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1982 NFL season

The 1982 NFL season was the 63rd regular season of the National Football League. A 57-day-long players' strike reduced the 1982 season from a 16-game schedule per team to an abbreviated nine game schedule. Because of the shortened season, the NFL adopted a special 16-team playoff tournament; division standings were ignored for seeding (although each division sent at least two teams, except the NFC West which had only one). Eight teams from each conference were seeded 1–8 based on their regular season records. Two teams qualified for the playoffs despite losing records (the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions). The season ended with Super Bowl XVII when the Washington Redskins defeated the Miami Dolphins 27–17 at the Rose Bowl.

Regular season

September 12, 1982 â€“ January 3, 1983

January 8, 1983

January 30, 1983

February 6, 1983

Before the season, a verdict was handed down against the league in the trial brought by the Oakland Raiders and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum back in 1980. The jury ruled that the NFL violated antitrust laws when it declined to approve the proposed move by the team from Oakland to Los Angeles. Thus, the league was forced to let the officially renamed "Los Angeles Raiders" play in the second largest city in the United States, returning football to the Los Angeles area proper following a two-year absence (the Los Angeles Rams left the Coliseum for Anaheim Stadium in Orange County in 1980).


For the start of the 1982 season, the Minnesota Vikings moved from Metropolitan Stadium to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

August 25, 1982: Quarterback , winner of Super Bowl XI with the Oakland Raiders, signed with the New Orleans Saints.[1]

Ken Stabler

The penalty for incidental grabbing of a facemask that is committed by the defensive team changed from five yards and an automatic first down to only five yards with no automatic first down. The incidental facemask penalty was eliminated for the .

2008 season

The penalties for illegally kicking, batting, or punching the ball changed from 15 yards to 10 yards.

This was the first season that the NFL recorded quarterback sacks as an official statistic.

Regular season[edit]

New Sunday time slots[edit]

For the first time all Sunday afternoon games began in one of two windows: 1:00 p.m. ET/noon CT for early games, or 4:00 p.m. ET/1:00 p.m. PT for late games. From 1970 to 1981, most games began at 1 p.m. local time regardless of the home team (except in Denver, where the Broncos kick off at 2 p.m. MT). An exception to this rule was made for the Baltimore Colts, who were forced to begin Sunday home games no earlier than 2 p.m. Eastern due to a Baltimore ordinance, since repealed, which prohibited Sunday sporting events from beginning prior to that hour. That ordinance was cited by owner Robert Irsay as a burden and a factor in moving the franchise to Indianapolis in March 1984.

1982 players' strike[edit]

Players began a 57-day strike following the completion of week 2 of the regular season. As a result of the impasse, games were simply cancelled until a settlement was reached (ultimately, Weeks 3 to 10).


During the players strike, the NFLPA put on two exhibition games. One game was played at RFK Stadium in Washington DC and the other was at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Low attendance and court rulings forced the NFLPA to cancel any further games.


Upon reaching that settlement, the NFL announced that Weeks 11 to 16 would be played as scheduled, and the games originally scheduled for week 3 of the season would be played following the completion of the resumed regular season as a new week 17, with the playoffs pushed back one week. Later, the NFL decided to use the final week 17 to hold various intra-division games from cancelled Weeks 3 to 10 instead of merely playing the week-3 games. This was done to increase attendance and to allow some teams to balance out home and away games, to the extent possible (either five home and four away, or four home and five away). Because the 1982 shortened season would include only nine regular season contests for each team, the NFL announced that the three divisions in each of the two conferences would be eliminated for the purpose of determining playoff qualifications, and the regular season would be followed by an expansion of the playoffs from 10 to 16 teams. With this, each conference had 14 teams competing for 8 playoff spots, with division standings being disregarded in favor of overall conference standings. The Washington Redskins were the Super Bowl winners.

This was the Cardinals' first postseason appearance since 1975 and last postseason game representing . The franchise relocated to Arizona in 1988 and did not return to the playoffs until 1998. The Cardinals were 0–3 in playoff games representing St. Louis, with all three on the road.

