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After Green Bay won the Super Bowl...

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After Green Bay won the Super Bowl on Sunday, some media outlets were crediting the Packers with 14 NFL championships, some credited them with 12, and The Times credited them with nine. Why the discrepancy? It depends on how you analyze NFL history.

From 1920-1932, there were no divisions and, therefore, no NFL championship game. However, the Packers led the NFL standings three times in those years, and some organizations credit them with championships in those years, even though there were no playoffs. The NFL does not recognize these first-place finishes as championships.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. Feb. 1, 1997 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday February 1, 1997 Home Edition Sports Part C Page 2 Sports Desk 2 inches; 69 words Type of Material: Correction
Pro football--Because of incorrect information supplied by the NFL, the Now You Know feature in Friday’s editions was incorrect. The NFL does, indeed, credit the Green Bay Packers with league championships in the pre-playoff seasons of 1929-31 and does not credit them with four titles for the 1966 and ’67 seasons, when the Packers won NFL championships and the first two Super Bowls. According to the NFL, Green Bay’s victory in Sunday’s Super Bowl gave the Packers an even dozen championships.

From 1933-1965, the Packers won six NFL championships--1936, 1939, 1944, 1961, 1962 and 1965. These six titles are undisputed.

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From 1966-1997, the Packers won three Super Bowls, and this is where the confusion begins. For the 1966 and 1967 seasons, the NFL gives the Packers credit for the NFL championship and for the Super Bowl title.

Those Super Bowls were played before the American Football League merged with the NFL, so the league credits the Packers with two championships in each of those years, one for winning the NFL title, and another for defeating the AFL champion. Two years, four championships.

That seems a little unfair, so The Times decided to give them credit for one championship in each of those two years, which added to the six NFL championships previous and the one Sunday, gives the Packers a total of nine.

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