2008 NFL season
Super Bowl XLIII, the league's championship game, was at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on February 1, 2009,[2] with the Pittsburgh Steelers coming out victorious over the Arizona Cardinals and winning their NFL-record sixth Vince Lombardi Trophy.
For the first time since the NFL expanded to the sixteen-game season in 1978, three teams won two or fewer games: the Lions, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the St. Louis Rams.
Also, for the first time since the 1985 Denver Broncos, a team finishing with an 11–5 record missed the playoffs — the defending AFC champion New England Patriots.
The regular season began on September 4 with the defending Super Bowl XLII champion New York Giants defeating the Washington Redskins.
[7] Based on the NFL's scheduling formula, the intraconference and interconference matchups for 2008 were:[8] The annual NFL Kickoff Game to start the season took place on September 4 and featured the Super Bowl XLII champion New York Giants winning over their division rivals, the Washington Redskins, at Giants Stadium by a score of 16–7.
The game's kickoff was ninety minutes earlier than previous years, at 7 p.m. EDT, because of a time conflict with the 2008 Republican National Convention.
[10] The Chargers played against the Buffalo Bills on the road the week beforehand on October 19 so they could immediately travel to London afterward in order to get used to the time difference.
[11] Team owner Ralph Wilson petitioned the league to play at least one game in Canada to strengthen his club's fan base in Ontario.
The traditional Thanksgiving Day games[13] were held on November 27, with the Detroit Lions hosting the Tennessee Titans at 12:30 p.m. EST on CBS (with the then 10–1 Titans handily defeating the then 0–11 Lions by a 47–10 score), and the Dallas Cowboys' home game following suit on Fox at 4:15 p.m. EST against the Seattle Seahawks (the Cowboys defeated the Seahawks by a score of 34–9).
The league had the option under their current contract to hold the game elsewhere, including the possibility of moving it to the host site of the Super Bowl.
Although the Super Bowl, the championship round of the playoffs, is played at a neutral site, the designated home team is based on an annual rotation by conference.
The 2008 season marked the first time since September 20, 1992, that someone other than Brett Favre started at quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, as Aaron Rodgers became the new offensive "Leader of The Pack".
The Packers did not give it to him, but they were unwilling to release him for fear that he would sign with division rival Minnesota Vikings (Favre's choice for an alternate team).
From July 14 to 15, Favre did TV interviews discussing his comeback, Rodgers taking his place, and frustrations on the Packers for not being honest with him, personally and publicly.
The Jets then released Favre in favor of moving in the direction of getting a star college quarterback in the draft, eventually landing Mark Sanchez.
Another protracted "will he/won't he retire" saga emerged in 2009 which concluded in August of that year when Favre signed with, as expected, the Minnesota Vikings.
[21] In Baltimore, the Ravens, led by rookie head coach John Harbaugh, implemented the "Suggs package", which places two quarterbacks on the field at once, Joe Flacco and Troy Smith.
[27] All NFL teams also honored Upshaw with a video tribute and a replica of the uniform patch painted onto the field during the opening weekend.
The Washington Redskins honored the anniversary of death of Sean Taylor this season in a home game against the visiting New York Giants.
The Denver Broncos brought back the alternate orange jerseys after a three-year hiatus and wore them for games against the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs.
Unveiled on August 31, 2007, in USA Today, the new design features eight white stars, representing each of the league's eight divisions, instead of 25 on the old logo.
The 2008 season marked just the third time in the salary cap era (and first since 2001) that no NFL team made major changes to their uniforms or logo.
Since 1993, half of the league's teams (Arizona, Atlanta, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Denver, Minnesota, New England, New York Giants, New York Jets, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, and Tennessee) have completely redesigned their uniforms (The Patriots doing it four times, though none since 2000) while another five (Detroit, Green Bay, Miami, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh) making minor, though noticeable, changes.
The Detroit Lions, in celebration of their 75th season in Motown as well as by popular demand by the fans, abandoned their black third jerseys in favor of their 1950s style throwback uniforms.
In addition, the Pittsburgh Steelers will make their throwbacks from the previous season their alternate uniform, wearing them against the Baltimore Ravens on September 29 and the New York Giants on October 26.
[66] ESPN reduced the on-air roles of sideline reporters Michele Tafoya and Suzy Kolber during the Monday Night Football telecast.
Meanwhile, NBC's Football Night in America reunited Dan Patrick with Keith Olbermann on television for the first time since 1997 when they co-hosted SportsCenter.
On December 4, the NFL Network broadcast its game between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers to theaters in New York City, Boston and Los Angeles using state of the art 3-D technology.
Among its exclusive content included having most of the features in high-definition video as well as the NFL on Fox fourth-quarter coverage of the Steelers matchup against the Dallas Cowboys at Heinz Field in its entirety.
The matchup, which took place during Week 14 and renewed the rivalry the two teams had in the 1970s & 1990s, saw the Steelers come back from a 4th quarter ten-point deficit to win 20–13.
