It began on Wednesday, September 5, 2012, with the defending Super Bowl XLVI champion New York Giants falling to the Dallas Cowboys in the 2012 NFL Kickoff game at MetLife Stadium, and ended with Super Bowl XLVII, the league's championship game, on Sunday, February 3, 2013, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, with the Jim Harbaugh-coached San Francisco 49ers facing the John Harbaugh-coached Baltimore Ravens.
In 2011, the officials' union had planned to use a contract clause to reopen negotiations a year early, but this failed to occur due to the 2011 NFL lockout.
[1] By June 2012, the league and the officials' union had not yet come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement, thus failing to resolve the labor dispute.
[1][2][3] On September 26, 2012, an agreement was reached to end the lockout after increasing criticism of the NFL and the performance of the replacement officials.
[4][5] The contentious nature of the replacement officials' decision at the end of the Green Bay Packers–Seattle Seahawks game two days earlier was widely considered to have been the tipping point that finally led to an agreement.
On August 30, 2012, the owners and NFLPA agreed to the following changes regarding player movement:[22] The league announced on June 28 that all late Sunday doubleheader games will be moved ten minutes later from 4:15 p.m.
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.
[48][49] Other than the Vikings, the Saints also allegedly targeted Chicago Bears[50] and Carolina Panthers[51] players, and the program became even more notorious in the 2011 NFL Divisional Playoff Game against the San Francisco 49ers, when filmmaker Sean Pamphilon released audio tapes of Williams telling his players to injure a select group of 49ers, with one of them being running back Kendall Hunter, and to knock him out, as well as going after Kyle Williams because of his history of concussions.
Williams also told them to injure Vernon Davis' ankles and tear wide receiver Michael Crabtree's ACL.
"[52] Ultimately, Goodell handed down one of the harshest penalties in league history, by suspending Williams indefinitely, head coach Sean Payton for the entire 2012 season, interim head coach Joe Vitt for the first 6 games, and general manager Mickey Loomis for 8 games.
[53] Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma was also suspended for the season, as well as defensive linemen Anthony Hargrove and Will Smith for 8 and 4 games, respectively.
[57] The Chargers were fined $20,000 by the NFL for failing to immediately surrender team towels when requested, but were cleared of illegal substance use.
[149] [150] [151] Mularkey, previously the head coach of the Buffalo Bills from 2004 to 2005, had most recently been offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons.
Crennel was the defensive coordinator for the Chiefs when he was promoted, and had previously served as head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 2005 to 2008.
Vitt and general manager Mickey Loomis were also suspended, for six and eight games respectively, and Gregg Williams, the defensive coordinator at the time who allegedly oversaw the bounties, was banned indefinitely from the league (at the time of the ban Williams was the defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams).
Xanders, who had been the Broncos' general manager for the past two seasons, was initially retained to serve in an advisory role to Elway.
With Xanders' firing, Elway fully assumes the role of general manager, giving him complete control over the Broncos' football operations.
[181] Four clubs opted to set the lower TV threshold: the Miami Dolphins, the Minnesota Vikings, the Oakland Raiders, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.