Printable NFL Playoff Bracket for Your Office Pool

Organizing a pool for the NFL playoffs is a lot of fun-if you manage to find a simple printable NFL playoff bracket. You see, the NFL provides a wrinkle to the standard playoff structure that complicates the process of filling out a bracket: Following the first round (the wild card games), the teams are re-seeded so that the #1 seed in each division plays the lowest remaining seed.

For example, if the NFC wild card games finish according to their seed numbers, with the third-seeded Vikings beating the sixth-seeded Eagles, then the top seeded Giants would play the winner of the 4/5 seed matchup (regardless of who wins), and the second-seeded Panthers would play the Vikings, matching up seeds 2 and 3. However, if the Eagles were to win, they would play the Giants instead, with the Panthers playing the winner of the Cardinals-Falcons tilt.

Confusing enough?

This is especially difficult to illustrate in printable bracket form so that you don't run the risk of confused pool participants picking matchups like the Eagles vs. the Panthers in the second round, which isn't possible. Therefore, you need to have some sort of simple way of preventing confusion, even if it has to be an explanation on how to fill out the brackets. First, though, you need to start with an easy-to-understand printable NFL playoff bracket.

For all sites listed, the direct link to the bracket appears at the end of the article.

Options for printable NFL playoff brackets

Printyourbrackets.com

(click on link for "printable version")

Pros: The bracket is a simple, clean design.

Cons: You'll have to re-arrange the teams if either of the 6 seeds advances past the first round (Then again, that will be the case with most printable brackets).

Other info: This is a website devoted to brackets, not sports information, so you won't find any tips there to help you fill out your picks.

NFL.com

(Print the second page only)

Pros: The bracket is present in an attractive graphic. Also, it doesn't fill in the top seeds placement at the outset, so they can be added later to avoid confusion.

Cons: The image is smaller and harder to write in.

Other info: While NFL.com provides news and any statistics you could want, it typically doesn't provide a lot of detailed analysis of the games that many of the commercial sites do.

Cbssportsline.com

(Print the first page only, or highlight and "print as selected on screen.")

Pros: A more colorful, attractive design includes illustrations of each team's helmets for their place in the field. Dates and times are listed for each of the games, avoiding the hassle of having to look them up elsewhere.

Cons: Depending on the quality of your printer, the bracket lines may be difficult to see.

Other info: Cbssportsline provides analysis of the games and updates on player injuries, so you can do a little research before you make that final decision on each game.

Docsports.com

(Links on page, but note that 2008 is last year's playoffs.)

Pros: In years past, they've provided brackets with dates and times of the games, like cbssportsline, in a much more printer-friendly format. Brackets are updated after every round, in case you want to scrap yours mid-playoffs and start over...

Cons: ...However, as of the writing of this piece, docsports.com has not put up their 2009 playoff bracket yet.

Other info: Does provide some information on games, but mostly related to gambling.

Have fun, and good luck!