The 2007 season of the National Football League (NFL)

is the 88th season played by the major professional American football league in the United States. Regular-season play started with the opening Kickoff game on September 6, 2007 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana, between the New Orleans Saints and the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts, which the Colts won by the score of 41-10, and will conclude on Sunday December 30 of that year. The playoffs will begin on January 5, 2008, and will end with the league championship game, Super Bowl XLII, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on February 3, 2008. The season will formally conclude with the annual Pro Bowl all-star game on February 10, 2008 — moving back to Sunday after being held on a Saturday during the 2008 NFL season.

Patriots-Giants: Looking Ahead to Super Bowl XLII

One one side you seem to have a team that is now on the brink of perfection. On the other you have a Cinderella team who was left for dead.

 

Schedule

On March 26, 2007, the league announced the aforementioned opening Saints-Colts Kickoff game on September 6 that would be telecast on NBC. Pre-game activities featured Indiana native John Mellencamp, Faith Hill and Kelly Clarkson. The entertainment portion of events started 30 minutes earlier than the scheduled start time of the game, leading up to the unveiling of the Colts' Super Bowl XLI championship banner. The opening events were simulcast on NFL Network.

The Dallas Cowboys hosted the New York Giants in the first Sunday night game September 9 at 8:15 p.m. US EDT. Monday Night Football on ESPN kicked off with a doubleheader on September 10 with the Cincinnati Bengals hosting the Baltimore Ravens at 7:00 p.m. US EDT, and the San Francisco 49ers hosting the Arizona Cardinals at 10:15 p.m. US EDT. The 49ers paid tribute to three-time Super Bowl winning head coach Bill Walsh, who died July 30, in that game; more details can be found below.

For the second year in a row, three games will also be held on the United States' Thanksgiving Day (November 22). In addition to the traditional games hosted by the Detroit Lions and Cowboys (with those teams respectively playing the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets, with the Packers-Lions game starting at 12:30 p.m. US EST and the Jets-Cowboys game kicking off at 4:15 p.m. US EST respectively), the Colts will face the Atlanta Falcons in the Georgia Dome with kickoff scheduled for 8:15 p.m. US EST

Based on the NFL's scheduling formula, the intraconference and interconference matchups for 2007 will be:

 

Hall of Fame Game

The Hall of Fame Game was played in Canton, Ohio on Sunday August 5, 2007, with the Pittsburgh Steelers defeating the Saints by a score of 20-7; the game was televised by the NFL Network, replacing NBC, who had been previously scheduled to broadcast the China Bowl exhibition game from Beijing, China. However, the league postponed that game until 2009.

Flex scheduling

The NFL enters its second year of flexible scheduling in the final weeks of the season. In each of the Sunday night contests from Weeks 11 through 17, NBC has the option of switching its Sunday night matchup for a more favorable contest, up to 12 days before the game's start. prior to the game. In addition to an extra week of flexible scheduling (because of the conflict with scheduling Christmas Eve last year), the NFL slightly changed its flex-schedule procedure. In 2006, the league did not reveal its predetermined Sunday night game; the reason given by the league was to avoid embarrassing the teams switched out for a more compelling game. In 2007, the league announced all predetermined matchups, with a footnote on the games subject to flex scheduling. Also, the network that carries the "doubleheader" week game (either CBS or FOX) will be able to switch one game per week into the 4:15 PM (US EDT) time slot, except in the final week, when NBC will select one game for the 8:15 PM slot, and both CBS and FOX will have doubleheader games on December 30th.

Going global

In October 2006, NFL club owners approved a plan to stage up to two international regular season games per season beginning in 2007 and continuing through at least 2011. On February 2, 2007, the league announced that the Week Eight contest between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins will be played at Wembley Stadium in London on October 28 at 5 p.m. UTC, which is 1:00 p.m. US EDT)As the Giants are the away-team designate from the NFC, Fox will broadcast the game in the USA according to league broadcast contract rules.

The league was scheduled to hold a preseason game called the "China Bowl" on August 8th, 2007 between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at Workers Stadium in Beijing, China. However, with all efforts being put into the London regular season game, plans have been postponed until 2009 as Beijing will host the 2008 Summer Olympics.

NEWS

The 2007 season will be the last in the RCA Dome for the Colts, who moved there from Baltimore in 1984. The franchise (and the annual NFL pre-draft workouts) will move down the street (in a sense) to the new Lucas Oil Stadium in time for the 2008 season. Meanwhile, the Dome will be razed to make way for an expansion to the attached Indiana Convention Center.

