2006 NFL season

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{{Infobox NFL

| year = 2006 | NFL champion = Indianapolis Colts | regular_season = September 7 2006 - December 31 2006 | playoffs_start = January 6 2007 | sb_name = XLI | sb_date = February 4 2007 | sb_site = Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida | pb_date = February 10 2007 The 2006 season of the National Football League (NFL) was the 87th one played by the major professional American football league in the United States. With the Pittsburgh Steelers as the defending league champions, regular season play was held from September 7 to December 31 2006.

Pittsburgh failed to qualify for the playoffs, which began on January 6 2007. The NFL title was eventually won by the Indianapolis Colts when they defeated the Chicago Bears, the Super Bowl championship game, at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on February 4.

The season formally concluded with the Pro Bowl, the league's all-star game, at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 10. It was held on a Saturday instead of the usual Sunday after the Super Bowl because of a request by CBS, on which the game was broadcast.[1]

Schedule

This was the fifth year that the NFL regular season began with a Thursday night kickoff game (the Pittsburgh Steelers scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to win 28-17 over the Miami Dolphins).

The regular season week one continued on Sunday, September 10, concluded with the Indianapolis Colts at the New York Giants in what was the first NFL game with two brothers starting at quarterback: Peyton Manning of the Colts and his brother Eli of the Giants.

Then on Monday Night, September 11, there was a doubleheader: the Minnesota Vikings defeating the Washington Redskins, 19-16, which was followed by the San Diego Chargers shutting out the Oakland Raiders, 27-0.

There were only seven bye weeks in 2006 (weeks 3-9). Six teams had open dates in weeks 6 and 7, while four teams had open dates the remaining bye weeks. Previously, there were eight bye weeks (weeks 3-10), with four teams having an open date each week.

Three games were played on Thanksgiving Day. In addition to the traditional annual Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys home games during that day, with the Lions losing to the Miami Dolphins 27-10, and the Cowboys handily trouncing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 38-10, the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Denver Broncos, 19-10, exactly 37 years since their last meeting on Thanksgiving Day in the AFL.

Based on the NFL's scheduling formula, the intraconference and interconference matchups for 2006 were:

Interconference

  • AFC East v NFC North
  • AFC North v NFC South
  • AFC South v NFC East
  • AFC West v NFC West

Flexible-scheduling

Further information: NFL_on_television § Flexible-scheduling

For the first time, a "flexible-scheduling" system was used for the last seven weeks of the regular season. This allows the league the flexibility in selecting games to air on Sunday night, in order to feature the current hottest, streaking teams. The system's primary purpose is to prevent games featuring losing teams from airing during primetime late in the season, while at the same time allowing surprise, playoff-potential teams a chance to play at night. During the previous season, a December 19 Monday Night game featured the 4-9 Baltimore Ravens versus the 3-10 Green Bay Packers, while hot, streaking teams such as the Cincinnati Bengals and the Jacksonville Jaguars had few or no primetime games.

Because Christmas Eve (December 24) fell on a Sunday during the 2006 season, the flexible-scheduling actually occurred in seven of the last eight weeks. Instead of a Sunday night game on Christmas Eve, two games were held on Monday, Christmas Day (December 25): The Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys at 5 p.m. ET, and the New York Jets at Miami Dolphins at 8:30 p.m. ET. Therefore, the first real test of the new flexible scheduling will come with the 2007 season, with the final seven weeks scheduled to begin on November 18 of that year. For the first use of the new scheduling, it was announced on October 24 that the game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants would air on NBC on November 12 at 8:15 p.m. EST, and FOX moved the New Orleans Saints-Pittsburgh Steelers game to 4:15 p.m. EST from 1 p.m. EST.