St. Louis

This marked 's final appearance at Three Rivers Stadium. He sat out nearly all of the 1983 season with an elbow injury, appearing in just one half of a late-season game against the Jets in what turned out to be their final game at Shea Stadium. It would also be the final appearance of fellow Hall of Famers Lynn Swann and Jack Ham, both of whom would retire in the offseason, the last home playoff game of head coach Chuck Noll (who would coach eight more years, with the Steelers either missing the playoffs or only playing away playoff games), and the Steelers last home playoff game until 1992.

Terry Bradshaw

This was Tampa Bay's last playoff game until 1997, by which time the Buccaneers replaced their orange uniforms. From 1983 to 1996, they suffered 14 consecutive losing seasons, 13 of which saw Tampa Bay lose 10 or more games.

This would be Atlanta's last playoff appearance until the 1991 season.

This was the final postseason appearance in the careers of Chargers stars Dan Fouts, Charlie Joiner, and Kellen Winslow. All would remain with the Chargers until at least 1986, but the Chargers would not return to the postseason until 1992.

Hall of Fame

This was the Packers' first postseason appearance since 1972 and only the second since stepped down as head coach following the 1967 season, as well as the team's only postseason victory between the Lombardi and Brett Favre eras (1969–91). The Packers would not play another postseason game until 1993.

Vince Lombardi

This would be the final playoff win in Cowboys coach 's career before his firing in 1989. It would be the Cowboys last playoff victory until 1991. After appearing in 10 of the previous 13 NFC Championship games, this would be Dallas's last appearance until 1992.

Tom Landry

: Frank Kush replaced the fired Mike McCormack.

Baltimore Colts

: Mike Ditka replaced the fired Neill Armstrong.

Chicago Bears

: Ron Meyer replaced the fired Ron Erhardt.

New England Patriots

The relocated moved from the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Los Angeles Raiders

The moved from Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington to the Metrodome in Minneapolis

Minnesota Vikings

The league discontinued the 1979 numbering system for officials, with officials numbered separately by position, and reverted to the original system where each NFL official was assigned a random number regardless of position. Officials who were in the league in 1978 were allowed to reclaim their old number or switch to a number used by a 1978 official who had since retired or was not in use in 1978; officials hired beginning in 1979 then picked from remaining numbers based upon seniority. Also the officials' position was now abbreviated on the back of the uniform instead of being spelled out in full.

The began wearing gray pants with their blue jerseys. The gray pants featured a horseshoe on each hip, with the player's number inside the horseshoe.

Baltimore Colts

The switched from gray to navy blue face masks.

Chicago Bears

The switched from silver to white numbers on their blue jerseys.

Detroit Lions

The added elliptical blue circles with the player's number to the hip area of the pants.

Dallas Cowboys

The repeated their helmet logo on top of the sleeve stripes of their white jerseys.

St. Louis Cardinals

Television[edit]

ABC, CBS, and NBC each signed five-year contracts to renew their rights to broadcast Monday Night Football, the NFC package, and the AFC package, respectively. The major change was that ABC was allowed into the Super Bowl rotation beginning with Super Bowl XIX at the end of the 1984 season.[5]


Len Berman replaced Bryant Gumbel as host on NBC's pregame show NFL '82. Pete Axthelm also joined the show as a studio analyst.


With games canceled during the players' strike, CBS sent Pat Summerall and John Madden, and some of their other regular NFL announcing crews, to instead call a few college football Division II and III games.[6] NBC acquired the rights to air the Canadian Football League for those weeks, sending Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen, and their other regular NFL announcing crews to those games.[7]


During this season, the new Channel 4 in the United Kingdom began its coverage of the NFL[8] which was to earn a substantial following during English soccer's low point of the mid-1980s. However, the first game shown—between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers—had been played some time before it was shown in the UK, because coverage began during the players' strike.[9]

October 26 – Vince Jacob, age 51. Official since 1975 (line judge 1975–77; side judge 1978 – first two weeks of 1982).

NFL Record and Fact Book ( 1-932994-36-X)

ISBN

Archived October 6, 2008, at the Wayback Machine (Last accessed December 4, 2005)

NFL History 1981–1990

Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League ( 0-06-270174-6)

ISBN

1982 NFL season at Football Reference