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1997 NFL season

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1997 NFL season
Regular season
DurationAugust 31 – December 22, 1997
Playoffs
Start dateDecember 27, 1997
AFC ChampionsDenver Broncos
NFC ChampionsGreen Bay Packers
Super Bowl XXXII
DateJanuary 25, 1998
SiteQualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California
ChampionsDenver Broncos
Pro Bowl
DateFebruary 1, 1998
SiteAloha Stadium
1997 NFL season is located in the United States
Colts
Colts
Patriots
Patriots
Bills
Bills
Dolphins
Dolphins
Jets
Jets
Bengals
Bengals
Ravens
Ravens
Oilers
Oilers
Steelers
Steelers
Jaguars
Jaguars
Broncos
Broncos
Chiefs
Chiefs
Raiders
Raiders
Chargers
Chargers
Seahawks
Seahawks
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AFC teams: West, Central, East
1997 NFL season is located in the United States
Cowboys
Cowboys
Giants
Giants
Eagles
Eagles
Cardinals
Cardinals
Redskins
Redskins
Bears
Bears
Lions
Lions
Packers
Packers
Vikings
Vikings
Buccaneers
Buccaneers
Falcons
Falcons
Rams
Rams
Saints
Saints
49ers
49ers
Panthers
Panthers
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NFC teams: West, Central, East

The 1997 NFL season was the 78th regular season of the National Football League (NFL). The Oilers relocated from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee. The newly renamed Tennessee Oilers played their home games during this season at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee while construction of a new stadium in Nashville started. Houston would rejoin the NFL with the expansion Texans in 2002.

Due to Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, the Chicago Bears–Miami Dolphins game at Pro Player Stadium was delayed one day to Monday, October 27.

The season ended with Super Bowl XXXII when the Denver Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers 31–24 at Qualcomm Stadium. This broke the National Football Conference (NFC)'s streak of thirteen consecutive Super Bowl victories, the last American Football Conference (AFC) win having been the Los Angeles Raiders defeating the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII.

Player movement

Transactions

Retirements

  • February 1, 1997: Four-time Super Bowl starting quarterback Jim Kelly announces his retirement from the Buffalo Bills. .[1]

Draft

The 1997 NFL Draft was held from April 19 to 20, 1997 at New York City's Theater at Madison Square Garden. With the first pick, the St. Louis Rams selected offensive tackle Orlando Pace from Ohio State University.

Referee changes

Red Cashion and Howard Roe retired. Bill Carollo and Phil Luckett were promoted to referee.

Major rule changes

  • When a team fakes a punt and throws the ball downfield, pass interference will not be called on the two outside defenders who are actually trying to block a coverage man from getting downfield and might not even know the ball has been thrown.
  • In order to reduce taunting and excessive celebrations, no player may remove his helmet while on the playing field except during timeouts, between quarters, and in the case of an injury. Violating the rule results in a 15-yard penalty. This is known as the "Emmitt Smith rule" after the Dallas Cowboys' running back's habit of taking his helmet off every time he scored a touchdown.

Preseason

American Bowl

A series of National Football League pre-season exhibition games that were held at sites outside the United States. Three were contested in 1997, including the defending Super Bowl XXXI champion Green Bay Packers competing in Toronto.

Date Winning Team Score Losing Team Score Stadium City
July 27, 1997 Pittsburgh Steelers 30 Chicago Bears 17 Croke Park Republic of Ireland Dublin
August 4, 1997 Miami Dolphins 38 Denver Broncos 19 Estadio Guillermo Cañedo Mexico Mexico City
August 16, 1997 Green Bay Packers 35 Buffalo Bills 3 SkyDome Canada Toronto


Hall of Fame Game

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, in which the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28–26, was played on July 26, and held at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, the same city where the league was founded. The 1997 Hall of Fame Class included Mike Haynes, Wellington Mara, Don Shula and Mike Webster.