Under the flexible-scheduling system, all Sunday games in the affected weeks tentatively had the start times of 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, except those played in the Pacific or Mountain time zones, which will have a tentative start time of 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT (or 4:15 p.m. ET/1:15 p.m. PT if it is a doubleheader weekend). On the Tuesday 12 days before the games, the league moved one game to the primetime slot, and possibly one or more 1 p.m. slotted games to the 4 p.m. slots. During the last week of the season, the league could re-schedule games as late as six days before the contests so that all of the television networks will be able to broadcast a game that has playoff implications. Furthermore, both FOX and CBS will broadcast doubleheaders in that final week, except in the home markets excluding those of the participating teams in the Sunday Night game that week.

Sunday Night Football

NBC’s Sunday Night Football will encompass more than four hours of NFL coverage. The agreement continues through the 2011 season and calls for 16 regular-season Sunday night games, each season's "NFL Kickoff" Thursday night primetime game, two postseason wild card games and three preseason games in primetime, in addition to Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 and Super Bowl XLVI in 2012 and Pro Bowls in the same years.

Final regular season standings

Qualified for playoffs

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

AFC East
Team W L T PCT PF PA  
4 New England Patriots 12 4 0 .750 385 237 Details
5 New York Jets 10 6 0 .625 316 295 Details
Buffalo Bills 7 9 0 .436 300 311 Details
Miami Dolphins 6 10 0 .375 260 283 Details
AFC North
Team W L T PCT PF PA  
2 Baltimore Ravens 13 3 0 .813 353 201 Details
Cincinnati Bengals 8 8 0 .500 373 331 Details
Pittsburgh Steelers 8 8 0 .500 353 315 Details
Cleveland Browns 4 12 0 .250 238 356 Details
AFC South
Team W L T PCT PF PA  
3 Indianapolis Colts 12 4 0 .750 427 360 Details
Tennessee Titans 8 8 0 .500 324 400 Details
Jacksonville Jaguars 8 8 0 .500 371 274 Details
Houston Texans 6 10 0 .375 267 366 Details
AFC West
Team W L T PCT PF PA  
1 San Diego Chargers 14 2 0 .875 492 303 Details
6 Kansas City Chiefs 9 7 0 .562 331 315 Details
Denver Broncos 9 7 0 .562 319 305 Details
Oakland Raiders 2 14 0 .125 168 332 Details
NFC East
Team W L T PCT PF PA  
3 Philadelphia Eagles 10 6 0 .625 398 328 Details
5 Dallas Cowboys 9 7 0 .562 425 350 Details
6 New York Giants 8 8 0 .500 355 362 Details
Washington Redskins 5 11 0 .313 307 376 Details
NFC North
Team W L T PCT PF PA  
1 Chicago Bears 13 3 0 .812 427 255 Details
Green Bay Packers 8 8 0 .500 301 366 Details
Minnesota Vikings 6 10 0 .375 282 327 Details
Detroit Lions 3 13 0 .188 305 398 Details
NFC South
Team W L T PCT PF PA  
2 New Orleans Saints 10 6 0 .625 413 322 Details
Carolina Panthers 8 8 0 .500 270 305 Details
Atlanta Falcons 7 9 0 .438 292 328 Details
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 4 12 0 .250 211 353 Details
NFC West
Team W L T PCT PF PA  
4 Seattle Seahawks 9 7 0 .562 335 341 Details
St. Louis Rams 8 8 0 .500 367 381 Details
San Francisco 49ers 7 9 0 .438 298 412 Details
Arizona Cardinals 5 11 0 .312 314 389 Details


Tiebreakers

Source: http://www.nfl.com/standings/conference

Playoffs

Further information: NFL playoffs, 2006-07

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.[2]

Playoff seeds
Seed AFC NFC
1 San Diego Chargers (West winner) Chicago Bears (North winner)
2 Baltimore Ravens (North winner) New Orleans Saints (South winner)
3 Indianapolis Colts (South winner) Philadelphia Eagles (East winner)
4 New England Patriots (East winner) Seattle Seahawks (West winner)
5 New York Jets (wild card) Dallas Cowboys (wild card)
6 Kansas City Chiefs (wild card) New York Giants (wild card)


AFC

NFC

Super Bowl

Pro Bowl

Television

Further information: [[:NFL on Television]]

The 2006 season marked the first year of the league's new television contracts. CBS and FOX continued to televise Sunday afternoon games with six-year agreements, as well as their respective conference playoffs.

