2002 NFL season
| Regular season | |
|---|---|
| Duration | September 5 – December 30, 2002 |
| Playoffs | |
| Start date | January 4, 2003 |
| AFC Champions | Oakland Raiders |
| NFC Champions | Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| Super Bowl XXXVII | |
| Date | January 26, 2003 |
| Site | Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego, California |
| Champions | Tampa Bay Buccaneers |
| Pro Bowl | |
| Date | February 2, 2003 |
| Site | Aloha Stadium |
The 2002 NFL season was the 83rd regular season of the National Football League.
The league went back to an even number of teams, expanding to 32 teams with the addition of the Houston Texans. The clubs were then realigned into eight divisions, four teams in each. Also, the Chicago Bears played the 2002 season in Champaign, Illinois at Memorial Stadium because of the reconstruction of their home stadium Soldier Field.
The NFL title was eventually won by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when they defeated the Oakland Raiders 48–21 in Super Bowl XXXVII, at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California on January 26, 2003.
With the Houston Texans joining the NFL, the league's teams were realigned into eight divisions: four teams in each division and four divisions in each conference. In creating the new divisions, the league tried to maintain the historical rivalries from the old alignment, while at the same time attempting to organize the teams geographically. Legally, three teams from the AFC Central (Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh) were required to be in the same division as part of any realignment proposals; this was part of the NFL's settlement with the city of Cleveland in the wake of the 1995 Cleveland Browns relocation controversy.
The major changes were:
Additionally, the arrival of the Texans meant that the league could return to its pre-1999 scheduling format in which no team received a bye during the first two weeks or last seven weeks of the season. From 1999 to 2001, at least one team sat out each week (including the preseason) because of an odd number of teams in the league (this also happened in 1960, 1966, and other years wherein the league had an odd number of teams). It nearly became problematic during the previous season due to the September 11 attacks, since the San Diego Chargers had their bye week during the week following 9/11 and the league nearly outright canceled that week's slate of games.
...
Wikipedia