Regular season

Scheduling formula

    Inter-conference
AFC East vs NFC Central
AFC Central vs NFC East
AFC West vs NFC West

Highlights of the 1997 season included:

Final standings

Tiebreakers

  • Miami finished ahead of NY Jets in the AFC East based on head-to-head sweep (2–0).
  • Pittsburgh finished ahead of Jacksonville in the AFC Central based on better net division points (78 to Jaguars' 23).
  • Oakland finished ahead of San Diego in the AFC West based on better division record (2–6 to Chargers' 1–7).
  • San Francisco was the top NFC playoff seed based on better conference record than Green Bay (11–1 to Packers' 10–2).
  • Detroit finished ahead of Minnesota in the NFC Central based on head-to-head sweep (2–0).
  • Carolina finished ahead of Atlanta in the NFC West based on head-to-head sweep (2–0).

Playoffs

Main article: 1997–98 NFL playoffs
Dec 28 – Houlihan's Stadium Jan 4 – Lambeau Field
5 Detroit 10
4 Tampa Bay 7
4 Tampa Bay 20 Jan 11 – 3Com Park
2 Green Bay 21
NFC
Dec 27 – Giants Stadium 2 Green Bay 23
Jan 3 – 3Com Park
1 San Francisco 10
6 Minnesota 23 NFC Championship
6 Minnesota 22
3 NY Giants 22 Jan 25 – Qualcomm Stadium
1 San Francisco 38
Wild Card playoffs
Divisional playoffs
Dec 27 – Mile High Stadium N2 Green Bay 24
Jan 4 – Arrowhead Stadium
A4 Denver 31
5 Jacksonville 17 Super Bowl XXXII
4 Denver 14
4 Denver 42 Jan 11 – Three Rivers Stadium
1 Kansas City 10
AFC
Dec 28 – Foxboro Stadium 4 Denver 24
Jan 3 – Three Rivers Stadium
2 Pittsburgh 21
6 Miami 3 AFC Championship
3 New England 6
3 New England 17
2 Pittsburgh 7
This box:

Statistical leaders

Team

Points scored Denver Broncos (472)
Total yards gained Denver Broncos (5,872)
Yards rushing Pittsburgh Steelers (2,479)
Yards passing Seattle Seahawks (3,959)
Fewest points allowed Kansas City Chiefs (232)
Fewest total yards allowed San Francisco 49ers (4,013)
Fewest rushing yards allowed Pittsburgh Steelers (1,318)
Fewest passing yards allowed Dallas Cowboys (2,522)

Individual

Scoring Mike Hollis, Jacksonville (134 points)
Touchdowns Karim Abdul-Jabbar, Miami (16 TDs)
Most field goals made Richie Cunningham, Dallas (34 FGs)
Rushing yards Barry Sanders, Detroit, (2,053 yards)
Passer rating Steve Young, San Francisco (104.7 rating)
Passing yards Jeff George, Oakland (3,917 yards)
Passing touchdowns Brett Favre, Green Bay (35 TDs)
Receptions Tim Brown, Oakland and Herman Moore, Detroit (104 catches)
Receiving yards Rob Moore, Arizona (1,584)
Receiving touchdowns Cris Carter, Minnesota (13)
Punt returns Jermaine Lewis, Baltimore (15.6 average yards)
Kickoff returns Michael Bates, Carolina (27.3 average yards)
Interceptions Ryan McNeil, St. Louis (9)
Punting Mark Royals, New Orleans (45.9 average yards)
Sacks John Randle, Minnesota (15.5)

Awards

Most Valuable Players Brett Favre, quarterback, Green Bay and Barry Sanders, running back, Detroit
Coach of the Year Jim Fassel, New York Giants
Offensive Player of the Year Barry Sanders, running back, Detroit
Defensive Player of the Year Dana Stubblefield, defensive tackle, San Francisco
Offensive Rookie of the Year Warrick Dunn, running back, Tampa Bay
Defensive Rookie of the Year Peter Boulware, linebacker, Baltimore
NFL Comeback Player of the Year Robert Brooks, wide receiver, Green Bay
NFL Man of the Year Troy Aikman, quarterback, Dallas
Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Terrell Davis, running back, Denver

Players of the Month

AFC

1997 Offensive Defensive Special Teams
September RB – Terrell Davis, Denver LB – Chris Slade, New England K – Matt Stover, Baltimore
October RB – Jerome Bettis, Pittsburgh DE – Bruce Smith, Buffalo K – Greg Davis, San Diego
November QB – John Elway, Denver S – Jerome Woods, Kansas City WR-PR – Eric Metcalf, San Diego
December WR – Keenan McCardell, Jacksonville LB – Derrick Thomas, Kansas City K – Pete Stoyanovich, Kansas City

