2008 NFL season

The 2008 NFL Season is the 89th season of the National Football League, the major professional American football league in the United States, themed with the slogan "Believe in Now." Super Bowl XLIII, the league's championship game, is scheduled to be played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on February 1 2009. The regular season began on September 4 with the Super Bowl champion New York Giants defeating the Washington Redskins 16-7, and will conclude with the 2009 Pro Bowl on February 8, 2009 near Honolulu.

Schedule

Based on the NFL's scheduling formula, the intraconference and interconference matchups for 2008 are:

Division	AFC opponent	NFC opponent
AFC East	West	West
AFC North	South	East
AFC South	North	North
AFC West	East	South
NFC East	North	West
NFC North	South	South
NFC South	West	North
NFC West	East	East

Preseason

In preseason games, the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game was played August 3 between the Indianapolis Colts and Washington Redskins, which aired on NBC Sunday Night Football. Washington won the game, 30–16. On April 3, the league revealed the other preseason games which includes the first game of the Toronto Series, which was played August 14 between the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers at Toronto's Rogers Centre. The Bills won that game, 24–21.

Regular Season

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.

Other featured games during the opening week included the NBC Sunday Night Football game between the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts (the first regular season game at Lucas Oil Stadium, and a rematch of Super Bowl XLI), in which the Kyle Orton-led Bears upset the Colts 29–13. In addition, there were two Monday Night Football contests, both division rivalries, as part of the now annual doubleheader: The Minnesota Vikings at the Green Bay Packers (the Packers' first time without Brett Favre since 1992, in which Aaron Rodgers helped the Packers win, 24-18), and the Denver Broncos at the Oakland Raiders, where Jay Cutler and Eddie Royal lead the Broncos in beating the Raiders, 41-14.

Meanwhile, the traditional Thanksgiving Day games will be held on November 27, with the Detroit Lions hosting the Tennessee Titans at 12:30 PM EST on CBS, the Dallas Cowboys' home game following suit on FOX at 4:15 PM EST against the Seattle Seahawks. A third game on NFL Network, featuring the Arizona Cardinals and the Philadelphia Eagles will follow at 8:15 PM EST. It will be the first home game for the Eagles on Thanksgiving Day since 1940, and their first Thanksgiving game at any location since the infamous Bounty Bowl Game in 1989.

The Thursday and Saturday night games will also see a change. Instead of starting on Thanksgiving as in previous years, this year's Thursday night games will begin three weeks prior, on November 6, and run through week 16. Seven Thursday night games and only one Saturday night game will take place, due to federal antitrust legislation that prohibits NFL games on Saturdays during college football season.

Despite NFL tradition to play games on Christmas if the holiday lands on a day of the week when the NFL normally plays, and the fact that Christmas lands on a Thursday in 2008, the NFL opted not to hold a Christmas game this season, instead scheduling all of its week 17 matchups for Sunday.

The 2008 season also is the third season of the use of the "flexible scheduling" for Sunday games starting with Week 11.

International Play

This will be the second consecutive season that the league will play at least one regular season game outside the United States as part of its International Series. The contest between the San Diego Chargers and the New Orleans Saints will be played at Wembley Stadium in London on October 26. The Chargers will play at Buffalo the week beforehand on October 19 so they can immediately travel to London afterward in order to get used to the time difference.

The league has also approved the Bills' request to play at least one regular season home game at Toronto's Rogers Centre over each of the next five seasons. Team owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. petitioned the league to play at least one game in Canada to strengthen his club's fan base in Ontario. The game in Toronto will be on December 7, after the end of the 2008 CFL season, against the Miami Dolphins. CBS will telecast both games regionally; the Toronto game will be carried across Canada on Rogers Sportsnet and City TV.

Pro Bowl

The NFL's Pro Bowl all-star game at the end of the season will be played at Aloha Stadium in the Honolulu suburb of Aiea, Hawaii for the 30th consecutive season. 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.

