The 2005 NFL season was the 86th regular season of the National Football League. This marked the final season that ABC held the rights to televise Monday Night Football after thirty-six years of airing the series. When the TV contracts were renewed near the end of the season, the rights to broadcast Monday Night Football was given to Disney-owned corporate sibling ESPN. NBC won the right to televise Sunday Night Football and renaming the series Football Night in America, marking the first time that the network broadcast NFL games since Super Bowl XXXII in 1998. Meanwhile, CBS and FOX renewed their television contracts to the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference packages, respectively.

The 2005 season also featured the first ever regular season game played outside the United States when a San Francisco 49ers - Arizona Cardinals game was played at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on October 2 (the Cardinals won 31-14). The game drew an NFL regular season record of 103,467 paid fans. It was a home game for the Cardinals, mostly due to the fact that the team rarely sold out at their then-home field, Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. This season was the last year that the Cardinals played at Sun Devil Stadium; the team then moved to their new Cardinals Stadium in nearby Glendale.

The season ended when the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL.

Effect of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season

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Effect of Hurricane Katrina

See also: Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans

Due to the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina to the Louisiana Superdome and the greater New Orleans area, the entire New Orleans Saints' 2005 home schedule were played at different venues while the Saints set up temporary operations in San Antonio, Texas. The Saints' first home game on September 18 against the New York Giants was moved to Giants Stadium on September 19 (In which the N.Y. Giants won 27-10). As a result, the NFL designated its second weekend, September 18 and 19, as "Hurricane Relief Weekend", with fund raising collections at all of the league's games. The Saints' remaining home games were split between the Alamodome in San Antonio and Louisiana State University's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Being forced to travel to 13 of their 16 games (only 3 of their games were actually played in the same city where they practiced) and practice in substandard facilities and conditions in San Antonio, the Saints finished 3-13, their worst season since 1999.

The last time an NFL franchise had to play at an alternate site because its own home field was deemed unplayable was in 2002, when the Chicago Bears played that season in Champaign, Illinois, 120 miles (200 km) away, due to the reconstruction of Soldier Field. The last NFL team to abandon their home city during a season was the hapless 1952 Dallas Texans, whose franchise was returned to the league after drawing several poor crowds at the Cotton Bowl. They played their final "home" game at the Rubber Bowl in Akron, Ohio, against the Bears on Thanksgiving; the Texans stunned the Bears, 27-23, in front of a crowd estimated at 3,000, for their only win of the season.

Effect of Hurricane Wilma

The Sunday October 23 game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins at Dolphins Stadium was rescheduled to Friday October 21 at 7:00pm EDT to beat Hurricane Wilma's arrival to the Miami, Florida area. The Chiefs won the game, 30-20.

Major rule changes

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• The "horse-collar tackle", in which a defender grabs inside the back or side of an opponent’s shoulder pads and pulls that player down, is prohibited. Named the "Roy Williams Rule" after the Dallas Cowboys defensive back whose horse-collar tackle during the last season caused a serious and nearly season-ending injury to Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens.
• Peel-back blocks (where an offensive player blocks a defender who is moving back toward the direction of his own end zone) below the waist and from the back are now illegal.
• Unnecessary roughness would be called for blocks away from the play on punters or kickers, similar to the same protection quarterbacks have after interceptions.
• When time is stopped by officials prior to the snap for any reason while time is in, the play clock resumes with the same amount of time that remained on it - with a minimum of 10 seconds. Previously, the play-clock would be reset to 25 seconds.
• During field goal and extra point attempts, the defensive team will be penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct if it calls consecutive timeouts in an attempt to "ice" the kicker. Previously, the second timeout request was only denied by officials, and thus could be used to distract the kickers.
• Players cannot run, dive into, cut, or throw their bodies against or on an opponent who is out of the play or should not have reasonably anticipated such contact.
• If the defensive team commits a dead ball foul following the end of the half, the offensive team may choose to extend the period for one more play. Previously, the half automatically ended without the defensive team being penalized.
• During a punt, if the kicking team illegally touches the ball inside the 5-yard line, the receiving team has the option of either treating the result as a touchback or replaying the down with a 5-yard penalty against the kicking team. Previously, the receiving team's only options were either the latter or taking over possession at the spot of the foul. This change prevents an ineligible player from keeping a kick from entering the end zone and becoming a touchback.
• If the kicking team commits a penalty, the receiving team can have the option of adding five yards to the return or taking a penalty and forcing the kicking team to rekick the ball. Previously they could take the latter or decline the penalty.
• If a team calls for an instant replay challenge after it has used all its challenges or is out of timeouts, it will be assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The penalty will also be assessed if a team calls for a challenge inside of two minutes of either half or overtime, when only the replay assistant can initiate reviews. Previously, the request was only denied by the Referee. This change was made to prevent head coaches from constantly stopping the game for any reason, including to just argue with the Referee.
• Teams are only able to request an instant replay challenge by tossing their red flag to get the attention of officials. The league decided to do away with the electronic pager/vibrating alert system used by head coaches because practically all of them always used their red flags instead of their pagers anyway. (However, the replay assistant will still use the pagers to notify the officials of a replay request).

