The 1981 season was the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

' 49th in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). They made the postseason for the fourth straight season (the first time in franchise history the Eagles made the postseason four straight times). The team was coming off a loss to the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

Super Bowl XV Super Bowl XV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

the previous season. Because they made the Super Bowl in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

, the Eagles were picked by many not only to reach the Super Bowl, but to win it as well. The Eagles began the 1981 season with 6 straight wins, their best ever start to a season at the time. They won 3 of their next 5 games for a record of 9–2. Then they lost their next 4 games in a row to slip to 9–6, but clinched a playoff spot for the fourth straight season prior to the final week of the regular season due to owning a tiebreaker with the Packers and not finishing last had the Eagles, Giants, and Packers finished 9–7. The next week, they hammered the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

38–0 to clinch the Wild Card Game would be held in Philadelphia. In the playoffs, they met their arch rivals the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

. It was New York's first playoff appearance in 18 years. The Giants stunned the Eagles 27–21, ending the Eagles' season as well as hopes for a second straight Super Bowl appearance. The Eagles would not make the playoffs again until

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

. They wouldn't reach the Super Bowl again until

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Offseason

NFL Draft

After going 12–4, winning the NFC title and losing in

to the

in the 1980 season, the Eagles were slotted to pick next to last in the 12 rounds of the

1981 NFL Draft The 1981 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 28–29, 1981, at the New York She ...

. The

NFL Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

was the procedure by which

teams selected amateur

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 28–29,

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

covered all 12 rounds live for the first time. ESPN then showed a replay later that night. This was over a period of two days. The Eagles had the 27th pick in each of the 12 rounds of the draft except for the 5th, 6th, and 8th rounds; they had no picks for these rounds because of draft-day trades. Instead, they had two picks in the 7th round: the 8th and 27th picks. The Eagles drafted a total of 10 players.

Personnel

Staff

Roster

Regular season

The 1981 season schedule was set by how the Eagles finished in 1980, 1st in NFC East. The way it was laid out, 4 of the 5 teams in the same 5 team division could end up having 10 to 14 common opponents during the 1981 season. Also, when the last regular season game is over you know who you play the following year. *A home and away series vs Dallas, New York Giants, St. Louis and Washington = 8 games *The top four teams in the NFC East play the top four teams in the AFC East from the 1980 season = 4 games *The 1st and 4th place teams in NFC Central and NFC West in the 1980 season

Schedule

Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 1

Sunday, September 6, 1981 Kickoff 1:00 PM Eastern Played at The Meadowlands on an

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...

playing surface at with an wind

Week 2

Sunday, September 13, 1981 Kickoff 4:00 PM Eastern TV Broadcast:

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

Announcers:

Dick Enberg Richard Alan Enberg (January 9, 1935 – December 21, 2017) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of an approximately 60-year career, he provided play-by-play of various sports for several radio and television networks, including N ...

and

John Brodie John Riley Brodie (born August 14, 1935) is a former American football player, a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons. He had a second career as a Senior PGA Tour professional golfer, and ...

Played at

Veterans Stadium Veterans Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, at the northeast corner of Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The seating capacities were 65,358 for footb ...

on an

playing surface weather= (Sunny)

Week 3

Thursday, September 17, 1981 Kickoff 8:30 PM Eastern Played at

Rich Stadium Highmark Stadium is a stadium in Orchard Park (town), New York, Orchard Park, New York State, New York, in the Southtowns of the Buffalo, New York, Buffalo metropolitan area. The stadium opened in 1973 Buffalo Bills season, 1973 as Rich Stadium a ...

on AstroTurf playing surface at with an wind

Week 4

Sunday, September 27, 1981 Kickoff 1:00 PM Eastern Played at Veterans Stadium on an AstroTurf playing surface weather= (Sunny)

Week 5

Monday, October 5, 1981 Kickoff 9:00 PM Eastern Played at Veterans Stadium on AstroTurf playing surface weather= (Clear)

Week 6

Sunday, October 11, 1981 Kickoff 12:00 PM Central Played at

Louisiana Superdome The Caesars Superdome, commonly known as the Superdome (formerly known as Mercedes-Benz Superdome), is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the home stadium of the New Orleans Saints ...

on an AstroTurf playing surface at indoors

Week 7

Sunday, October 18, 1981 Kickoff 12:00 PM Central Played at

Metropolitan Stadium Metropolitan Stadium (often referred to as "the Met", "Met Stadium", or now "the Old Met" to distinguish from the Metrodome) was an outdoor sports stadium in the north central United States, located in Bloomington, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneap ...

on a grass playing surface at with a wind

Week 8

Sunday, October 25, 1981 Kickoff 1:00 PM Eastern Played at Veterans Stadium on an AstroTurf playing surface weather= (Rain)

Week 9

Sunday, November 1, 1981 Kickoff 4:00 PM Eastern Played at Veterans Stadium on an AstroTurf playing surface weather= (Cloudy)

Week 10

Sunday, November 8, 1981 Kickoff 12:00 PM Central Played at the

Busch Memorial Stadium Busch Memorial Stadium, also known as Busch Stadium II, was a multi-purpose sports facility in St. Louis, Missouri, that operated for 40 years, from 1966 through 2005. The stadium served as the home of the St. Louis Cardinals National League b ...

on an AstroTurf playing surface at with an wind.

Week 11

Sunday, November 15, 1981 Kickoff 1:00 PM Eastern Played at Veterans Stadium on AstroTurf weather= (Light rain)

Week 12

Sunday, November 22, 1981 Kickoff 1:00 PM Eastern Played at Veterans Stadium on an AstroTurf playing surface weather= (Cloudy)

Week 13

Monday, November 30, 1981 Kickoff 9:00 PM Pacific Played at

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

on grass playing surface at with an wind

Week 14

Sunday, December 6, 1981 Kickoff 1:00 PM Eastern Played at

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium and originally known as District of Columbia Stadium, is a defunct multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C. It is located about due east of the U.S. Capitol building, near the w ...

on a grass playing surface at with a wind

Week 15

Sunday, December 13, 1981 Kickoff 3:00 PM Central Played at

Texas Stadium Texas Stadium was an American football stadium located in Irving, Texas, a suburb west of Dallas. Opened on October 24, 1971, it was known for its distinctive hole in the roof, the result of abandoned plans to construct a retractable roof (Cowboy ...

on an AstroTurf playing surface at with a wind

Week 16

Sunday, December 21, 1981 Kickoff 1:00 PM Eastern Played at Veterans Stadium on AstroTurf playing surface weather= (Sunny)

Standings

Postseason

Schedule

Game summaries

NFC Wildcard Game

Sunday, December 27, 1981 Kickoff 3:30 PM Eastern Played at Veterans Stadium on AstroTurf playing surface weather= (Light drizzle)

References

External links

1981 Philadelphia Eagles
at

Pro-Football-Reference.com Pro-Football-Reference.com is a website providing a variety of statistics for American football. It is one of the few sites that provides information on both active and retired players. The site provides statistics for teams dating back to 1920. ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:1981 Philadelphia Eagles season Philadelphia Eagles seasons