NFC Championship Game The National Football Conference ( NFC ) Championship Game is one of the two semi - final playoff matches of the National Football League , the largest professional American football league in the United States . The game is played on the penultimate Sunday in January and determines the champion of the National Football Conference . The winner then advances to face the winner of the American Football Conference ( AFC ) Championship Game in the Super Bowl . The game was established as part of the 1970 merger between the NFL and the American Football League ( AFL ) , with the merged league realigning into two conferences . The first NFC Championship Game was held on January 3 , 1971 , with the Dallas Cowboys defeating the San Francisco 49ers , 17 - 10 . The most recent game was played on January 23 , 2011 , with the Green Bay Packers defeating the Chicago Bears , 21 - 14 . Since 1984 , each winner of the NFC Championship Game has also received the George Halas Trophy , named after the longtime leader of the NFL ' s Chicago Bears . History . The first NFC Championship Game was played following the 1970 regular season after the merger between the NFL and the American Football League . The game is considered the successor to the original NFL Championship , and its game results are listed with that of its predecessor in the annual " NFL Record and Fact Book " . The NFC consists of the pre - merger NFL teams with the exception of the Pittsburgh Steelers , Baltimore Colts , and Cleveland Browns , who were moved to the American Football Conference following the merger to make the number of teams in each conference even at thirteen apiece . Every NFC team has played in an NFC Championship at least once . The Seattle Seahawks , who have been members in both the AFC and the NFC , hold the distinction of appearing in both conference title games . Only the Detroit Lions have yet to win an NFC Championship Game . For the first time in the history of either Championship game , the NFC has seen 10 different winners in ten years between 2001 and 2010 . Playoff structure . At the end of each football season , a series of playoff games involving the top six teams in the NFC are conducted , consisting of the four division champions and two wild card teams . Wild card teams are those teams who possess the two best won - loss records after the regular season yet fail to win their division . In the current ( post 2002 ) NFL playoff structure the two teams remaining following the Wild Card round ( first round ) and the divisional round ( second round ) play in the NFC Championship game . Initially , the site of the game was determined on a rotating basis . Since the 1975 – 76 season , the site of the NFC Championship has been based on playoff seeding based on the regular season won - loss record , with the highest surviving seed hosting the football game . A wild card team can only host the game if both participants are wild cards , in which case the fifth seed would host the sixth seed . Such an instance has never occurred in the NFL . George Halas Trophy . Since 1984 , the winner of the NFC Championship Game has received the George Halas Trophy , named after the longtime owner and coach of the Chicago Bears , a charter member of the NFL . The original design consisted of a wooden base with a sculpted NFC logo in the front and a sculpture of various football players in the back . It , and the Lamar Hunt Trophy that is awarded to the AFC Champion , were redesigned for the 2010 – 11 NFL playoffs by Tiffany & Co . at the request of the NFL in an attempt to make both awards more significant . The trophies are now a new , silver design with the outline of a hollow football positioned on a small base to more closely resembles the Vince Lombardi Trophy , awarded to the winner of the Super Bowl . The George Halas Trophy should not be confused with the Newspaper Enterprise Association ' s George S . Halas Trophy which was awarded to the NFL ' s defensive player of the year from 1966 to 1996 or the Pro Football Writers Association ' s George S . Halas Courage Award . NFC Championship Game appearances 1970 – present . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > last NFL title , 1957 < nowiki > * < / nowiki > Tied for Conference Championship record