Standings

W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT = Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points Against

Milestones

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

Record	Player/Team	Date Broken/Opponent	Previous Record Holder
Most Receiving Yards by a Tight End, Career	Tony Gonzalez, Kansas City	October 5, at Carolina	Shannon Sharpe, 1990-2003 (10,060)

Rule changes

The following rule changes were passed at the league's annual owners meeting in Palm Beach, Florida during the week of March 31:

• One defensive player will be allowed to wear a radio similar to the one worn by the quarterback to communicate with the coaching staff on the field.
• The "force-out" rule on catches made near the sidelines has been eliminated. A receiver now must come down with the ball and both feet in bounds for a pass to be ruled complete; previously, passes would be ruled complete if the receiver was pushed by a defender while in the air and the official judged that he would have come down in bounds had he not been pushed. However, if a receiver is wrapped up in mid-air by a defender and carried out of bounds before both feet touch the ground, the official can still rule the play a completion.
• The 5-yard incidental grabbing of the face mask penalty has been eliminated; incidental contact will not result in a penalty, though intentional grabbing of the face mask will remain a 15-yard personal foul.
• Teams that win the opening coin toss now have the option to defer the decision until the start of the second half, the same as in college football.
• Field goal attempts that bounce off the goal post are now reviewable under instant replay. This change followed a decision during the previous season during a Browns-Ravens game when Phil Dawson's game-tying field goal hit an upright, then the crossbar and the back of the goal post.
• Legal forward hand offs that touch the ground and attempted snaps when the ball hits the ground before the quarterback touches it are now considered fumbles; previously, forward hand offs were treated as incomplete passes, while a snap that hit the ground before the quarterback touched it was a 5-yard illegal procedure penalty.

Television in the United States

This is the third season under the league's current television contracts with its American broadcast partners. CBS Sports and FOX Sports are televising Sunday afternoon AFC and NFC games, respectively. For primetime games, NBC broadcasts Sunday Night Football and ESPN airs Monday Night Football. The NFL Network's Run to the Playoffs will also broadcast selected seven Thursday and one Saturday late season night games, although there are reportedly negotiations to move those games to ESPN Classic.

This is also the last NFL season to be broadcast over the air in analog television in the United States; the digital television transition occurs on February 17, 2009, just eight days after the Pro Bowl. Border stations in Canada and Mexico will continue to broadcast in analog; cable stations are unaffected and will be distributed in the format of the cable provider's choice.

NBC has the rights to broadcast Super Bowl XLIII, their first Super Bowl since Super Bowl XXXII at the end of the 1997 season.

ESPN has reduced the on-air roles of sideline reporters Michele Tafoya and Suzy Kolber during the Monday Night Football telecast. Also, Emmitt Smith has been replaced on Sunday NFL Countdown by Cris Carter, who comes over from HBO. Meanwhile, NBC's Football Night in America reunites Dan Patrick with Keith Olbermann on television for the first time since 1997 when they co-hosted SportsCenter. The in-house NFL Network saw Bryant Gumbel resign as their play-by-play announcer after two seasons on the network's Run to the Playoffs package after critics described his play-by-play calling as "lackluster. Taking his place will be New York Giants radio announcer Bob Papa.

Additionally, NFL Films-produced Inside the NFL has changed premium cable homes from Time Warner's HBO after three decades to CBS' Showtime. Also changed: James Brown (from the parent network's The NFL Today) as host and Phil Simms as one of the analysts. Cris Collinsworth is staying, but Dan Marino has been dropped as a studio analyst, and the aforementioned Cris Carter moved to ESPN. Taking their place is Warren Sapp.

On radio, Westwood One has separated from its longtime corporate sister, CBS Radio. This could possibly affect the network's NFL on Westwood One coverage, which it has carried since the two networks merged in the late 1990s. The Westwood One coverage currently uses the NFL on CBS branding on its broadcasts. Also, the Sports USA Radio Network, another syndicator, has been sold along with parent company Jones Radio Networks to the Triton Media Group.