The Redskins will be celebrating their 75th anniversary season as the franchise was founded in 1932 as the Boston (football) Braves, and wear Vince Lombardi styled uniforms against the New York Giants at Home on September 23rd. The Philadelphia Eagles and their cross-state rival Pittsburgh Steelers will also be celebrating their Diamond Jubilee seasons, having been founded in 1933. The Eagles will wear replicas of their inaugural season uniforms against the Detroit Lions at home on September 23. The Steelers wore 1960 uniforms at home against the Buffalo Bills on September 16 and and will do so again when the Baltimore Ravens visit on November 5.

The Redskins, Eagles and Steelers won't be the only teams wearing throwback uniforms for at least one game this season. The Jets will honor their historic predecessors on October 14th against the Eagles at the Meadowlands by wearing the New York Titans' 1960 through 1962 uniforms. The team did not become the Jets until 1963. The Cowboys will again wear their 1960 uniforms on Thanksgiving against the Jets and in one other game this season.

San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Nolan and Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio will both wear a suit on the sidelines for all of the team's home games to honor his father, former 49ers and Saints coach Dick Nolan. In 2006, both coaches were allowed to wear a suit on the sidelines for a maximum of two home games. Del Rio did not wear a suit in the September 16th game against the Falcons due to the extreme heat in Jacksonville that day.

The 49ers honored the late Bill Walsh, coach of their wins in Super Bowls XVI, XIX and XXIII by wearing throwback uniforms from the 1980s in their opener on September 10th against the Arizona Cardinals. Mike Nolan has been considering wearing the 1980s uniforms for the entire season to honor Walsh's memory. The 49ers would likely wear their current uniform kit when playing on the road regardless of the decision, since a white throwback jersey has not been produced.

The Kansas City Chiefs will honor their late former owner and team founder Lamar Hunt by wearing special American Football League logo patches on their jerseys with the letters "LH" emblazoned inside the logo's football.

This will be the final season the classic NFL Shield logo, which has not changed since 1980, will be used. An updated version will be put into use starting with the 2008 NFL Draft in April. The new logo design features eight stars (one for each division) instead of the current 25 stars, the football now resembles that on the top of the Vince Lombardi Trophy, given to the Super Bowl champion and the lettering and point has been updated and modified to that of the league's current typeface for other logos.

Teams that have permanent captains will be allowed (on a team-by-team basis) to wear a "C" patch (similar to those in ice hockey) on their right shoulder. The patch is in team colors with four stars under the "C". A gold star is placed on a bar below the "C" signaling how many years (with a maximum of four years) that player has been captain.

Through the first two weeks of the NFL season, many Wide Receivers have been off to the best starts in their careers. Of the league’s top ten receivers, nine have established career highs for yardage through the first two games of a season.The numbers for the nine Wide Receivers are as follows.

 

Milestones

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

Longest Kickoff Return	Ellis Hobbs, New England, September 9, vs. N.Y. Jets (108 yards)
Most Wins by a Quarterback	Brett Favre, Green Bay, September 16, vs. N.Y. Giants (149 wins)

The following players may break league records during the rest of the 2007 season:

• Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre needs one more touchdown pass to break Marino's record for the most career touchdown passes in league history (420)(On the other hand, he only needs five interceptions to break George Blanda's record for most interceptions - 277. In addition, Favre needs to win two games to break Marino's record of most wins and 3,882 yards to break the most passing yards in a career.
• Peyton Manning needs 20 passing touchdowns to join John Elway, Fran Tarkenton, Favre, and Marino with at least 300 career touchdown passes in league history.
• Tony Gonzalez needs two touchdowns to pass Shannon Sharpe for most touchdowns in a career by a tight end (62). Gonzalez is currently at 61 touchdowns.

