 After the AFL-NFL merger brought the American Football League into the NFL, the NFL began to use three divisions and a single wild card team in each conference for its playoffs, in order to produce eight contenders out of six divisions; this was later expanded in 1978 & 1990 so that more wild card teams could participate.In 2002 the NFL added its 32nd team, the Houston Texans, and significantly reshuffled its divisional alignment.The league went from 6 division winners and 6 wild card spots to 8 division winners and only 4 wild card qualifiers; by , the number of wild card qualifiers returned to six.