Super Bowl XXXI Super Bowl XXXI Super Bowl XXXI was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Green Bay Packers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1996 season. The Packers defeated the Patriots by the score of 35–21, earning their third overall Super Bowl victory, and their first since Super Bowl II. The Packers also extended their league record for the most overall NFL championships to 12. It was also the last in a run of 13 straight Super Bowl victories by the NFC over
Super Bowl III following season, 1969, would be the last one before the AFL-NFL merger. The AFL's Kansas City Chiefs would go on to defeat the NFL's Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. That victory by the AFL squared the Super Bowl series with the NFL at two games apiece before the two leagues merged into one. As part of the merger, the Colts were one of three NFL teams that moved to the newly formed American Football Conference (AFC) with the Jets and the other AFL teams (the other two were the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers, who were first division rivals