2011 NFL season
The 2011 NFL season was the 92nd regular season of the National Football League (NFL) and the 46th of the Super Bowl era. It began on Thursday, September 8, 2011, with the Super Bowl XLV champion Green Bay Packers defeating the Super Bowl XLIV champion New Orleans Saints at Lambeau Field and ended with Super Bowl XLVI, the league's championship game, on February 5, 2012, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis where the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots.
This article is about the American football season in the United States. For the Gaelic football season in Ireland, see 2011 National Football League (Ireland).Regular season
September 8, 2011 – January 1, 2012
January 7, 2012
February 5, 2012
January 29, 2012
Due to a labor dispute between league owners and players, a lockout began on March 11 and ended on July 25, lasting 130 days. Although it initially threatened to postpone or cancel the season, the only game that was canceled was the August 7 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.
The 2011 season saw an unprecedented amount of passing offense: Three of the nine highest passing yardage totals of all time were established: No. 2 Drew Brees (5,476), No. 3 Tom Brady (5,235), and No. 9 Matthew Stafford (5,038); Eli Manning threw for 4,933 yards, which places him 14th all time.[1] It also saw Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers establish the all-time single-season best quarterback rating of 122.5.[2] Further cementing the modern NFL's reputation as a "passing league"[3][4][5] was that, for the second consecutive year, the league overall set a record for most average passing yards per team per game, with 229.7, breaking 2010's record by more than eight yards per game.[6] (For comparison, the league-wide average rushing yards total finished the 2011 season at 57th all-time.)
A subplot of the 2011 season was determining who would have the worst record, and therefore "earn" the right to the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 draft. Stanford senior quarterback Andrew Luck was seen as the best quarterback prospect in years. Fans of some teams that started the season with numerous losses (notably the Indianapolis Colts) were openly rooting for their teams to "Suck for Luck."[7][8]
NFL draft[edit]
The 2011 NFL Draft was held from April 28 to 30, 2011 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. With the first pick, the Carolina Panthers selected quarterback Cam Newton from Auburn.
Coaching changes[edit]
Pre-season[edit]
The uncertain labor issues and the possibility of a lockout were speculated to have a minimizing effect on coaching changes prior to the 2011 season, with owners predicted to be more hesitant than usual to hire a high-price, high-profile head coach.[122] Nevertheless, eight coaches were fired either during or immediately after the 2010 NFL season, compared to three in the year prior; only one of the new hires (John Fox) had ever been a head coach in the NFL prior to their hirings or promotions. However, Leslie Frazier, and Jason Garrett did get some experience as interim coaches during the 2010 season, with Garrett being successful in his debut season, going 5–3 in his tenure, improving the 1–7 Cowboys to a 6–10 season.
Stadiums[edit]
Naming rights agreements[edit]
The following stadiums received new naming rights:
In addition, the San Diego Chargers' home field, Qualcomm Stadium, was temporarily renamed "Snapdragon Stadium" for a ten-day period from December 16–25, which included the team's Week 15 home game vs. the Baltimore Ravens, as a marketing tie in for Qualcomm's Snapdragon brand.[140]
Uniforms[edit]
This was the last season that Reebok exclusively supplied uniforms and sideline caps along with performance and fan apparel for all 32 teams in the league, as Nike and New Era now have the 40-year rights to manufacture on-field uniforms and fan apparel, with Nike handling uniforms and performance apparel, and New Era with on-field caps. For Reebok, this ends a 10-year exclusivity association that began in 2001.[141]
The first Sunday of the season fell on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. To commemorate that event players, coaches, game officials and sideline personnel all wore a special stars and stripes ribbon bearing the dates "9/11/01" and "9/11/11" as a patch or pin. Players were also allowed to wear special red, white and blue gloves and shoes.[142]
The Buffalo Bills introduced redesigned uniforms on June 24, 2011. Early rumors fueled by a Madden NFL 12 trailer featuring a Bills throwback uniform had indicated the team would be adopting the uniforms the team wore between 1975 and 1983;[143] the final product indeed resembled those uniforms, with some minor adjustments.[144] The new uniforms (which marked the first redesign since 2002) were unveiled at a fan appreciation event at Ralph Wilson Stadium.[145] The Bills wore their white "away" uniforms in their week nine home game against the New York Jets as part of a whiteout promotion; the last time the team had worn their white uniforms at home was in 1986.[146]
The New England Patriots' uniforms bore a patch bearing the initials "MHK" in honor of team owner Robert Kraft's wife Myra Kraft who died of cancer in July.[147] The Patriots wore their red throwback uniforms in their week five game against the New York Jets. They wore their white jerseys at home against the Dallas Cowboys in week six, thus forcing the Cowboys to use their navy jerseys for the only time all season and the first time since 2009.[148] As per tradition, the Cowboys wore their throwbacks on Thanksgiving Day (November 24) at home against the Miami Dolphins.[148]
