1976 NFL season

The 1976 NFL season was the 57th regular season of the National Football League. The league expanded to 28 teams with the addition of the Seattle Seahawks and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This fulfilled one of the conditions agreed to in 1966 for the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger, which called for the league to expand to 28 teams by 1970 or soon thereafter.

For this season only, the Seahawks played in the NFC West while the Buccaneers played in the AFC West. (The Seahawks would return to the NFC West with the realignment prior to the 2002 NFL season.)

In addition, the Buccaneers would set a record of futility, finishing the season 0-14. As of 2008, this is the most recent winless season in the NFL (except for Baltimore's 0-8-1 record in the strike-shortened 1982 season). It still stands as the only winless and tie-less season since the 1970 merger. (There were various winless seasons in the NFL before that, at that point the most recent being a 0-11-1 showing by the then-expansion Dallas Cowboys in 1960.) The Buccaneers would go on to lose their first 26 games as a franchise before finally winning against the New Orleans Saints and St. Louis Cardinals to finish the 1977 season.

The season ended with Super Bowl XI when the Oakland Raiders defeated the Minnesota Vikings.

Major rule changes

• Two 30-seconds clocks, one on each end of the field, will be used for all games. They will be visible to both players and fans to note the official time between the ready-for-play signal and the snap of the ball.
• If the defensive team commits a foul during a failed extra point attempt, the try is replayed and the offensive team has the option to either have the distance penalty assessed on the next try or the ensuing kickoff.
• If the defensive team commits a foul during a successful extra point attempt, the penalty will be assessed on the ensuing kickoff.
• Players cannot grasp the facemask of an opponent. The penalty for an incidental grasp of the facemask is 5 yards. The penalty for twisting, turning, or pulling the facemask is 15 yards. A player can be ejected from the game if the foul is judged to be vicious and/or flagrant.
• A defender is prohibited from running or diving into, or throwing his body against or on a ballcarrier who falls or slips to the ground untouched and makes no attempt to advance, before or after the ball is dead. This is sometimes called as the "Ben Davidson Rule" after the Raiders defender who almost seriously injured quarterback Len Dawson after the Chiefs passer fell to the ground and made no attempt to advance.

Final standings

Tiebreakers

• Baltimore finished ahead of New England in the AFC East based on better division record (7-1 to Patriots' 6-2).
• Pittsburgh finished ahead of Cincinnati in the AFC Central based on head-to-head sweep (2-0).
• Washington finished ahead of St. Louis in the NFC East based on head-to-head sweep (2-0).
• Atlanta finished ahead of New Orleans in the NFC West based on better division record (2-4 to Saints' 1-5).

Playoffs

References

• NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 1-932994-36-X)
• NFL History 1971-1980 (Last accessed December 4, 2005)
• 1976 season in details
• Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0-06-270174-6)

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Last updated on Tuesday January 01, 2008 at 12:59:18 PST (GMT -0800)
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