2001 National Football League season
Regular season
Duration	September 9, 2001–January 7, 2002
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, a number of games were re-scheduled.
Playoffs
Start date	January 12, 2002
AFC Champions	New England Patriots
NFC Champions	St. Louis Rams
Super Bowl XXXVI
Date	February 3, 2002
Site	Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana
Champions	New England Patriots
Pro Bowl
Date	February 10, 2002
National Football League seasons  < 2000 2002 >

The 2001 NFL season was the 82nd regular season of the National Football League.

Following a pattern set in 1999, the first week of the season was permanently moved to the weekend following Labor Day. With Super Bowls XXXVI-XXXVII already scheduled for fixed dates, the league initially decided to eliminate the Super Bowl bye weeks for those two years to adjust.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the games for September 16–September 17 were postponed and re-scheduled to the weekend of January 6–January 7. In order to retain the full playoff format, all playoff games, including the Super Bowl were re-scheduled one week later. The season-ending Pro Bowl was also moved to one week later. This was the last season before the 2002 realignment, in which each conference would have 4 divisions, not 3.

Canceling the games scheduled for Sept. 16–17 was considered and rejected. That would have cancelled a home game for about half the teams of the league, and also would have resulted in an unequal number of games played (Sept. 16–17 was to have been San Diego's bye week, so that team would still have played 16 games that season and each of the other teams would have played only 15 games).

As a result of rescheduling Week 2 as Week 17, the ESPN Sunday Night Football game for that week was changed. It was originally scheduled to be Cleveland at Pittsburgh, but it was replaced with Philadelphia at Tampa Bay, which was seen as a more interesting matchup (it was the only night game the Browns had on the schedule, whereas the Steelers had a few others; so 2000 and 2001 marked the first back-to-back seasons for the Browns without a primetime game since 1974-76; the Browns would finally play in Heinz Field at night in 2003). Also, this was the only NFL season where every jersey had a patch to remember those to die in 9/11, and the NY Jets and NY Giants wore a patch to remember the fire fighters who died.

The season ended with Super Bowl XXXVI when the New England Patriots defeated the St. Louis Rams.

Contents 1 Major rule changes 2 Coaching changes 3 Final regular season standings 3.1 Tiebreakers 4 Playoffs 4.1 AFC 4.2 NFC 4.3 Super Bowl 5 Milestones 6 Statistical leaders 6.1 Team 6.2 Individual 7 Awards 8 Notes 9 References

[edit] Major rule changes

• Fumble recoveries will be awarded at the spot of the recovery, not where the player's momentum carries him.
• Taunting rules will be strictly enforced.
• Roughing the passer will be strictly enforced.

[edit] Coaching changes

• Buffalo Bills - Gregg Williams; replaced Wade Phillips who was fired following the 2000 season
• Cleveland Browns - Butch Davis; replaced Chris Palmer who was fired following the 2000 season
• Detroit Lions - Marty Mornhinweg; replaced interim Head Coach Gary Moeller who replaced Bobby Ross who resigned during the 2000 season.
• Kansas City Chiefs - Dick Vermeil; replaced Gunther Cunningham who was fired following the 2000 season
• New York Jets - Herman Edwards; replaced Al Groh who resigned to become the Head Coach of the University of Virginia.
• Washington Redskins - Marty Schottenheimer; replaced interim Head Coach Terry Robiskie who replaced Norv Turner who was fired during the 2000 season

[edit] Final regular season standings

W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT = Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points Against

Clinched playoff seeds are marked in parentheses and shaded in green

[edit] Tiebreakers

• New England finished ahead of Miami in the AFC East based on better division record (6-2 to Dolphins' 5-3).
• Cleveland finished ahead of Tennessee in the AFC Central based on better division record (5-5 to Titans' 3-7).
• Jacksonville finished ahead of Cincinnati in the AFC Central based on head-to-head sweep (2-0).
• N.Y. Giants finished ahead of Arizona in the NFC East based on head-to-head sweep (2-0).
• New Orleans finished ahead of Atlanta in the NFC West based on better division record (4-4 to Falcons' 3-5).
• Baltimore was the second AFC Wild Card based on better record against common opponents (3-2 to Jets' 2-2).
• Green Bay was the first NFC Wild Card based on better conference record (9-3 to 49ers' 8-4).