The Pre-Game News

CBS made the biggest pre-game show news of all during the off-season, as they lured away James Brown from FOX NFL Sunday to The NFL Today, with Brown citing that he wanted to be closer to his home of Washington, D.C., as The NFL Today is based in New York City. Previous host Greg Gumbel was moved to the #2 team with Dan Dierdorf, and his predecessor, Dick Enberg, was paired with Randy Cross. The Eye network also announced it would continue to air only three games per week in high-definition during the season as well as eliminating sideline reporters after losing two reporters, Bonnie Bernstein (who moved to ESPN) and Armen Keteyian (who moved to CBS News as an investigative reporter).

Meanwhile, Joe Buck took over as host of FOX NFL Sunday, while simultaneously continuing as the network's top play-by-play man. This meant the pregame show would go on location from whichever game Buck was scheduled to call. The only weeks when the show wasn't on location were when Buck was assigned to do Major League Baseball postseason broadcasts, and the last two weeks of the season, when he and studio crew did the show from Fox Studios in Los Angeles. Curt Menefee manned the NFL Sunday crew while Buck was calling the week's game, during the baseball post season as well as during the first two rounds of the NFC Playoffs. In addition, Chris Rose, host of Fox Sports Net's Best Damn Sports Show Period, took over providing updates on games in progress during the regular season.

This was also the first season Fox and CBS were allowed to show in-game updates on games on each other's network throughout the season. Previously, they pooled together their highlights only during the final week of the season, when playoff spots were at stake.

Prime time changes

ESPN

ESPN took over Monday Night Football from ABC. The cable network's coverage (except for the first week doubleheader and Christmas Day) started at 3 p.m. US ET with a new SportsCenter Monday Night Kickoff Edition, followed by Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption. A new version of NFL PrimeTime, hosted by Stuart Scott with Ron Jaworski and Mike Ditka followed. Afterwards, the Monday Night Countdown 90-minute pre-game show, hosted by Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, Michael Irvin, and Steve Young. The latter shows are done on-site. The game broadcast then started at 8:30 p.m. Mike Tirico called the play-by-play, and Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser served as the color commentators. Michele Tafoya came over from ABC's version of MNF while Suzy Kolber arrived from ESPN Sunday Night Football to serve as sideline reporters.

NBC

NBC returned to the NFL for the first time since televising Super Bowl XXXII at the end of the 1997 season, broadcasting Sunday night games. The series was been rebranded as NBC Sunday Night Football and it also telecast the annual Thursday opening "kickoff" game. As the broadcaster of Sunday night games, NBC became the network that took full advantage of the flexible-scheduling system. The network also televised the Christmas Day contest between Philadelphia and Dallas in lieu of a Christmas Eve night game.

Bob Costas hosts the pregame show called Football Night in America, with Cris Collinsworth as his co-host. Currently, they serve as co-hosts of HBO's Inside the NFL, and continued to serve in their present posts. In addition, NBC announced on February 19 that the recently retired Jerome "The Bus" Bettis will join Costas and Collinsworth in the studio. [1] Sterling Sharpe also appeared on the program, after serving as a studio commentator on ESPN and then NFL Network.

Play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and color commentator John Madden were signed to call the games from ABC Monday Night Football, while Andrea Kremer came from ESPN to serve as the sideline reporter, and also contributed to the studio show. [2]

The pregame program aired at 7 p.m. ET and the game coverage followed at 8:15 p.m. Pink sings the show's theme, a remake of the Joan Jett song "I Hate Myself For Loving You" retitled "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night." Composer John Williams also contributed instrumental music for the pre-game show and the game telecast. The exceptions were on October 22 due to Game 2 of the 2006 World Series, and on December 24 (Christmas Eve), when no Sunday night games were scheduled to be telecast. On those nights, Football Night in America was a one hour stand-alone telecast, while a condensed half-hour version aired on Christmas Day.