Final standings

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W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PCT= Winning Percentage, PF= Points For, PA = Points Against

Qualified for playoffs

Tiebreakers

• Cincinnati finished ahead of Pittsburgh in the AFC North based on better division record (5-1 to 4-2).
• Baltimore finished ahead of Cleveland in the AFC North based on better division record (2-4 to 1-5).
• Tampa Bay finished ahead of Carolina in the NFC South based on better division record (5-1 to 4-2).
• Chicago clinched the NFC's #2 seed instead of Tampa Bay or the N.Y. Giants based on better conference record (10-2 to Buccaneers' 9-3 and Giants' 8-4).
• Tampa Bay clinched the NFC's #3 seed instead of the N.Y. Giants based on better conference record (9-3 to 8-4).

Playoffs

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Home team in capitals

AFC

• Wild-Card playoffs: NEW ENGLAND 28, Jacksonville 3; Pittsburgh 31, CINCINNATI 17
• Divisional playoffs: DENVER 27, New England 13; Pittsburgh 21, INDIANAPOLIS 18
• AFC Championship: Pittsburgh 34, DENVER 17

NFC

• Wild-Card playoffs: Washington 17, TAMPA BAY 10; Carolina 23, N.Y. GIANTS 0
• Divisional playoffs: SEATTLE 20, Washington 10; Carolina 29, CHICAGO 21
• NFC Championship: SEATTLE 34, Carolina 14

Super Bowl XL

• PITTSBURGH (AFC) 21, Seattle (NFC) 10 at Ford Field, Detroit Michigan

Milestones

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The following players set all-time NFL records during the season:

Most Touchdowns, season	Shaun Alexander, Seattle (28)
Most Field Goals, season	Neil Rackers, Arizona (40)
Longest Return of a Missed Field Goal	Nathan Vasher, Chicago, November 13, vs. San Francisco (108 yards) (Also the longest play of any kind in NFL History)
Most Consecutive Games Played	Jeff Feagles, New York Giants, broken November 27, at Seattle (283)

Statistical leaders

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Team

Points scored	Seattle Seahawks (452)
Total yards gained	Kansas City Chiefs (6,192)
Yards rushing	Atlanta Falcons (2,546)
Yards passing	Arizona Cardinals (4,437)
Fewest points allowed	Chicago Bears (202)
Fewest total yards allowed	Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4,444)
Fewest rushing yards allowed	San Diego Chargers (1,349)
Fewest passing yards allowed	Green Bay Packers (2,680)

Individual

Scoring	Shaun Alexander, Seattle (168 points)
Touchdowns	Shaun Alexander, Seattle (28 TDs) *
Most field goals made	Neil Rackers, Arizona (40 FGs) *
Rushing	Shaun Alexander, Seattle (1,880 yards)
Passer rating	Peyton Manning, Indianapolis (104.1 rating)
Passing touchdowns	Carson Palmer, Cincinnati (32 TDs)
Pass receptions	Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona and Steve Smith, Carolina (103 catches)
Pass receiving yards	Steve Smith, Carolina (1,563)
Punt returns	Reno Mahe, Philadelphia (12.8 average yards)
Kickoff returns	Terrence McGee, Buffalo (30.2 average yards)
Interceptions	Ty Law, New York Jets and Deltha O'Neal, Cincinnati (10)
Punting	Brian Moorman, Buffalo and Shane Lechler, Oakland (45.7 average yards)
Sacks	Derrick Burgess, Oakland (16)
* — Denotes new league record.

Awards

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Most Valuable Player	Shaun Alexander, Running back, Seattle
Coach of the Year	Lovie Smith, Chicago
Offensive Player of the Year	Shaun Alexander, Running back, Seattle
Defensive Player of the Year	Brian Urlacher, Linebacker, Chicago
Offensive Rookie of the Year	Carnell Williams, Running back, Tampa Bay
Defensive Rookie of the Year	Shawne Merriman, Linebacker, San Diego
NFL Comeback Player of the Year	Tedy Bruschi, Linebacker, New England and Steve Smith, Wide receiver, Carolina (tie)

Footnotes

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1. NFL announces new prime-time TV packages from NFL.com (Last accessed December 13, 2005)
2. NFL to remain on broadcast TV from NFL.com (Last accessed December 13, 2005)
3. NFL History 2001- (Last accessed October 2, 2005)
4. Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0062701746)
5. Chiefs-Dolphins game moved to Oct. 21 (Last accessed October 21, 2005)
6. NFL approves ban on horse-collar tackle (Last accessed August 18, 2005)
7. 2005 Conference Standings

References

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• NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 193299436X)
• NFL turns down proposal on 'down by contact' from NFL.com, May 24, 2005 (Last accessed March 29, 2006)

2005 in sports | National Football League seasons

Saison NFL 2005