[edit] Playoffs

	January 12 - Veterans Stadium					January 19 - Soldier Field
	6	Tampa Bay	9
						3	Philadelphia	33
	3	Philadelphia	31								January 27 - Edward Jones Dome
						2	Chicago	19
						NFC
	January 13 - Lambeau Field										3	Philadelphia	24
						January 20 - The Dome at America's Center
											1	St. Louis	29
	5	San Francisco	15								NFC Championship
						4	Green Bay	17
	4	Green Bay	25													February 3 - Louisiana Superdome
						1	St. Louis	45
	Wild Card Playoffs
						Divisional Playoffs
	January 12 - Network Associates Coliseum															N1	St. Louis	17
						January 19 - Foxboro Stadium
																A2	New England	20
	6	N.Y. Jets	24													Super Bowl XXXVI
						3	Oakland	13
	3	Oakland	38								January 27 - Heinz Field
						2	New England	16*
						AFC
	January 13 - Pro Player Stadium										2	New England	24
						January 20 - Heinz Field
											1	Pittsburgh	17
	5	Baltimore	20								AFC Championship
						5	Baltimore	10
	4	Miami	3
						1	Pittsburgh	27

* Indicates overtime victory

Home team in capitals

[edit] AFC

• Wild-Card playoffs: OAKLAND 38, N.Y. Jets 24; Baltimore 20, MIAMI 3
• Divisional playoffs: NEW ENGLAND 16, Oakland 13 (OT); PITTSBURGH 27, Baltimore 10
• AFC Championship: NEW ENGLAND 24, Pittsburgh 17 at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January 27, 2002

[edit] NFC

• Wild-Card playoffs: PHILADELPHIA 31, Tampa Bay 9; GREEN BAY 25, San Francisco 15
• Divisional playoffs: Philadelphia 33, CHICAGO 19; ST. LOUIS 45, Green Bay 17
• NFC Championship: ST. LOUIS 29, Philadelphia 24 at Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri, January 27, 2002

[edit] Super Bowl

• Super Bowl XXXVI: New England (AFC) 20, St. Louis (NFC) 17 at Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana, February 3, 2002

[edit] Milestones

The following teams and players set all-time NFL records during the season:

Record	Player/Team	Previous Record Holder[1]
Most Sacks, Season*	Michael Strahan, New York Giants (22.5)	Mark Gastineau, New York Jets, 1984 (22.0)
Most Consecutive Games Lost, Season	Carolina (15)	Tied by 4 teams (14)

* - Sack statistics have only been compiled since 1982.

[edit] Statistical leaders

[edit] Team

Points scored	St. Louis Rams (503)
Total yards gained	St. Louis Rams (6,930)
Yards rushing	Pittsburgh Steelers (2,774)
Yards passing	St. Louis Rams (4,903)
Fewest points allowed	Chicago Bears (203)
Fewest total yards allowed	Pittsburgh Steelers (4,504)
Fewest rushing yards allowed	Pittsburgh Steelers (1,195)
Fewest passing yards allowed	Dallas Cowboys (3,019)

[edit] Individual

Scoring	Marshall Faulk, St. Louis (128 points)
Touchdowns	Marshall Faulk, St. Louis (21 TDs)
Most field goals made	Jason Elam, Denver (31 FGs)
Rushing	Priest Holmes, Kansas City (1,555 yards)
Passing	Kurt Warner, St. Louis (101.4 rating)
Passing touchdowns	Kurt Warner, St. Louis (36 TDs)
Pass receiving	Rod Smith, Denver (113 catches)
Pass receiving yards	David Boston, Arizona (1,598)
Punt returns	Troy Brown, New England (14.2 average yards)
Kickoff returns	Ronney Jenkins, San Diego (26.6 average yards)
Interceptions	Ronde Barber, Tampa Bay and Anthony Henry, Cleveland (10)
Punting	Todd Sauerbrun, Carolina (47.5 average yards)
Sacks	Michael Strahan, New York Giants (22.5)

[edit] Awards

Most Valuable Player	Kurt Warner, Quarterback, St. Louis
Coach of the Year	Dick Jauron, Chicago
Offensive Player of the Year	Marshall Faulk, Running back, St. Louis
Defensive Player of the Year	Michael Strahan, Defensive End, New York Giants
Offensive Rookie of the Year	Anthony Thomas, Running Back, Chicago
Defensive Rookie of the Year	Kendrell Bell, Linebacker, Pittsburgh
NFL Comeback Player of the Year	Garrison Hearst, Running Back, San Francisco

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 1-932994-36-X)
• NFL History 2001- (Last accessed October 17, 2005)
• Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0-06-270174-6)
• Steelers Fever - History of NFL Rules (Last accessed October 17, 2005)

2001 NFL season v • d • e
AFC	East	Central	West	East	Central	West	NFC
	Buffalo	Baltimore	Denver	Arizona	Chicago	Atlanta
	Indianapolis	Cincinnati	Kansas City	Dallas	Detroit	Carolina
	Miami	Cleveland	Oakland	NY Giants	Green Bay	New Orleans
	New England	Jacksonville	San Diego	Philadelphia	Minnesota	St. Louis
	NY Jets	Pittsburgh	Seattle	Washington	Tampa Bay	San Francisco
		Tennessee
2001 NFL Draft • NFL Playoffs • Pro Bowl • Super Bowl XXXVI

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