Cancelled NFL games

The following is a list of games that have been canceled by the National Football League since 1933. While canceling games was extremely common prior to this date, since that year, the NFL has only seen four instances in which games have been canceled and not been rescheduled due to labor disputes between the league and the National Football League Players Association. In the first labor dispute (1974) and, to date, the most recent dispute (2011), only one preseason game each were lost while seven weeks of regular season games were canceled in 1982 and one week of regular season games was canceled in 1987.

In addition only four other games (all exhibition) were canceled for reasons other than a labor dispute. The China Bowl, which was originally scheduled to take place in 2007, was postponed to 2009 and eventually canceled due to an economic recession. The three other canceled exhibition games were the result of unsafe playing fields: a 1995 NFL preseason game between the San Diego Chargers and the Houston Oilers a 2001 preseason game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Philadelphia Eagles, and the 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.

Canceling games was far more common in the 1920s and early 1930s, in the founding years of the league. When a team did not want to play a game, they could cancel without any punishment or penalty. Several years after league schedules were standardized in 1933, cancellations were effectively banned, and teams would have to forfeit the game or postpone if a cancellation was due to issues outside the team's control. There have been no forfeits in the league's history; a 1921 game between the Rochester Jeffersons and the Washington Senators is occasionally listed as a forfeit, but because of the lax cancellation rules of the time, is listed in modern records as a cancellation. The last unpunished cancellation of a regular season NFL game is believed to have been a November 17, 1935 contest between the Boston Redskins at Philadelphia Eagles game, which was canceled due to severe rain and snow.

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