In addition, as part of the network's contract, The Peacock Network broadcast the first two wild-card games on January 6, 2007, at 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tom Hammond, Collinsworth and Bob Neumeier called the early contest (Kansas City at Indianapolis), while the Sunday Night team of Michaels, Madden and Kremer called the late game (Dallas at Seattle).

NFL Network

The NFL Network specialty channel broadcast eight primetime games from Thanksgiving to the end of the regular season on Thursday and Saturday nights. [3]

Bryant Gumbel was the play-by-play announcer and Cris Collinsworth served as the color commentator on Thursdays.[4] Dick Vermeil worked with Bryant Gumbel for the scheduled Saturday games; however, when Vermeil came down with a severe case of laryngitis during the Dallas Cowboys-Atlanta Falcons game on December 16, Deion Sanders and Marshall Faulk, who were on location for NFL Total Access, filled in for the second half of that game.

The NFL Network's first regular-season game was Kansas City's 19-10 win at home over Denver on November 23, 2006. The game capped off a new "Thanksgiving Tripleheader" tradition. This was not pleasing news to many, as very few people have the NFL Network, since it is part of a digital cable and satellite TV package and was not available on Time Warner Cable and Cablevision. Thankfully, as is the case with ESPN's telecasts, the games were available in the participating teams' over-the-air markets.

News and notes

Major rule changes

  • End zone celebrations became more restricted. Players cannot celebrate by using any type of prop, or do any act in which they are on the ground. Players may still spike, spin the ball, or dunk it over the goal posts. Dancing in the end zone is also permitted as long as it is not a prolonged or group celebration. The Lambeau Leap, though, was still legal. [5]
  • Defenders were prohibited from hitting a passer in the knee or below unless they are blocked into him. This rule was enacted in response to the previous season's injuries to Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer, Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Brian Griese.
  • Down-by-contact calls could now be reviewed by instant replay to determine if a player fumbled the ball before he was down, and who recovered it. Previously, these plays could not be reversed once officials blew the whistle.
  • The "horse-collar tackle" rule enacted during the previous 2005 season was expanded. Players are now prohibited from tackling a ball carrier from the rear by tugging inside his jersey. Previously, it was only illegal if the tackler's hand got inside the player's shoulder pads.

Officials' uniform makeover

File:New NFL Officials Uni.jpg
New uniform worn by NFL officials as demonstrated on NFL Network's Total Access.

The 2006 season marked the debut of new officiating uniforms which are supposed to be more comfortable for officials to wear in extreme weather over the old polyester uniforms. The uniforms were designed by Reebok using Play Dry material technology to keep officials both warm and dry during the winter months of the season. On the shirt, the position and number are removed from the front pocket and the lettering and numbers on the back side were black-on-white and are smaller print and the sleeve shows the uniform number. Officials also wore full-length black pants with white stripe during the winter months to stay warm, which was criticized by media and internet board posters. This was the first major design overhaul since 1979, when the position name was added to the shirt, but later abbreviated in 1982.

New NFL Commissioner

On March 20, 2006, Paul Tagliabue announced his plans to retire as NFL Commissioner. During an NFL meeting in Northbrook, Illinois, on August 8, 2006, league team owners selected Roger Goodell, the NFL's then-current Chief Operating Officer, as the new commissioner. Tagliabue continued to serve as NFL Commissioner until Goodell officially replaced him on Friday September 1.

Tagliabue became NFL Commissioner on October 26, 1989. During his tenure, the league has added four new teams; saw four franchises move (including two franchises---the Rams and Raiders---from Los Angeles, the second-largest television market in the USA); the construction of seventeen new stadiums; began its own in-house television specialty cable network, the NFL Network; has greatly increased television rights fees with its broadcasters, including the addition of the Fox network; and has maintained labor peace with the players' union.

