The National Football League playoff bracket follows a rigorous single-elimination tournament structure that takes place exclusively during the chilly winter months of January and early February, culminating in the Super Bowl. Because the current calendar falls during the mid-summer month of August—the period dedicated to training camps and pre-season exhibition matches—the previous season's playoffs concluded months ago. Teams are currently preparing from scratch for the upcoming autumn campaign, meaning no active playoff brackets or surviving postseason contenders exist on the sports schedule at this point in the year.