The Playoff Bowl was devised to match the second-place teams from the NFL's two conferences (Eastern and Western).

The NFL's Playoff Bowl was played during the idle week, and because of AFL's equally major league status, interest in the game was waning.

In addition, the arrival of the Miami Dolphins in 1966 as an expansion franchise in the AFL reduced local interest in the game.

For the three seasons (1967–69) preceding the 1970 merger with the AFL, the loser of the NFL's third place game ended up with a peculiar record of 0-2 for that post-season.

The highest attendance was over 65,500 in January 1966 for the Baltimore Colts' rout of the Dallas Cowboys;[5] the 1965 season was the last one prior to the Dolphins starting play, the AFL–NFL merger agreement, and the creation of the Super Bowl.

This lack of motivation may explain his Packers' rare postseason defeat in the 1964 game (January 1965) to the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Packers remain the sole NFL team to win three consecutive titles in the post-season era, which began in 1933.

All-Pro defensive tackle Roger Brown appeared in five Playoff Bowls, the most by any player, and was on the winning side each time (Detroit Lions in 1960, 1961, 1962; Los Angeles Rams in 1967, 1969).

"[1] The Lions also hold the dubious distinction of having the most victories in the Playoff Bowl, three, along with tying for the best winning percentage, 1.000.

The 1966 season Playoff Bowl game was used by NFL Films to put a microphone on Philadelphia Eagles' head coach Joe Kuharich, which is credited by the league as part of the signature of NFL Films' videos featuring microphones on coaches and players.

That same Eagles-Colts Playoff Bowl marked the debut of the "slingshot" or "tuning fork" goalpost, with one curved support, in American football.