Return of "The Duke" football

For the first time since Super Bowl IV at the conclusion of the 1969 season, the official NFL game ball was known as "The Duke" in honor of Wellington Mara, whose family owns the New York Giants. Son John is the current CEO of the team. The NFL first used "The Duke" ball in honor of Mara in 1941 after then-Chicago Bears owner George Halas and then-Giants owner Tim Mara (Wellington's father) made a deal with Wilson Sporting Goods to become the league's official supplier of game balls, a relationship that continued into its' sixty-fifth year in 2006. [6]

"The Duke" ball was discontinued after the 1970 AFL-NFL Merger, and the merged league began using a different standardized ball made by Wilson. The only other time that "The Duke" ball name was used was during the two Thanksgiving Classic games in 2004.

One side of the new 2006 "Duke" football featured the NFL shield logo in gold, the words "The Duke", and the NFL commissioner's signature. The obverse side has a small NFL logo above the needle bladder hole, the conference names between the hole, and the words "National Football League" in gold. As per the custom, specially branded balls were used for the first week of the 2006 season ("Opening Kickoff"), Thanksgiving Classic, conference championships, Super Bowl XLI and Pro Bowl games.

Unprecedented sell-outs

Through week 11 of the season, all NFL games had been sold out, and for the 24th time, all blackout restrictions had been lifted. [3] The streak was ended by the Jacksonville at Buffalo game in Week 12. [4]

Saints go home

The New Orleans Saints returned to their home at the Louisiana Superdome in Week Three. The Saints played home games during the 2005 NFL Season in San Antonio, TX, Baton Rouge, LA, and East Rutherford, NJ, due to the damage to the Superdome caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Game highlights on iTunes

Starting September 18, fans were able to download highlights of their teams' games through Apple Computer's iTunes Store online service. Each video costs US$1.99 each but fans have the chance of buying a "Follow Your Team season ticket" which brings every game of that team to the fan for $24.99. [7]

Also available will be NFL GameDay, the NFL Network's comprehensive Sunday night review which features post-game reactions and game analysis, all for $1.99 a show or $19.99 for the full season.

Death of Lamar Hunt

Lamar Hunt, the man who would challenge the NFL with the formation of the American Football League, leading to a bidding war from 1960 to 1965 and the subsequent merger of the two leagues, and the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, died in Dallas, Texas on December 13 from complications from prostate cancer at the age of 74. The AFL's innovations (player names on the back of the jerseys, the two-point conversion that was adopted in 1994, the scoreboard clock as the official timer, a centered national TV contract, revenue sharing and the naming of the league's championship game as the "Super Bowl") are now standard through the NFL thanks to Hunt's fearless foresight. Thanks to him and fellow Texan Tex Schramm, who was president and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys at that time, the date of June 8, 1966 will forever be remembered as the day professional football changed.

Death of two Broncos

At 3 a.m. on January 1, 2007, Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was shot and killed in Denver, within hours after the last regular season game against the San Francisco 49ers. Less than two months after, on February 24, 2007, Broncos running back Damien Nash collapsed and died after a charity basketball game at a high school. Both players died at the age of 24.

Milestones

The new school "LT"

LaDainian Tomlinson broke the all-time NFL record for most rushing touchdowns in a season, on December 10, when he scored his 29th touchdown against the Denver Broncos, en route to his final total of 31. In addition, he had two touchdown passes. The previous record belonged to Shaun Alexander, who scored 28 touchdowns for the Seattle Seahawks in 2005. Tomlinson then broke the record for most touchdowns in a season the following week, when he ran for two scores against Kansas City, breaking the mark set by Alexander (which he set one season earlier) and Priest Holmes (originally set in 2003). The first touchdown that night broke Paul Hornung's record for most points scored in a season set in a 12-game schedule in 1960. He outscored the entire Oakland Raiders team - 186 points for Tomlinson to the Raiders' 168, and also won the Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player award, receiving 44 out of a possible 50 votes. Tomlinson's nickname "LT", or alternately the new school "LT", splashed across the headlines. The new school reference is an homage to retired Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor, who also has the nickname and is now sometimes called the old school "LT".

