1981 NFL Season
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1981 NFL Season
The 1981 NFL season was the 62nd regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XVI when the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 26–21 at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan. Draft The 1981 NFL Draft was held from April 28 to 29, 1981 at New York City’s Sheraton Hotel. With the first pick, the New Orleans Saints selected running back George Rogers from the University of South Carolina. New referee Cal Lepore, the line judge for Super Bowl III and referee for the Miracle at the Meadowlands, retired prior to the 1980 season. He would later become supervisor of officials in the United States Football League. Tom Dooley, who was assigned Super Bowl XV as line judge at the end of the 1981 season, was promoted to referee to replace Lepore. Major rule changes *It is illegal for any player to put adhesive or slippery substances such as the product “stickum” on his body, equipment or uniform. This rule is known as both th ...
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1981 San Francisco 49ers Season
The 1981 San Francisco 49ers season was the franchise's 32nd season in the National Football League (NFL), their 36th overall and their third under head coach Bill Walsh. The team finished the regular season with a 13–3 record. (Their first winning season in 5 years (1976)) The season was one of the franchise's most successful seasons to that point and was considered to be "the birth of a dynasty", when the 49ers began a decade of dominance over much of the NFL. The 49ers drew an average home attendance of 54,398 in the 1981 NFL season. The 49ers won Super Bowl XVI by defeating the AFC Champion Cincinnati Bengals. It was the first of five Super Bowl victories in franchise history, all within the next 13 seasons. From 1981 to 1997, the 49ers would have 13 NFC West titles, 8 NFC top seeds, and 7 seasons as the NFL's best team. Quarterback Joe Montana began the 1981 season as San Francisco's starting quarterback. Montana produced two fourth-quarter comeback victories. Montan ...
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United States Football League
The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be played in the autumn/winter, directly competing against the long-established National Football League (NFL). However, the USFL ceased operations before that season was scheduled to begin. The ideas behind the USFL were conceived in 1965 by New Orleans businessman David Dixon, who saw a market for a professional football league that would play in the summer, when the National Football League and college football were in their off-season. Dixon had been a key player in the construction of the Louisiana Superdome and the expansion of the NFL into New Orleans in 1967. He developed "The Dixon Plan"—a blueprint for the USFL based upon securing NFL-caliber stadiums in top TV markets, securing a national TV broadcast contract, and controlling ...
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1981 Minnesota Vikings Season
The 1981 season was the Minnesota Vikings' 21st in the National Football League, their 15th under head coach Bud Grant, and their final season at Metropolitan Stadium. They finished with a 7–9 record, and missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. The Vikings attempted 709 passes in 1981 (44.3 per game), a league record that stood for 30 years until it was broken by the 2012 Detroit Lions.Pro-Football-Reference.com: In a single season, from 1940 to 2012, in the Regular Season, requiring Pass Attempts >= 0, sorted by descending Pass Attempts./ref> Offseason 1981 Draft : The Vikings traded their first-round selection (18th overall) to the Baltimore Colts in exchange for the Colts' second- and fifth-round selections (39th and 123rd overall) and the second-round selection they received from the Redskins (52nd overall). : The Vikings traded their third- and fifth-round selections (71st and 128th overall) to the New Orleans Saints in exchange for T Steve Riley. ...
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NFC Central
The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and tough rivalry games between the teams, it currently has four members: the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, and Minnesota Vikings. The NFC North was previously known as the NFC Central from 1970 to 2001. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were previously members, from 1977, one year after they joined the league as an expansion team, until 2002 when they moved to the NFC South. The division was created in 1967 as the Central Division of the NFL's Western Conference and existed for three seasons before the AFL–NFL merger. After the merger, it was renamed the NFC Central and retained that name until the NFL split into eight divisions in 2002. The four current division teams have been together in the same division or conference since the Viking ...
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AFC West
The American Football Conference – Western Division or AFC West is one of the four divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The division comprises the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, and Los Angeles Chargers. The division has sent teams to the Super Bowl eighteen times beginning with Super Bowl I when the Chiefs played the Green Bay Packers. As of the 2021 season, the Broncos and Raiders were tied with the most Super Bowl wins within the division with 3 each; The Broncos have appeared in the most Super Bowls in the division with 8 and the Raiders have appeared in 5. The Chiefs are 2–2 in the Super Bowl, while the Chargers lost their lone Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl XXIX. The Chiefs won the most recent AFC West title in 2022. It was their seventh consecutive AFC West title, moving them into a four-way tie with the Broncos, Raiders and Chargers for the most AFC West titles. History The di ...