NFC

1997 Offensive Defensive Special Teams
September WR – Jake Reed, Minnesota DT – Warren Sapp, Tampa Bay K – Richie Cunningham, Dallas
October RB – Barry Sanders, Detroit DT – John Randle, Minnesota P – Matt Turk, Washington
November RB – Barry Sanders, Detroit DT – Dana Stubblefield, San Francisco K – Doug Brien, New Orleans
December RB – Barry Sanders, Detroit CB – Jason Sehorn, New York Giants RB-KR – Byron Hanspard, Atlanta

Coaching changes

Stadium changes

New uniforms

  • The Atlanta Falcons added new striping on pants, and switched from black to red numbers on the white jerseys.
  • The Baltimore Ravens switched to a new numbers style with shadows in the back. White pants were worn with their purple jerseys instead of black pants.
  • The Cincinnati Bengals started to use a brighter shade of orange on their uniforms. A secondary logo featuring a leaping tiger was added to the jersey sleeves, and another secondary logo with Bengal's head was also introduced.
  • The Denver Broncos introduced new uniforms, changing their primary color from orange to navy blue, and their royal blue helmets to navy blue. The design featured a streak running down the sides of both the jerseys and the pants: orange on the blue jerseys and blue on the white jerseys. The "D" logo with the horse coming out of it was retired in favor of a horse head with blue outlines and an orange mane.
  • The Green Bay Packers reduced the number of sleeve stripes from five to three.
  • The Jacksonville Jaguars switched from block numbers to a new style font, and added black side panels to the jerseys.
  • The Miami Dolphins introduced new uniforms featuring a darker shade of aqua and new shadows in the numbers. The dolphin in the helmet logo was also darkened and resigned to give it a more serious expression.
  • The New York Jets discontinued wearing green pants with their white jerseys, and wore white pants for all games regardless of their jersey.
  • The Pittsburgh Steelers switched from block to Futura Bold Condensed numbers and names on back on the jerseys, matching the number font on the back of their helmets. A Steelers logo patch was also added to the left side of all jerseys, as an alternative to "fixing" the traditional "missing" logo on the helmet's right side. To celebrate the team's 75th anniversary season, the Steelers introduced 1960s-era throwback uniforms with black jerseys, gold numbers and helmets, and white pants. The nameplate on the white jerseys was made solid black.
  • The Philadelphia Eagles added the eagles head logo to the white jersey sleeves (they only did it to the green jerseys in 1996)
  • The San Diego Chargers wore white pants instead of navy blue with their white jerseys.
  • The San Francisco 49ers removed the gold trim on nameplates to just plain black.
  • The Tampa Bay Buccaneers introduced new uniforms, changing their primary color from orange to red, and their white helmets and pants to pewter. Black and orange became trim colors. They also replaced the "Bucco Bruce" helmet logo with a red wind-swept flag featuring a white pirate skull and crossed sabres similar to a Jolly Roger.
  • The relocated Tennessee Oilers began wearing an alternative logo on the left side of all jerseys that combined their oil rig derrick logo with elements from the flag of Tennessee.

Television

This was the fourth and final year under the league's four-year broadcast contracts with ABC, Fox, NBC, TNT, and ESPN. ABC, Fox, and NBC continued to televise Monday Night Football, the NFC package, the AFC package, respectively. Sunday night games aired on TNT during the first half of the season, and ESPN during the second half of the season. This was the last season to date that TNT broadcast NFL games, as well as the last for NBC until 2006. When the new TV contracts were signed near the end of the season, Fox retained the NFC package, CBS took over the AFC package, and ESPN won the right to televise all of the Sunday night games.

With Mike Ditka becoming the new head coach of the New Orleans Saints, Sam Wyche was named to replace him on The NFL on NBC pregame show. NBC fired Marv Albert following Week 3 due to sexual assault charges against him; Tom Hammond replaced Albert as the network's #2 play-by-play announcer.

For TNT's final season, Mark May joined Verne Lundquist and Pat Haden in a three-man booth.

References

  1. ^ "Kelly retires from the Bills after 11 Years". Kelly Retires From the Bills After 11 Years - By The Associated Press. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
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