Carrying the team to victory

Kansas City's Larry Johnson set the single-season record for carries on December 31, 2006 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. [5] Johnson's 416 attempts passed Jamal Anderson's (Atlanta Falcons) 1998 record of 410 carries. Johnson finished the game with 138 yards on 33 carries with three touchdowns as the Chiefs beat the Jaguars (and got some help from the San Francisco 49ers defeating the Denver Broncos in overtime) to get into the playoffs.

Many (record-breaking) happy returns

Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears tied teammate Nathan Vasher's record for the longest play in NFL history, by returning a missed Jay Feely field goal 108 yards for a touchdown in the first prime-time NFL "Flex Game" on November 12 against the New York Giants. Hester also ran for his fifth and sixth return touchdown setting an NFL record (which included three punt returns for scores), and in the process, tied the NFL single game record for most kickoff returns for a touchdown with two against the St. Louis Rams on December 11. Hester also made history in Super Bowl XLI, becoming the first player to return the game's opening kickoff for a touchdown.

Marino and Favre

Brett Favre set the career mark for most pass completions during the December 17 game against the Detroit Lions as the Green Bay Packers quarterback broke Dan Marino's record when Carlyle Holiday caught a 21-yard pass just prior to halftime. Favre has 4,974 completions, breaking Marino's high water mark of 4,967. The Golden Brett also became the second quarterback to have thrown for 400 touchdowns in a career, with number 400 coming against the Lions on September 24 when he passed five yards to Greg Jennings, and the result was a 75-yard touchdown, and is currently six passes for touchdowns away from tying Marino's career record of 420.

On December 21, Favre became the first NFL player to throw 5,000 completions, on his final pass of the night. It came on 3rd-and-17 and moved the Packers into field-goal range. Two plays later, Dave Rayner's field goal provided the winning points in Green Bay's 9-7 victory.

In an interview during Super Bowl week in Miami, Favre announced he would return to Green Bay in 2007.

Manning passing record

Peyton Manning reached 4,000 yards passing for the seventh time in his career on December 24, breaking a tie with Dan Marino for the NFL record. Manning reached the mark on an eight-yard pass to receiver Marvin Harrison in the second quarter.

Vick 1st QB to rush for 1,000 yards

Michael Vick became the first NFL quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards in a season on December 24. Vick, who needed only 10 yards to reach the mark, gained 17 on his first carry on the Falcons' opening possession, breaking Bobby Douglass 1972 mark, as the Bears' field general ran for 968 yards and eight touchdowns on 141 carries in a 14-game season. The Virginia Tech alum finished the season with 1,039 yards in 16 games.

Morten Andersen sets points, FG records

Kicker Morten Andersen scored his 2,435th point on a PAT against Dallas on December 16, setting the record for most career points. On December 24, he kicked his 539th career field goal, passing Gary Anderson for the career record.

Vinny Testaverde sets TD record

A free agent at the time, Vinny Testaverde was signed in mid-season by the Patriots as a backup quarterback. In the Patriots' regular season finale against the Titans, Testaverde threw a touchdown pass to Troy Brown, thus becoming the first NFL quarterback to throw a touchdown pass in 20 consecutive seasons.

60-yard field goals

Two players kicked 60-yard field goals during the 2006 season, bringing the number of 60-yard field goals ever kicked in the regular season in NFL history up to six. On October 22, Matt Bryant kicked a 62-yard field goal in the final seconds to grab a 23-21 win for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the Philadelphia Eagles. It stands as the third-longest field goal in NFL regular-season history. On December 3, Rob Bironas kicked a 60-yard field goal which proved to be the difference in a 20-17 victory for the Tennessee Titans over the Indianapolis Colts.

