The NFL Playoffs are upon us, so between now and the Super Bowl in February, you’re probably going to hear a lot about American Football.

And, let’s be honest… The first weeks of January aren’t your most productive weeks in the office.

So why not spice things up a bit by setting up an NFL Playoffs sweep? It’ll make your Sundays and Mondays better throughout the month.

The first round of the playoffs is uncharacteristically Australian-timezone-friendly (AND all games are broadcast on free-to-air TV!):

Sunday 7th January
8.35am (Eastern Aus) Chiefs v Titans
12.15pm (Eastern Aus) Rams v Falcons

Monday 8th January
5.05am (Eastern Aus) Bills v Jaguars
8.40am (Eastern Aus) Saints v Panthers

Also: We might send you some prizes if you can show us some evidence that you’ve recruited new NFL fans! (read more about this below).

Convinced? OK, this will take 5 minutes…

Here are the steps to set up your own NFL Playoff sweep using our template:

1. 1. Think of the names of 11 people who could do with some encouragement to be more interested in the NFL
2. Maybe they’re NBA fans who already have a taste for American sports but haven’t found a reason to be interested in NFL yet. Maybe they’re AFL fans waiting for April to roll around. Maybe they’re Cricket fans who support England or the Melbourne Stars.

They don’t really need to know anything about the NFL in order to get involved – and they might come away from it with a team to follow for life.

1. 2. Download this Spreadsheet (Click here for Excel | Click here for Numbers)
2. Yeah, these aren’t OUR most productive days in the office, either, so we’ve gone old-school and given you the simplest way we thought to set this up: a spreadsheet to download.

UPDATE: If you didn’t get a sweep completed before Wildcard Round, you can still create a sweep (for 8 people) using this Excel template.

3. Click on the ‘START_HERE’ tab – the one where you have to enter names.

1. 4. Enter the names of the 11 people you chose (as well as your own).
   
2. You’ll type them in the ‘Put name here’ sections.

1. 5. Click on the ‘TEAMS’ tab – you should all have been allocated a team at random. Screenshot this and send it to your friends.

1. 6. Click on the ‘BRACKET’ tab – you should see the full playoff picture. 

You can print this off to display in your office or upload it to Google Drive and share the link with the people you included.

1. 7. Create a group chat, Slack channel or e-mail chain to keep everyone updated on the different games. 

2. That’s it!

3. You can decide on your own prizes, etc. if you like, or message us on Facebook and we’ll provide a prize for your sweep if we feel like you’re doing a good job recruiting new football fans!