This article is about the American football season in the United States. For the Gaelic football season in Ireland, see 2004 National Football League (Ireland).
Midway through the season, Johnny Grier, the NFL's first African-American referee, suffered a leg injury that forced him to retire, and became an officiating supervisor for the NFL the following season. He was permanently replaced by the back judge on his crew, Scott Green, who had previous experience as a referee in NFL Europe.
Rule changes
Due to several incidents during the previous year, officials are authorized to penalize excessive celebration. The 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty will be marked off from the spot at the end of the previous play or, after a score, on the ensuing kickoff. If the infraction is ruled flagrant by the officials, the player(s) are ejected.
A punt or missed field goal that is untouched by the receiving team is immediately dead once it touches either the end zone or any member of the kicking team in the end zone. Previously, a punt or missed field goal that lands in the end zone before being controlled by the kicking team could be picked up by a member of the receiving team and immediately run the other way.
Teams will be awarded a third instant replay challenge if their first two are successful. Previously, teams were only limited to two regardless of what occurred during the game.
The one-bar facemask was outlawed. The few remaining players who still used the one-bar facemask at the time were allowed to continue to use the style for the remainder of their career under a grandfather clause. (Scott Player was the last player to wear the one-bar facemask in 2007).
2004 deaths
Pat Tillman former safety for the Arizona Cardinals was killed during incident during the war in Afghanistan.
Reggie White former defensive end for the Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles, and Carolina Panthers unexpectedly died on December 26, 2004, just seven days after his 43rd birthday from complications of sleep apnea.
12Indianapolis clinched the AFC #3 seed instead of San Diego based upon head-to-head victory.
12New York Jets clinched the AFC #5 seed instead of Denver based upon better record against common opponents (New York Jets were 5–0 to Denver’s 3–2 against San Diego, Cincinnati, Houston, and Miami).
123Jacksonville and Baltimore finished ahead of Buffalo because they each defeated Buffalo head-to-head.
12Jacksonville finished ahead of Baltimore based upon better record against common opponents (Jacksonville were 3–2 against Baltimore’s 2–3 versus Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Buffalo and Kansas City).
12Houston finished ahead of Kansas City based upon head-to-head victory.
12Oakland finished ahead of Tennessee based upon head-to-head victory.
12Miami finished ahead of Cleveland based upon head-to-head victory.
↑When breaking ties for three or more teams under the NFL's rules, they are first broken within divisions, then comparing only the highest-ranked remaining team from each division.
123St. Louis clinched the NFC #5 seed instead of Minnesota or New Orleans based on better conference record (7–5 to Minnesota’s 5–7 to New Orleans’ 6–6).
12Minnesota clinched the NFC #6 seed instead of New Orleans based on head-to-head victory.
12345Detroit finished ahead of Arizona and New York Giants based upon head-to-head record (2–0 versus Arizona’s 1–1 and New York Giants’ 0–2). Division tiebreak was initially used to eliminate Dallas and Washington.
123New York Giants finished ahead of Dallas and Washington in the NFC East based on better head-to-head record (3–1 to Dallas‘ 2–2 to Washington’s 1–3).
12Dallas finished ahead of Washington in the NFC East based on head-to-head sweep.
12Tampa Bay finished ahead of Chicago based upon head-to-head victory.
↑When breaking ties for three or more teams under the NFL's rules, they are first broken within divisions, then comparing only the highest-ranked remaining team from each division.
Within each conference, the four division winners and the top two non-division winners with the best overall regular season records) qualified for the playoffs. The four division winners are seeded 1–4 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and the wild card teams are seeded 5–6. The NFL does not use a fixed bracket playoff system, and there are no restrictions regarding teams from the same division matching up in any round. In the first round, dubbed the wild-card playoffs or wild-card weekend, the third-seeded division winner hosts the sixth-seed wild card, and the fourth seed hosts the fifth. The 1 and 2 seeds from each conference received a first-round bye. In the second round, the divisional playoffs, the number 1 seed hosts the worst-surviving seed from the first round (seed 4, 5, or 6), while the number 2 seed will play the other team (seed 3, 4, or 5). The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games met in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, hosted by the higher seed. Although the Super Bowl, the championship round of the playoffs, is played at a neutral site, the designated home team is based on an annual rotation by conference.[4]
The Colts led the NFL with 522 points scored. The Colts tallied more points in the first half of each of their games of the 2004 NFL season (277 points) than seven other NFL teams managed in the entire season.[7] Despite throwing for 49 touchdown passes, Peyton Manning attempted fewer than 500 passes for the first time in his NFL career.[8] The San Francisco 49ers' record 420 consecutive scoring games that had started in Week 5 of the 1977 season ended in Week 2 of the season.