On Internet television, both NFL.com and NBCSports.com are carrying complete live games, for the first time ever, of NBC Sunday Night Football.

Changes

Coaching

The following teams hired new head coaches prior to the start of the 2008 season:

Team	2008 Coach	Former Coach(es)	Reason for leaving	Story/Accomplishments
Atlanta Falcons	Mike Smith, Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator	Bobby Petrino; Emmitt Thomas, interim for 3 games	Petrino resigned after 13 games to take the same job at the University of Arkansas.	In his first and only season, Petrino went 3–10 before resigning. Under interim head coach Thomas, the Falcons went 1–2 over the remainder of the season. Thomas would be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Baltimore Ravens	John Harbaugh, Philadelphia Eagles defensive backs coach	Brian Billick	Fired	Billick coached the Ravens to a victory in Super Bowl XXXV, and was 80-64 with the Ravens in the regular season and 5-3 in the postseason, but went 5-11 in 2007, the worst record the Ravens had in his nine-year tenure. Became a color commentator for Fox Sports in 2008.
Miami Dolphins	Tony Sparano, Dallas Cowboys assistant head coach/offensive line coach	Cam Cameron	Fired	In his first and only season, the Cameron-led Dolphins finished with a league worst 1–15 record. After his sacking, Cameron became John Harbaugh's offensive coordinator at Baltimore.
Washington Redskins	Jim Zorn, Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks coach	Joe Gibbs	Retired	Finished 16 overall seasons as Redskins head coach. During his first tenure, 1981–92, the club won three Super Bowls (XVII, XXII, and XXVI) and four NFC Championships (1982, 1983, 1987 and 1991). After being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996, he rejoined the team in 2004, and successfully return to running the day-to-day operations of his self-owned racing team after his second retirement.

The following head coaches were fired or resigned during the 2008 season:

Team	Interim Coach	Former Coach	Reason for leaving	Story/Accomplishments
St. Louis Rams	Jim Haslett, defensive coordinator; former head coach of the New Orleans Saints	Scott Linehan	Fired September 29	Linehan went 11-25 (.306 percentage) in his 2¼ seasons at Rams coach, and lost the locker room.
Oakland Raiders	Tom Cable, offensive line coach	Lane Kiffin	Fired September 30	Kiffin was sacked in spite of being hired as the yougest coach in the NFL one year earlier, as shown by a 5-15 record (.250 percentage) in his 1¼ seasons as the fourth coach since John Gruden left. A dispute with owner Al Davis was said to be behind his dismissal.

This marked the first time since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, the start of the "modern era", that multiple head coaches were given their pink slips before Week 5 of the season, and the first since 1989 that any coach was fired this early in a season. Both Kiffin and Linehan were sacked heading into their teams' respective bye weeks.

Firing of Matt Millen

On September 23, the Detroit Lions fired President/General Manager Matt Millen, after seven seasons since his hiring in 2001 in which the team compiled the worst record in the league since 2001 (35-84, .294 percentage), and many questionable draft choices, including consecutive years that the team chose wide receivers.

Events

New logo

This is the first season that the league uses a new, updated logo. 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 23 on the old logo. The football has been redesigned and rotated to the same angle as the one on the top of the Vince Lombardi Trophy given to the Super Bowl champion. Darker shades of red and blue, specifically navy blue, are also used, along with font lettering to that of the league's current typeface for other logos. The new logo officially made its debut during the 2008 NFL Draft on April 26.

New stadiums

In addition to the Bills playing one home game in Toronto's Rogers Centre, this is the first season that the Indianapolis Colts will play their home games at Lucas Oil Stadium. Meanwhile, 2008 is the final year that the Dallas Cowboys will play at Texas Stadium; they are scheduled to move into their new stadium in Arlington, Texas in 2009.

St. Louis Rams and Georgia Frontiere

On January 18, 2008, Georgia Frontiere, owner of the St. Louis Rams died due to complications with breast cancer. The Rams announced that during the 2008 season they will wear a commemorative patch in her honor, with her signature on their left shoulder.

