The 2005 NFL football season passed with new all-time records, with everything from Shaun Alexander’s record breaking 28 touchdowns in a season to Nathan Vasher’s longest return from a missed field goal in a incredible 108 yards (also the longest play of any kind in NFL history) to the Seattle Seahawks’ amazing regular season performance and loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL.
Super Bowl XL was the 40th Super Bowl. The game was played on February 5, 2006, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, following the 2005 regular football season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champions The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks 21-10. Although the Seahawks won the turnover battle, 2-1, and outscored the Steelers by 57 yards, Pittsburgh won on the strength of three big plays converted for touchdowns. The Seahawks were plagued by controversial penalties, dropped balls, clock mismanagement and a game-ending interception on a drive into Steelers territory. This was the Steelers’ fifth Super Bowl victory, and with this victory, the Steelers join the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers for the most Super Bowl wins by one team.
The upcoming 2006 NFL season will be the 87th season of the National Football League. This season is scheduled to kick off on September 7th and the opener will feature the Miami Dolphins playing the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 8:30 pm ET. The regular series of games begins on Sunday, September 10, with the Indianapolis Colts playing the New York Giants in New York. Then, on Monday night, September 11, there will be a doubleheader: the Minnesota Vikings against the Washington Redskins at 7 pm ET, followed by the San Diego Chargers against the Oakland Raiders at 10:15 pm ET.
Three games are scheduled to be played on Thanksgiving Day. In addition to the traditional annual home games for the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys on that day (hosting the Miami Dolphins at 12:30 p.m. ET and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 4:15 p.m. ET, respectively), the The Denver Broncos will travel to face the Kansas City Chiefs at 8 pm ET.
The season will conclude on December 31, New Year’s Eve. Super Bowl XLI, the Super Bowl championship game of the 2006 season, will take place on February 4, 2007 at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Lakes, Florida, and will conclude the postseason. with the Pro Bowl in Hawaii.
According to the NFL scheduling formula, the intraconference and interconference matchups for 2006 will be:
intraconference
AFC East v AFC South
AFC North v AFC West
NFC East v NFC South
NFC North v NFC West
interconference
AFC East v NFC North
AFC North v NFC South
AFC South v NFC East
AFC West v NFC West
2006 will be the first year the NFL will use a “flex scheduling” system for the last seven weeks of the regular season. The system is designed so that the league has the flexibility to select games to broadcast on Sunday night that will feature the current top teams. The main purpose of this system is to prevent games with losing teams from airing during prime time at the end of the season, while at the same time allowing surprise teams with playoff potential a chance to play at night. During the previous 2005 season, a Monday night game on December 19 featured the Baltimore Ravens 4-9 against the Green Bay Packers 3-10, while hot and streaking teams like the Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Jacksonville Jaguars had little to nothing. no primetime games.
Because Christmas Eve (December 24) falls on a Sunday during the 2006 season, flex scheduling will actually occur seven of the last eight weeks. Instead of a Sunday night game on Christmas Eve, two games will take place on Monday, Christmas Day: the Philadelphia Eagles in Dallas at 5 p.m. ET and the New York Jets in Miami at 8:30 p.m. ET . Thus, the first real test of the new flexible scheduling will come with the 2007 season, with the final seven weeks scheduled to begin on November 18 of that year.
Under the flexible scheduling system, all Sunday games in affected weeks will have a 1pm ET/10am start time. or 4:15 pm ET/1:15 pm PT if it’s a doubleheader weekend). On Tuesday 12 days before games, the league will move one game to primetime and possibly move one or more games from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. During the last week of the season, the league may reschedule games up to six days before the contests so that all television networks can broadcast a game that has playoff implications.
The 2006 NFL football season is sure to be filled with new records, amazing stories, and incredible sports betting games.