Reeves was fired after winning just three of the first thirteen games of the 2003 season, with defensive coordinator Wade Phillips serving as interim coach for the last three games.[9] Mora was previously the 49ers' defensive coordinator from 1999 until 2003.[10]
After three seasons in which the team compiled records of 3–13, 8–8, and 6–10 under his leadership, Williams' contract was allowed to expire after the 2003 season. Mularkey served as the Steelers offensive coordinator for the past three seasons.
Jauron coached the Bears for five seasons (1999–2003), finishing with a 35–45 regular season record and one playoff appearance.[11] Smith was the defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams for three seasons under head coach Mike Martz. While in St. Louis, Smith improved the Rams' defense from giving up a league-worst 29.4 points per game in 2000, to an average of 17.1 points per game in 2001. Upon arriving in Chicago, Smith stated he had three goals: beat the Green Bay Packers, win the NFC North, and win a Super Bowl.
On December 17, 2003, with two games remaining in what became a 4-12 season and knowing that the team was near certain to let him go at its conclusion, Fassel announced he would resign after the season.[12] After being out of football in 2003, former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Tom Coughlin was hired to replace Fassel as head coach of the Giants in January 2004.
Callahan was fired by Raiders owner Al Davis on January 1, 2004, after a lackluster 4–12 season.[13] Turner was offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins in 2002 and 2003.
Spurrier resigned on December 30, 2003, choosing to walk away from $15 million still owed to him over the remaining three years of his contract. In January 2004, Gibbs accepted an offer from Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to return to the team. In the eleven years since Gibbs retired as the Redskins head coach, many NFL owners had approached Gibbs hoping to lure him out of his retirement of managing his NASCAR racing team, but to no avail. At his press conference, Gibbs stated that even though he enjoyed NASCAR, he had also missed coaching in the NFL. Gibbs left his racing team in the hands of his eldest son, J. D., while his other son, Coy, joined him as an assistant with the Redskins.
On December 12, 2003, McKay and the Buccaneers came to an agreement that would see McKay leave the organization with the freedom to join any team he wanted with no compensation required. On December 15, 2003, McKay became president and general manager of the Falcons.
Following the 2003 season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gave McKay permission to leave the team as his relationship with Super Bowl XXXVII-winning coach Jon Gruden had deteriorated.[14] The Glazer family hired Raiders senior executive Bruce Allen to replace McKay, as Allen had previously worked with Gruden in Oakland.
Oakland Raiders: Network Associates Coliseum was renamed McAfee Coliseum to reflect naming right holder, Network Associates, changing its name to McAfee.
The Cincinnati Bengals introduced new uniforms, featuring black jerseys with orange tiger-striped sleeves, white jerseys with black tiger striped sleeves, and orange third alternate uniforms. A new logo featuring an orange "B" with black tiger stripes was also unveiled.
The Chicago Bears added orange third alternate uniforms.
The Indianapolis Colts switched from blue face masks and white shoes to gray facemasks and black shoes
The Jacksonville Jaguars made modification to their white uniforms, changing the teal number with black and gold trim to black numbers with gold and teal trim. Also introduced were new black pants with the Jaguars logo on hip.
This was the seventh year under the league's eight-year broadcast contracts with ABC, CBS, Fox, and ESPN to televise Monday Night Football, the AFC package, the NFC package, and Sunday Night Football, respectively.
At CBS, Jim Nantz and Greg Gumbel swapped roles. Nantz replaced Gumbel as CBS's lead play-by-play announcer while Gumbel took Nantz's hosting duties on The NFL Today. Shannon Sharpe also joined The NFL Today as an analyst, replacing Deion Sanders who was let go due to salary disputes, and returned to playing with the Baltimore Ravens from 2004-2005. Former quarterback Steve Beuerlein joined CBS as a color commentator following his retirement after the 2003 NFL season and worked the #7 broadcast team. As well as Dan Dierdorf doing play by play for the first time since the 1980’s for the Titans Dolphins matchup week 1 with Todd Blackledge as the game was moved to Saturday due to Hurricane Ivan.
ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Patrick missed the first few broadcasts to recover from heart bypass surgery. Pat Summerall filled in those weeks for Patrick.
Starting this season CBS, Fox, ABC, and ESPN started broadcasting regular season games in High Definition. CBS would do select games weekly, while Fox, ABC, and ESPN broadcast every game weekly.
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