In the divisional playoffs, the Falcons defeated the St. Louis Rams 47 – 17 in the Georgia Dome, advancing to the NFC Championship, which they lost to the Eagles 27 – 10.

Although they failed to make the playoffs in 2009, the streak ended when the team rallied to win their final three regular season games to record back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in franchise history.

As a result, they were out of the playoffs.

Those against the Wild Card see it as diminishing the importance of the pennant race and the regular season, with the true race often being for second rather than first place, while those in favor of it view it as an opportunity for teams to have a shot at the playoffs even when they have no chance of a first-place finish in their division, thus maintaining fan interest later in the season.

In the playoffs, they easily defeated the Cowboys in the wild-card round before facing the St. Louis Rams in the divisional round.

The Cowboys are the only NFL team to record 20 straight winning seasons ( 1966 – 85 ), in which they only missed the playoffs twice ( 1974 and 1984 ), an NFL record that remains unchallenged.

Star receiver Michael Irvin was suspended by the league for the first five games of 1996 following a drug-related arrest ; he came back after the Cowboys started the season 2-3 ; they finished 10-6 and won the NFC East title, but were eliminated in the divisional round of the playoffs 26-17 by the second-year Carolina Panthers.

In 1930, the Cougars were renamed the Falcons, but their woes continued, as they usually finished near the bottom of the standings, even though they made the playoffs again in 1932.

The following season Yzerman scored 62 goals, but the team missed the playoffs ( which as of 2012 is the most recent time they did so ).

New coach Bryan Murray was unable to get them back over. 500, but they returned to the playoffs.

The Wings cruised to the playoffs, where they faced the Nashville Predators.

In the second round, they fell behind the San Jose Sharks three games to one, before being knocked out of the playoffs in five games.

Torborg's successor, 72-year-old Jack McKeon, improbably led them to the National League's wild card berth in the playoffs ; they defeated the New York Yankees four games to two in the 2003 World Series.

The two teams met twice a year ( interrupted in 1982 by a player strike ) 1970 – 2001 ; with the move of the Colts to the AFC South the two teams ' rivalry actually escalated, as they met three times in the playoffs in the South's first nine seasons of existence ; the Jets crushed the Colts 41 – 0 in the 2002 Wild Card playoff round ; the Colts then defeated the Jets 30 – 17 in the 2009 AFC Championship Game ; but the next year in the Wild Card round the Jets pulled off another playoff upset of the Colts, winning 17 – 16 ; it was Peyton Manning's final playoff game with the Colts.

In 1977 Baltimore tied for first for the third straight year ( in 1976 they tied with the now-New England Patriots ) with Miami, and this time advanced to the playoffs on even slimmer pretenses, with a conference record of 9 – 3 compared to Miami's 8 – 4, as they had split the season series.

Since then they have appeared in the playoffs in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2011.

Following a 2006 season in which they missed the playoffs, Lamar Hunt sold the club in August 2006 to OnGoal, LLC, a six-man ownership group led by Cerner Corporation co-founders Neal Patterson and Cliff Illig, a local group committed to keeping the Wizards in Kansas City.

By the turn of 1992 they were top of the Second Division, and then suffered a dip in form before recovering to qualify for the playoffs, during which Dalglish led Blackburn into the new Premier League by beating Leicester City 1 – 0 in the Second Division Play-off final at Wembley.

Since the merger, they have made the playoffs 24 times, third most in the league.

By, age was taking its toll on the Vikings, but they still made the playoffs with an 8 – 7 – 1 record.

In 1985, they returned to the playoffs, and made it all the way to Super Bowl XX, which they lost to the Chicago Bears 46 – 10.

The Alamodome, home to the Spurs from 1993 to 2002. The following season, the Spurs ' first in the newly built Alamodome, Lucas led the Spurs to a 55 – 27 record but the team suffered a loss in the first round of the playoffs to the Utah Jazz, which led to the immediate firing of Lucas as head coach.

