The preseason started with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game on August 9, 2009,[1] and the regular season began September 10, with the reigning Super Bowl XLIII champion Pittsburgh Steelers defeating the Tennessee Titans in overtime.

The season ended with Super Bowl XLIV, the league's championship game, on February 7, 2010, at Sun Life Stadium with the New Orleans Saints defeating the Indianapolis Colts[2] 31–17 in Miami Gardens, Florida.

But the Minnesota Vikings 4 fumbles and a Brett Favre interception late in the fourth quarter proved to be too much to handle as the New Orleans Saints won 31–28 in overtime which granted the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance in its 43-year history.

[25] NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the move was made after looking at alternatives to strengthen the Pro Bowl and to make the end of the season more climactic.

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.

[28] In the second game of two meetings opposite of the first game for their divisional matches against the Raiders and Chiefs, the Chargers wore their newer look powder blue jerseys against the Raiders in week 8, and also celebrated their 50th Anniversary in the modern powder blue jerseys against the Chiefs later in the season during Week 12, when the meeting against those two clubs shifted to San Diego.

For the legacy weekends, on-field officials working the Original Eight's games also had their own throwbacks – shirts with Chinese-red stripes, and an AFL chest and cap logo.

After the season, the Patriots adopted their AFL-era throwbacks as their new third uniform for 2010, while the Broncos continue to paint their end zones at Invesco Field at Mile High in the argyle pattern, similar to the Steelers decision to paint the south end zone at Heinz Field in plain diagonal white lines after their 2003 preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles honoring the 60th anniversary of the Steagles season.

[31] No celebrations were held for any of those teams, but San Francisco reverted to their old colors (lighter shades of red and gold from their glory seasons of five Super Bowl victories) in an unrelated move.

The Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears, two of the oldest teams of the NFL remaining in the league, marked their 90th seasons in 2009.

The team traces its existence to the founding of the AFL in 1959, but although they participated in that league's inaugural draft, they were instead lured to the NFL before playing a game.

After one season with the New York Jets, Brett Favre retired again from football on February 11, 2009, and was released on April 28, 2009, making him a free agent.

On May 11, in an indication of Favre's possible return, it was reported he was scheduled to have a procedure on his torn biceps tendon on his throwing arm he injured when he was with the Jets and it was either a surgical or non-surgical process but wasn't confirmed throughout May.

In a Week 6 game against the Tennessee Titans, the New England Patriots' Tom Brady threw five touchdown passes in the second quarter, an NFL record.

[40] DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart of the Carolina Panthers became the first teammates in NFL history to rush for 1,100 yards in the same season.

If postseason games are included, the record holder is Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, who completed 26 of 28 attempts on January 12, 2008, also against the Jaguars.

In Week 13, the Denver Broncos' Brandon Marshall caught a record 21 catches in a losing effort against the Indianapolis Colts.

(Rodgers, Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers, Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts, and Kurt Warner of the St. Louis Rams are the only quarterbacks to throw for 4,000 in their first season as a starter.

)[41] On January 3, 2010, Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans became the sixth rusher in NFL history to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a season.

In a Week 15 game against the Kansas City Chiefs on December 20, 2009, the Cleveland Browns' Joshua Cribbs returned two kickoffs for touchdowns, giving him eight for his career, and setting a new league record.

[45] Compelling story lines included the city of New Orleans and its ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina, as well as Colts quarterback Peyton Manning's attempt at a second Super Bowl ring.

The Giants exited with an auspicious 41–9 loss to Carolina on December 27, while the Jets defeated the Cincinnati Bengals by a 37–0 score in the season finale on Sunday night, January 3, 2010.

The St. Louis Rams wore their 1973–1999 blue uniforms in select home games to honor former owner Georgia Frontiere, who died in early 2008 (too late to inform the NFL about wearing a throwback uniform in her honor during the 2008 season; the team instead opted for a memorial patch) and also celebrate the tenth anniversary of their win in Super Bowl XXXIV.

The Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, and Pittsburgh Steelers retained their throwback alternates worn in previous seasons.

The Seattle Seahawks also unveiled a lime green jersey with blue shoulders, to pay tribute to the new Major League Soccer team with whom they share Qwest Field.

The Miami Dolphins, after a four-year hiatus, brought back their alternate orange jerseys and wore them against the New York Jets on October 12.

The first Monday night of the regular season featured two AFL Original Eight games, a doubleheader with the Bills at the Patriots and the Chargers at the Raiders.

In particular, Comcast, the largest cable provider in the United States, was considering removing the network from its lineups on April 30, 2009, shortly after the draft but before the start of the preseason.

This was also the first NFL season after the DTV transition in the United States, which had originally been scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009, but was delayed until June 12, 2009.

After fifty seasons as a player, coach, broadcaster and video game maven, John Madden retired on April 16 from his position on Sunday Night Football.