The 1933 NFL season was the 14th regular season of the National Football League. Because of the success of the Playoff Game the year before, the league divided its teams into two divisions for the first time, with the winners of each division playing in a Championship Game to determine the NFL Champion. Three new teams joined the league: the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Philadelphia Eagles, and the Cincinnati Reds. The Boston Braves changed their name to the Boston Redskins and the Staten Island Stapletons left the league, though they continued scheduling games against league teams. The season ended when the Chicago Bears defeated the New York Giants in the first ever NFL Championship Game.

Teams

The league increased from 8 teams to 10 in 1933.

Major rule changes

Due to the success of the 1932 NFL Playoff Game, the league stopped using the exact rules of college football and started to develop its own revisions:

Final standings

NFL Championship Game

Statistical leaders

The 1933 season marked the second year in which official statistics were tracked and retained by the NFL. Certain statistics later regarded as staples were not maintained, including interceptions, punting average, kickoff return yardage and average, and field goal percentage, among others. New NFL records are denoted with the ‡ symbol below. Source: Pete Palmer, et al. (eds.), The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia. First Edition. New York: Sterling Publishing, 2006; p. 1041.

Coaching changes

Stadium changes

This was also the first season of selected Green Bay Packers home games in Milwaukee, with the Packers hosting one game in 1933 at Borchert Field. The team would then regularly play two or three home games each year in Milwaukee from 1934 to 1994.