The St. Louis Rams wore their throwback uniforms in week 8 against the New Orleans Saints; the date was determined by fan voting.[149]
The Baltimore Ravens wore their black alternative jerseys twice in 2011: with black pants against the Jets and with white pants against the 49ers.[150]
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers wore their orange throwback uniforms during week 13 against Carolina.[151]
The Oakland Raiders wore stickers featuring "AL" on their helmets after owner Al Davis died on October 8, 2011.[152]
This season was the last in which the Denver Broncos wore their navy blue jerseys as their primary jersey, as the team has designated their orange jerseys—the team's alternate home jersey since 2002—as their new primary home jersey color, beginning with the 2012 season. The move was made due to overwhelming fan support to return to using orange as the team's primary home jersey color, which harkens back to the days of the Orange Crush Defense, as well as John Elway's return to the organization as the team's executive vice president of football operations. The team had considered making the switch for the 2011 season, but were too late to notify the NFL of the changes.[153] The team's navy blue jerseys, which had been their primary home jersey since they were first introduced in 1997, will become the alternate jerseys which will be worn in one or two home games each year.[154]
This season was the last in which the Seattle Seahawks wore their pacific blue (or "Seahawks blue") jerseys as the team's home jersey, as the team changed their home jersey color to dark navy for the 2012 season.[155]
Media[edit]
This was the sixth season under the television contracts with the league's television partners: CBS (all AFC afternoon away games), Fox (all NFC afternoon away games), NBC (17 Sunday Night Football games and the kickoff game), ESPN (Monday Night Football), NFL Network (eight late-season games on Thursday night and Saturday nights), and DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket package. These contracts originally ran through at least 2013.
ESPN extended its contract for Monday Night Football on September 8, during the opening week of the season. This new contract, valued between $14.2 billion and $15.2 billion, extended ESPN's rights for eight seasons until 2021. It also gave them rights to expanded highlights, international and digital rights, the Pro Bowl beginning with the 2015 installment, and possibly a wild card playoff game.[156] The league also signed a nine-year extension with CBS, Fox and NBC on their current contracts starting with the 2014 season through 2022.[157]
CBS added Marv Albert as a commentator,[158] while Gus Johnson departed from CBS to Fox Sports to call NFL and college football games.[159] ESPN lost both of their sideline reporters from 2010: Michele Tafoya moved to NBC, where she replaced the departing Andrea Kremer,[160] and Suzy Kolber reduced her on-field work to focus on hosting studio programming. ESPN, who had reduced the roles of its sideline reporters in recent years in response to NFL rule changes, used only one sideline reporter for each game of the 2011 season; among the rotating reporters include Kolber, Wendi Nix, Ed Werder, Sal Paolantonio, and Rachel Nichols. At NFL Network, Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock became its new broadcasting crew, replacing Bob Papa, Matt Millen, and Joe Theismann.
On December 22, 2010, the league announced that its national radio contract with Westwood One, which was acquired by Dial Global in the 2011 offseason, had been extended through 2014.[161] The league also extended its contract with Sirius XM Radio through 2015.[162] In addition to these contracts, and in a first for an NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys signed a deal to allow for nationwide broadcasts of all of its home and away games broadcast on Compass Media Networks, in addition to its existing local radio network. Compass also acquired exclusive national broadcast rights to both the International Series and Toronto Series contests.[163]
The league did not announce plans to compensate their media partners had the season been shortened or canceled as a result of the work stoppage. NBC had ordered several low-cost reality television shows for the 2011–12 TV season in the event that Sunday Night Football could not be played, but other networks had not made public any contingency plans in the event NFL games could not be televised (in the case of CBS and Fox, the Sunday afternoon time slots could have been left unfilled and turned over to the affiliates, likely to be used for time buys by minor and extreme sports organizations, or locally programmed infomercials or movies as they are during the offseason). A work stoppage could have potentially cost these networks billions of dollars in ad revenue and other entertainment platforms that depend on the games being played. (Under the NFL's television contracts, the networks must still pay the league a rights fee regardless of whether or not the league plays any games; a March 2 ruling states that this money must be put into escrow and not be spent.)[164] Meanwhile, the United Football League had set aside a portion of their television contract for their 2011 UFL season, as a potential package of replacement programs for the networks;[165] while CBS and Fox briefly negotiated with the UFL regarding the package, neither network committed to carrying the games, forcing the UFL to postpone its season by a month.