Before the title game, the Western Division champion needed to be determined. The defending NFL champion Chicago Bears (10–1) had ended the regular season on December 7 tied with the Green Bay Packers (10–1), the 1939 NFL champions. The two had split their season series in 1941, with the road teams winning, so the tiebreaker was the first-ever divisional playoff game in the NFL, played on December 14 at Wrigley Field.
The Packers had completed their regular season on November 30 and the playoff game was sold out by Tuesday, December 9, at over 46,484,[7] with over 10,000 seats to Packer fans.[8] Chicago was favored,[8][9] and attendance on game day was slightly lower than capacity at 43,425, the week after Pearl Harbor. The Bears jumped to a 30–7 halftime lead under clear skies and 16 °F (−9 °C) temperatures and easily won, 33–14.[10][11][12] The Eastern Division champion New York Giants (8–3) completed their regular season on December 7 with a 21–7 loss to the runner-up Brooklyn Dodgers (7–4), who had defeated the Giants twice in the regular season.
NFL Championship Game
The Bears were making their fifth appearance in the title game, the Giants were making their sixth, and each had two victories. It was the third time the two teams matched up in the big game; the home teams had won both: the Bears in 1933 and the Giants in 1934. The Bears were favored by two touchdowns and 35,000 were expected to attend.[1][13] The game time temperature was unseasonably warm at 47 °F (8 °C).[2]
The hometown Bears kicked three field goals in the first half to lead 9–6 at the intermission.[3] The Giants took the opening drive of the second half down to the five but settled for a short field goal to tie the score. Chicago dominated the rest of the second half with four unanswered touchdowns and won 37–9.[2][4][5][14]
The Bears became the first team in the NFL championship game era (since 1933) to win consecutive titles; it was the franchise's fifth league title (1921, 1932, 1933, 1940, 1941).
^ With under two minutes remaining, Ray "Scooter" McLean elected to drop kick the extra point on the last touchdown,[16] which was the last successful drop kick in the NFL for 64 years. Doug Flutie of the New England Patriots kicked one in his final regular season game, in the fourth quarter of the last game of the 2005 regular season on January 1, 2006.[17]
The NFL had only four game officials in 1941; the back judge was added in 1947, the line judge in 1965, and the side judge in 1978.
Players' shares
With the low attendance, the net gate receipts were a record low at under $42,000. Each Bears player received $431, while each Giants player saw $288, less than half of the previous year's.[14][18]
Ticket prices were $4.40 for the grandstand and $2.20 for bleachers.[19]
1 – Dates in the list denote the season, not necessarily the calendar year in which the championship game was played. For instance, Super Bowl LIV was played in 2020, but was the championship for the 2019 season.
2 – From 1966 to 1969, the first four Super Bowls were "World Championship" games played between two independent professional football leagues, AFL and NFL, and when the league merged in 1970 the Super Bowl became the NFL Championship Game.
