2001 NFL season
| Regular season | |
|---|---|
| Duration | September 9, 2001 – January 7, 2002 |
| In the wake of the September 11 attacks, a number of games were re-scheduled. | |
| Playoffs | |
| Start date | January 12, 2002 |
| AFC Champions | New England Patriots |
| NFC Champions | St. Louis Rams |
| Super Bowl XXXVI | |
| Date | February 3, 2002 |
| Site | Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Champions | New England Patriots |
| Pro Bowl | |
| Date | February 9, 2002 |
| Site | Aloha Stadium |
The 2001 NFL season was the 82nd regular season of the National Football League (NFL).
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the NFL's week 2 games (September 16–17) were postponed and re-scheduled to the weekend of January 6–7. In order to retain the full playoff format, all playoff games, including Super Bowl XXXVI, were re-scheduled one week later. The New England Patriots won the Super Bowl, defeating the St. Louis Rams 20–17 at the Louisiana Superdome.
Following a pattern set in 1999, the first week of the season was permanently moved to the weekend following Labor Day. With Super Bowls XXXVI-XXXVII already scheduled for fixed dates, the league initially decided to eliminate the Super Bowl bye weeks for 2001 and 2002 to adjust.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the games originally scheduled for September 16–17 were postponed and re-scheduled to the weekend of January 6–7. In order to retain the full playoff format, all playoff games, including the Super Bowl, were re-scheduled one week later. The season-ending Pro Bowl was also moved to one week later. This was the last season in which each conference had 3 divisions, as the conferences were realigned to 4 divisions for the 2002 NFL season.
Canceling the games scheduled for September 16–17 was considered and rejected since it would have canceled a home game for half the teams of the league. It would have also resulted in an unequal number of games played: Sept. 16–17 was to have been a bye for the San Diego Chargers, so that team would still have played 16 games that season and each of the other teams would have played only 15 games (the Chargers ultimately finished 5–11, making any competitive advantages to playing an extra game moot).
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