Eastern

Philadelphia lost its opener at home to Cleveland, 41–24, then went on a nine-game winning streak. The breakthrough came in Week Six on October 30, when unbeaten New York (3–0–1), two-time defending conference champions, came off their bye and lost at home to St. Louis, 20–13, while the Browns and idle Eagles were both at 4–1. In Week Seven, New York beat Cleveland, 17–13, and the Eagles beat Pittsburgh 34–7.^[17] The Eagles clinched the Eastern Conference after ten games at 9–1;^[18] they dropped a game the next week in the snow at Pittsburgh,^[19] and finished the regular season at 10–2, 1½ games ahead of Cleveland. Two of the wins in the streak were in consecutive games (November 20 and 27) against New York.

In the latter game, the Eagles trailed 17–0, then 23–17, before Norm Van Brocklin threw two touchdown passes in the final quarter for a 31–23 victory. In the former, the Giants' Frank Gifford was severely injured in a tackle by linebacker Chuck Bednarik late in the game ^[20] that almost ended his career.^[21][22] New York entered that November 20 game at 5–1–1, but won only once in the last five games, including a tie against Dallas - the Cowboys lost their remaining eleven games that year - and finished third in the Eastern at 6–4–2. The Giants won the next three conference championships for five in six seasons, but not the league title.

Western

The Western Conference race was one in which Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, and San Francisco all had a lead at one time.

The Bears fell back after a Week Six loss to the 49ers, 25–7. In Week Seven, the 4–2 Colts and the 4–1 Packers met on November 6 in Green Bay. Two-time defending NFL champion Baltimore, which had lost an earlier match, won 38–24, to take the lead in the Western. In Week Ten, the Colts (6–2) came off their bye and lost at home to San Francisco, 30–22, to begin a streak of four defeats. Baltimore's 20–15 loss to the Lions, and Green Bay's 41–13 win at Chicago, tied the Colts and Packers at 6–4 in Week Eleven. After the Packers' 13–0 win at San Francisco, their record was 7–4, while the Colts, Lions and 49ers were all at 6–5. While San Francisco and Detroit both won the next week, the former beating Baltimore 34–10, the Packers had won the day before, beating Los Angeles 35–21 for the Western title, their first in 16 years.^[23]

The new Dallas Cowboys lost their first ten games, but managed a 31–31 tie against the Giants at Yankee Stadium in New York on December 4. They finished at 0–11–1: as ties were excluded in calculating winning percentage prior to 1972, the Cowboys had a winning percentage of .000, rather than .042.

Conference leaders

• A bye was required in 1960, as the league had an odd number of teams (13); one team had the bye each week.
  The fourteenth team, Minnesota, would join the league in 1961, and the NFL subsequently initiated a 14-game regular season.

NFL Championship Game

• Philadelphia 17, Green Bay 13 at Franklin Field, University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Monday, December 26.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Playoff Bowl

The Playoff Bowl was between the conference runners-up, for third place in the league. This was its first year (of ten) and it was played three weeks after the regular season.

• Detroit 17, Cleveland 16 at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on Saturday, January 7, 1961.^[14]

Pro Bowl

• West 35, East 31 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California, on Sunday, January 15, 1961.^[24]