Rule changes

The following rule changes were passed at the league's annual owners meeting in Phoenix, Arizona during the week of March 25-March 28:

• The instant replay system, used since the 1999 season, was finally made as permanent officiating tool.Previously, it was renewed on a biennial basis.
• The system has also been upgraded to use high-definition technology. However, the systems at Texas Stadium (Dallas Cowboys), RCA Dome (Indianapolis Colts), and Giants Stadium (New York Giants and Jets) will not receive the HDTV updates since those stadiums will be replaced over the next few years. One reason that the technology was improved was that fans with high-definition televisions at home were having better views on replays than the officials and according to Dean Blandino, the NFL's instant replay director "that could have bit us in the rear if we continued [with the old system]." In addition, the amount of time allotted for the referee to review a play was reduced from 90 seconds to one minute.
• After a play is over, players who spike the ball in the field of play, other than in the end zone, will receive a 5-yard penalty.
• Forward passes that unintentionally hit an offensive lineman will no longer be an illegal touching penalty, but deliberate actions are still penalized.
• Roughing-the-passer penalties will not be called on a defender engaged with a quarterback who simply extends his arms and shoves the passer to the ground.
• During situations where crowd noise becomes a problem (when it becomes too loud that it prevents the offensive team from hearing its signals), the offense can no longer ask the referee to reset the play clock.
• It is necessary to have the ball touch the pylon or break the plane above the pylon to count as a touchdown. Previously, a player just had to have some portion of his body over the goal line or pylon to count a touchdown

Television

This is the second year of the current television contracts with NBC, CBS, Fox, ESPN, and the NFL Network. The pre-game shows have made some changes, with former Steelers coach Bill Cowher joining host James Brown, Boomer Esaison, Shannon Sharpe and Dan Marino on CBS's The NFL Today. And over at FOX, after one season on the road, FOX NFL Sunday will return to Los Angeles as Curt Menefee will take over as full-time host. The sole exception will be for the Giants-Dolphins game on October 28th in London, as they will be on location.

The biggest changes are at NBC and ESPN. Michael Irvin's contract with ESPN was not renewed, and former coach Bill Parcells returns to the network after four years as Cowboys head coach. Another pair of former Cowboys, Emmitt Smith and Keyshawn Johnson (who also holds a Super Bowl Ring from 2003 as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), will also provide roles in the studio for Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown. The biggest change though, is at Monday Night Football. Joe Theismann is out after seventeen years in the booth between the Sunday and Monday Night packages, and former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and current Philadelphia Soul (AFL) president Ron Jaworski will take his place alongside Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser. Part of the reason that Jaworski replaced Theismann was because of his chemistry with Kornheiser on Pardon The Interruption, where Jaworski was a frequent guest during the football season. In addition, all Monday Night shows (save PTI) will be based in ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut instead of on-site as a money-saving measure.

NBC's Football Night in America also has two big changes. MSNBC Countdown anchor Keith Olbermann will join Bob Costas and Cris Collinsworth as another co-host, while Sterling Sharpe exits as a studio analyst, and former New York Giants running back Tiki Barber takes his place. And in another minor change, Faith Hill takes over singing "Waiting All Day For Sunday Night" for Pink.

Upcoming key dates

• October 28: Second international regular season game (first played outside North America); Giants vs. Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in London, England, televised on FOX. (The game will not be telecast in Minnesota, Detroit, Chicago, or Philadelphia; this counts as a home game for the Dolphins.)
• December 30: Regular season concludes.
• January 5, 2008: Postseason begins.
• Februry 3: Super Bowl XLII, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona.
• February 10: 2008 Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium; Honolulu, Hawai.

News

Player conduct off the field

The NFLPA, led by their president Gene Upshaw and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell are going to be working with player conduct in the form of suspensions for off the field conduct in light of the more than fifty arrests by local law enforcement since the start of the 2006 season. The hardest hit so far came on April 10 when Adam "Pacman" Jones of the Tennessee Titans was suspended for the entire season for his five arrests, the most blatant while in Las Vegas for the NBA All-Star Weekend in February where he caused a riot by throwing money at a gentlemen's club. That same day, Chris Henry of the Cincinnati Bengals was suspended for the first eight games of the season for his run-ins with the legal system. The other big name that has been caught in the web of controversy was Falcons' quarterback Michael Vick. Vick was charged on July 24 with dogfighting and animal abuse, and has been suspended indefinitely following a guilty plea in the case.

 

Spygate

During the Patriots game at the New York Jets on September 9th, a member of the Patriots video staff was caught on the New England sideline with a camera taping across the field at the Jets' defensive staff signaling in plays from the sideline. The NFL seized the camera and videotape, ejecting the cameraman as well. On September 14th, Goddell slapped the Patriots with a $250,000 (US) fine, head coach Bill Belicheck was fined $500,000 and the team would forefit either their first round pick (if they made the playoffs) or their second and third round selections (if they fail to make the playofs) in the 2008 Draft. Furthermore, papers that Belechick had in his office were turned over to the league, and there may be more penalties as the investigation is continuing.