After 3 straight years of being knocked out of the playoffs by the Colts the Battalion built up a roster to make a deep run in 2008 / 2009.

Templeton built the inaugural team of the Barrie Colts, who became the first OHL expansion franchise to make the playoffs in its first season.

This built a quarterback controversy among fans and media, as many of the Steeler faithful supported Graham ahead of Stewart despite Stewart's recent successes with the team ( having led the team to the playoffs twice in his first two full years as starter ).

Fratello built on that record the following year to win 49 games and return to the playoffs for a second consecutive season.

* CBS Sports paid $ 48, 000, 000 for the rights to broadcast the NCAA men's basketball tournament for three years, outbidding the NBC network, which had built the popularity of the playoffs since 1969.

The Falcons would go on to lose in the wild-card round of the 2008 NFL playoffs to the eventual NFC champion Arizona Cardinals, 30 – 24.

After the Padres ' defeat at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers on September 29, the Diamondbacks secured both the NL West title and home field advantage throughout the NL playoffs.

According to Nate Silver, the advent of this playoff series, and especially of the wild card, has caused teams to focus more on " getting to the playoffs " rather than " winning the pennant " as the primary goal of the regular season.

At the end of the opening round, the top 16 competitors move on to the playoffs.

It was closed on Sunday, January 20, 2002, a day after the Bears lost in the playoffs.

The team took a risk by recording and releasing the song before the playoffs had even begun, but were able to avoid embarrassment by going on to win Super Bowl XX by a then-record margin of 46 – 10.

But it only earned them a wild card spot in the playoffs, behind the 12 – 2 Pittsburgh Steelers, who went on to win the Super Bowl.

However, the season came to an end as the Indians went on to lose six of their last seven games, five of them by one run, missing the playoffs by only two games.

With the win, the Rockies made the playoffs for the first time since 1995, and went on to face the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS.

The two clubs had first met in 1960, and in 1972 met in the playoffs for the first time on December 23 at Candlestick Park, in the Divisional round of the 1972 NFC playoffs.

Following the 1926 Stanley Cup playoffs, during which the Western Hockey League was widely reported to be on the verge of folding, the NHL held a meeting on April 17 to consider applications for expansion franchises, at which it was reported that five different groups sought a team for Detroit.

The Red Wings went on to capture another Stanley Cup in five games over the Carolina Hurricanes, with Nicklas Lidstrom winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs ' MVP.

Osgood never left the net for the remainder of the playoffs, as the Red Wings came back in that series on their way to winning their 11th Stanley Cup.

The Wings again faced the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round of the playoffs, this time sweeping them 4 – 0 — making them the only team in the 2010-2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs to sweep the first round — and again moved on to play the Sharks in Round 2.

On November 4, 2007 the Patriots defeated the Colts 24 – 20 ; in the next matchup on November 2, 2008, the Colts won 18 – 15 in a game that was one of the reasons the Patriots failed to make the playoffs ; in the 2009 meeting, the Colts staged a spirited comeback to beat the Patriots 35 – 34 ; in the most recent 2010 game, the Colts almost staged another comeback, pulling within 31 – 28 after trailing 31 – 14 in the fourth quarter, but fell short due to a Patriots interception of a Manning pass late in the game.

In 1975 Baltimore and Miami tied with 10 – 4 records, yet the Colts advanced to the playoffs based on a head-to-head sweep of their series.

The debate topics ranged broadly from the usual such as abortion and foreign policy to the unusual such as an incident preceding the then-current baseball playoffs, in which Roberto Alomar, the Baltimore Orioles ' second baseman, cursed and spat on an umpire.

In the end, it was not enough as the Wizards did not win another game to find themselves on the outside of the playoffs looking in with a record of 11 – 9 – 12.

It was the theme song to the 2010 MLB playoffs on TBS as well as WWE's Tribute To The Troops Special.

However, the Vikings lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs, 17 – 14, on a controversial touchdown pass from the Cowboys ' quarterback Roger Staubach to wide receiver Drew Pearson that became known as the Hail Mary.