Kansas City Chiefs and Lamar Hunt

On January 31, 2008, Clark Hunt, chairman of the board for the Kansas City Chiefs announced that henceforth the team's Lamar Hunt/American Football League tribute patch that was introduced in the 2007 season will be a permanent part of the Chiefs' uniform. joining the Chicago Bears (with George Halas) and the Cleveland Browns (with Al Lerner) with such a patch.

"Retirement"/Unretirement of Brett Favre

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." At first, this was given Favre's announcement on March 4 that he would retire from the league after seventeen seasons. He owns many NFL records, including most wins as a quarterback, most touchdowns thrown, and most consecutive starts at quarterback. He started every Packers game, regular season and postseason, for nearly sixteen full seasons (September 27, 1992–January 20, 2008). The Packers were scheduled to retire Favre's #4 jersey in a ceremony during the first week of the season. However in July, he publicly indicated that he wanted to play again as the starting quarterback. The Packers did not give it to him, nor were they willing to release him, and was reinstated on August 3 by Commissioner Goodell. Three days later, Favre was traded to the New York Jets for a draft pick.

Tim Russert

The stretch of highway outside Ralph Wilson Stadium along U.S. Route 20A in Orchard Park, New York has been named the Timothy J. Russert Highway. Russert, who was NBC News's chief Washington bureau correspondent and the host of Meet the Press, was a noted Buffalo Bills fan. He died of a heart attack in June 2008.

Uniforms

The 2008 season will mark 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 three times, though none since 2000.) while another five (Detroit, Green Bay, Miami, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh) making minor, though noticeable, changes. The Titans are swapping home and alternate designations on their light blue and navy blue jerseys though.

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 '50s style throwback uniforms. They will wear these uniforms against Jacksonville (November 9th) and Tennessee (Thanksgiving Day – November 27th). In addition, the Pittsburgh Steelers will make their throwbacks from the previous season their alternate uniform, wearing them against the Baltimore Ravens on September 29th and the New York Giants on October 26th.

Gene Upshaw Tribute

The league is also honoring the memory of NFLPA leader Gene Upshaw, who died suddenly at age 63 on August 20th just three days after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. For the entire season, the Oakland Raiders are wearing a patch on the left chest of the jerseys with the initials "GU" and his number 63, his jersey number with the Raiders. 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. Originally, the patch on the field and the video tribute were only going to be done in Oakland at the Raiders' home opener against the Denver Broncos as Upshaw played his entire 15 year Hall of Fame career with the Silver and Black, and at Giants Stadium, when the Giants and Redskins opened the NFL season on September 4th. All players wore the same patch during Week One, and except for the Raiders have since changed to a smaller helmet decal.

Chad Johnson becomes Chad Ocho Cinco

Prior to the 2008 season, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson legally changed his name to Chad Ocho Cinco so that he could wear the name "Ocho Cinco" (Spanish for the digits on his jersey number, 8 and 5). on his jersey. Nicknames on the back of jerseys, a stunt popularized by Vince McMahon's short-lived XFL (see Rod "He Hate Me" Smart,) are banned by the league, and Johnson was fined for wearing an "Ocho Cinco" patch over his jersey in 2007 (although he did not wear the patch during the game). However, he did not wear Ocho Cinco on his jersey in the Bengals' opener, apparently due to financial obligations to NFL jersey manufacturer Reebok.

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike forced several changes to the 2008 schedule. The Houston Texans' Week 2 home game against the Baltimore Ravens was first postponed to Monday, September 15, before Ike made landfall; damage to Reliant Stadium forced a further postponement, to Week 10, on Sunday, November 9, giving the Texans and the Ravens their bye weeks in Week 2. Furthermore, to accommodate this move, the Texans' home game against the Cincinnati Bengals was moved up from November 9 to Sunday, October 26, pushing the Bengals' bye week from Week 8 to Week 10.

See also

• Super Bowl XLIII
• 2008 NFL Draft

References