Oakland.
2 Realigned into the NFC West prior to the 2002 NFL season.
3 Have played in one Super Bowl after realignment to NFC.
4 Realigned into the NFC Central prior to the 1977 NFL season.