Home | | 1999 NFL season
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The return of the Browns gave the league 31 teams (the first time since about 1966 that the NFL had an odd number of teams). As a result, the NFL was forced to give at least one team a bye each week. Previously, the league never gave a club the week off during the first two weeks or last seven weeks of the season. Under this new system, for ten weeks of the season (Week #1 to Week #2, and Week #10 to Week #17), exactly one team was scheduled a bye; for seven weeks of the season (Week #3 to Week #9), three teams sat out. This format would continue for the next two seasons until the Houston Texans joined the NFL in 2002 and returned the league to an even number of teams. The start of the 1999 NFL Season was pushed back one week and started the weekend after Labor Day, a change from the previous seasons. Due to the Y2K concerns, the NFL did not want to hold the opening round of the playoffs on Saturday January 1, 2000, and did not want teams traveling on that day. Week 17 games were held on January 2, 2000, and the opening round of the playoff would be scheduled for January 8-9. The bye week before the Super Bowl was removed to accommodate the one-year adjustment. The start of the season after Labor Day would become a regular fixture for future seasons, beginning in 2001. The St. Louis Rams, who had a losing record for each of the past nine seasons, surprised the entire league by defeating the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV. |