Prior to the title game, the Western Division champion needed to be determined. The defending NFL championChicago Bears had ended the regular season on December 7 tied with the Green Bay Packers, 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, with over 10,000 seats to Packer fans. Chicago was favored, 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 temperatures and easily won, 33–14. The Eastern Division champion New York Giants completed their regular season on December 7 with a 21–7 loss to the runner-up Brooklyn Dodgers, who had defeated the Giants twice in the regular season.
NFL Championship Game
Both the Bears and Giants were making their fifth appearances in the title game, 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. The game time temperature was an unseasonably warm. The hometown Bears kicked three field goals in the first half to lead 9–6 at the intermission. 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. The Bears became the first team in the NFL championship game era to win consecutive titles; it was the franchise's fifth league title.
Source: Ray "Scooter" McLean elected to drop kick the extra point on the last touchdown, 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.
Officials
Referee: Emil Heintz
Umpire: John Schommer
Head Linesman: Charlie Berry
Field Judge: Chuck Sweeney
The NFL had only four game officials in ; the back judge was added in, the line judge in, and the side judge in.
Players' shares
With the extremely low attendance, the net gate receipts were a record low, under $42,000. Each Bear player received $431 while each Giant saw $288, less than half of the previous year's. Ticket prices were $4.40 for the grandstand and $2.20 for bleachers.