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NFC West
The National Football Conference - Western Division or NFC West is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It currently has four members: the Arizona Cardinals, the Los Angeles Rams, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Seattle Seahawks. The division was formed in 1967 as the National Football League Coastal Division, keeping with the theme of having all of the league's divisions starting with the letter "C." The division was so named because its teams were fairly close to the coasts of the United States, although they were on opposite coasts, making for long travel between division rivals. The NFL Coastal Division had four members: Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Colts, Los Angeles Rams, and San Francisco 49ers. Los Angeles and San Francisco occupied the West Coast, while Baltimore maintained its dominance over the lesser teams that remained in the division. Atlanta was placed in the division instead o ...
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AFC Central
The American Football Conference – Northern Division or AFC North is one of the four divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The division was adopted after the restructuring of the 2002 NFL season, when the league realigned divisions after expanding to 32 teams. This is the only division in the NFL in which no member team has hosted a Super Bowl in their stadiums. Formation The AFC North currently has four members: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers. The original four members of the AFC Central were the Browns, Bengals, Steelers and Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans). The AFC North is the only AFC division that does not contain a charter team from the original American Football League. However, the Cincinnati Bengals were an AFL expansion team in the 1968 AFL season (the Steelers and Browns joined the AFC in 1970), although the Bengals joining the AFL was contingent on the ...
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NFC East
The National Football Conference – Eastern Division or NFC East is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It currently has four members: the Dallas Cowboys (based in Arlington, Texas), New York Giants (based in East Rutherford, New Jersey), Philadelphia Eagles (based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), and the Washington Commanders (based in Landover, Maryland). The division was formed in 1967 as the National Football League Capitol Division and acquired its current name in 1970 when the NFL AFL-NFL merger, merged with the American Football League. The NFC East is currently the only division in the league in which all four current teams have won at least one Super Bowl. With 13 Super Bowl titles, the NFC East is currently the most successful division in the NFL during the Super Bowl era, with the AFC East second with nine titles. History The division's original name derived from it being centere ...
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AFC East
The American Football Conference – Eastern Division or AFC East is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). There are currently four teams that reside in the division: the Buffalo Bills (based in Orchard Park (town), New York, Orchard Park, New York); the Miami Dolphins (based in Miami Gardens, Florida); the New England Patriots (based in Foxborough, Massachusetts); and the New York Jets (based in East Rutherford, New Jersey). All four members of the AFC East were previously members of the Eastern Division of the American Football League (AFL). Both perfect regular seasons in professional football since the adoption of a 14-game schedule 1960 American Football League season, in the inaugural AFL season and 1961 NFL season, by the NFL in 1961 have been achieved by teams in this division – 1972 Miami Dolphins season, the 1972 Dolphins, who completed the only perfect season in professional footba ...
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Rusty Chambers
Russell Francis "Rusty" Chambers (November 10, 1953 – July 1, 1981) was an American football linebacker. He played for the Tulane Green Wave in college and professionally for the New Orleans Saints and Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. Chambers led the Dolphins in tackles for two consecutive years. His career was tragically cut short at the age of 27 when he died in a car accident on July 1, 1981. Background Chambers was born on November 10, 1953 in Amite City, Louisiana. His entire childhood was spent in southern Louisiana. He attended Loranger High School and received his college degree from Tulane University. College career Chambers played from 1971 to 1974 at linebacker for the Tulane Green Wave football team under head coach Bennie Ellender. In 1973, Chambers helped lead his Tulane football team to its most successful season since 1934. The Green Wave won its first six games of the season, including three consecutive victories against top-twenty ranked oppone ...
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Ineligible Receiver
In gridiron football, not all players on offense are entitled to receive a forward pass: only an eligible pass receiver may legally catch a forward pass, and only an eligible receiver may advance beyond the neutral zone if a forward pass crosses into the neutral zone. If the pass is received by a non-eligible receiver, it is "illegal touching" (resulting in a penalty of five yards and loss of down). If an ineligible receiver is beyond the neutral zone when a forward pass crossing the neutral zone is thrown, a foul of " ineligible receiver downfield" (resulting in a penalty of five yards, but no loss of down) is called. Each league has slightly different rules regarding who is considered an eligible receiver. College football The NCAA rulebook defines eligible receivers for college football in Rule 7, Section 3, Article 3. The determining factors are the player's position on the field at the snap and their jersey number. Specifically, any players on offense wearing numbers between ...
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Fred Biletnikoff
Frederick S. Biletnikoff (born February 23, 1943) is a former American football player and coach. He was a wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) for fourteen seasons and later an assistant coach with the team. He retired as an NFL player after the 1978 season, and then played one additional season in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for the Montreal Alouettes in 1980. While he lacked the breakaway speed to be a deep-play threat, Biletnikoff was one of the most sure-handed and consistent receivers of his day, with a propensity for making spectacular catches. He was also known for running smooth, precise pass routes. He is a member of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1988) and College Football Hall of Fame (1991). Biletnikoff attended Florida State University, where he played college football for the Florida State Seminoles football team and earned consensus All-America honors after leading the country ...
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