Regular season statistical leaders

Team

Points scored San Diego Chargers (492)
Total yards gained New Orleans Saints (6,264)
Yards rushing Atlanta Falcons (2,939)
Yards passing New Orleans Saints (4,503)
Fewest points allowed Baltimore Ravens (201)
Fewest total yards allowed Baltimore Ravens (4,225)
Fewest rushing yards allowed Minnesota Vikings (985)
Fewest passing yards allowed Oakland Raiders (2,413)

Individual

Scoring LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego (186 points)
Touchdowns LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego (31 TDs)
Most field goals made Robbie Gould, Chicago and Jeff Wilkins, St. Louis (32 FGs)
Rushing LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego (1,815 yards)
Passer rating Peyton Manning, Indianapolis (101.0 rating)
Passing touchdowns Peyton Manning, Indianapolis (31 TDs)
Passing yards Drew Brees, New Orleans (4,418 yards)
Pass receptions Andre Johnson, Houston (103 catches)
Pass receiving yards Chad Johnson, Cincinnati (1,369 yards)
Punt returns Adam "Pacman" Jones, Tennessee (12.9 average yards)
Kickoff returns Justin Miller, New York Jets (28.3 average yards)
Interceptions Asante Samuel, New England and Champ Bailey, Denver (10)
Punting Mat McBriar, Dallas (48.2 average yards)
Sacks Shawne Merriman, San Diego (17)

Awards

Most Valuable Player LaDainian Tomlinson, Running Back, San Diego Chargers
Coach of the Year Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints
Offensive Player of the Year LaDainian Tomlinson, Running Back, San Diego Chargers
Defensive Player of the Year Jason Taylor, Defensive End, Miami Dolphins
Offensive Rookie of the Year Vince Young, Quarterback, Tennessee Titans
Defensive Rookie of the Year DeMeco Ryans, Linebacker, Houston Texans
NFL Comeback Player of the Year Chad Pennington, Quarterback, New York Jets

All-pro team

Offense
Quarterback Drew Brees, New Orleans
Running back LaDainian Tomlinson, San Diego
Larry Johnson, Kansas City
Fullback Lorenzo Neal, San Diego
Wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Indianapolis
Chad Johnson, Cincinnati
Tight end Antonio Gates, San Diego
Offensive tackle Willie Anderson, Cincinnati
Jammal Brown, New Orleans
Offensive guard Alan Faneca, Pittsburgh
Shawn Andrews, Philadelphia
Center Olin Kreutz, Chicago
Defense
Defensive end Jason Taylor, Miami
Julius Peppers, Carolina
Defensive tackle Jamal Williams, San Diego
Kevin Williams, Minnesota
Outside linebacker Shawne Merriman, San Diego
Adalius Thomas, Baltimore
Inside linebacker Brian Urlacher, Chicago
Zach Thomas, Miami
Cornerback Champ Bailey, Denver
Rashean Mathis, Jacksonville
Safety Brian Dawkins, Philadelphia
Ed Reed, Baltimore


Special teams
Kicker Robbie Gould, Chicago
Punter Brian Moorman, Buffalo
Kick returner Devin Hester, Chicago

Officials

References

  1. ^ Reardon, Dave (2006-03-10). "Pro Bowl's move to Saturday fine with HTA". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved 2007-02-10.
  2. ^ "NFL Playoff Procedures and Tiebreakers". Yahoo! Sports. December 31, 2006. Archived from the original on January 1, 2010.
  3. ^ All games sold out for 11th consecutive week, NFL.com, 17 November 2006.
  4. ^ "In depth: Frustration in Buffalo shows how NFL's television policies irking fan base". USA Today. 2006-11-26. Retrieved 2006-11-27.
  5. ^ Associated Press. LJ sets all-time record for carries (416) in KC victory ESPN.com, 31 December 2006.
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