The 1971 NFL season was the 52nd regular season

Regular season (NFL)

The National Football League regular season begins the weekend after Labor Day. Each team plays 16 games during a 17-week period. Traditionally, the majority of each week's games are played on Sunday afternoon, with weekly games on Sunday night and Monday night, and occasional games on Thursday...

 of the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

. The season ended with Super Bowl VI

Super Bowl VI

Super Bowl VI was an American football game played on January 16, 1972, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1971 regular season...

 when the Dallas Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...

 defeated the Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

. Before the season, the Boston Patriots

New England Patriots

The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...

 changed their name to New England Patriots after they moved to their new home field, Schaefer Stadium

Foxboro Stadium

Foxboro Stadium was an outdoor stadium, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts...

 in Foxborough, Massachusetts

Foxborough, Massachusetts

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 16,246 people, 6,141 households, and 4,396 families residing in the town. The population density was 809.1 people per square mile . There were 6,299 housing units at an average density of 313.7 per square mile...

.

Major rule changes

• Teams will not be charged a time out for an injured player unless the injury occurs inside the last two minutes of a half.

Division races

Starting in 1970, and until 2002, there were three divisions (Eastern, Central and Western) in each conference. The winners of each division, and a fourth "wild card" team based on the best non-division winner, qualified for the playoffs. The tiebreaker rules were changed to start with head-to-head competition, followed by division records, common opponents records, and conference play. (More tiebreakers were provided in 1971 because, in 1970, changing just one game's outcome would have led to a coin toss between Dallas and Detroit for the NFC wild-card berth.)

National Football Conference

Week	Eastern		Central		Western		Wild Card
1	3 teams	1–0–0	2 teams	1–0–0	2 teams	1–0–0	3 teams	1–0–0
2	2 teams	2–0–0	CHICAGO	2–0–0	ATLANTA	1–0–1	2 teams	2–0–0
3	WASHINGTON	3–0–0	4 teams	2–1–0	SAN FRANCISCO	2–1–0	5 teams	2–1–0
4	WASHINGTON	4–0–0	CHICAGO*	3–1–0	LOS ANGELES	2–1–1	3 teams	3–1–0
5	WASHINGTON	5–0–0	MINNESOTA*	4–1–0	LOS ANGELES	3–1–1	DETROIT	4–1–0
6	WASHINGTON	5–1–0	MINNESOTA	5–1–0	LOS ANGELES	4–1–1	4 teams	4–2–0
7	WASHINGTON	6–1–0	MINNESOTA	6–1–0	SAN FRANCISCO	5–2–0	CHICAGO	5–2–0
8	WASHINGTON	6–1–0	MINNESOTA	6–2–0	SAN FRANCISCO	6–2–0	DETROIT	5–2–1
9	WASHINGTON	6–2–1	MINNESOTA	7–2–0	SAN FRANCISCO	6–3–0	CHICAGO*	6–3–0
10	DALLAS	7–3–0	MINNESOTA	8–2–0	LOS ANGELES	6–3–1	WASHINGTON*	6–3–1
11	DALLAS	8–3–0	MINNESOTA	9–2–0	SAN FRANCISCO	7–4–0	WASHINGTON*	7–3–1
12	DALLAS	9–3–0	MINNESOTA	9–3–0	LOS ANGELES	7–4–1	WASHINGTON	8–3–1
13	DALLAS	10–3–0	MINNESOTA	10–3–0	SAN FRANCISCO	8–5–0	WASHINGTON	9–3–1
14	DALLAS	11–3–0	MINNESOTA	11–3–0	SAN FRANCISCO	9–5–0	WASHINGTON	9–4–1

American Football Conference

Week	Eastern		Central		Western		Wild Card
1	2 teams	1–0–0	2 teams	1–0–0	SAN DIEGO	1–0–0	2 teams	1–0–0
2	MIAMI	1–0–1	CLEVELAND	2–0–0	OAKLAND*	1–1–0	6 teams	1–1–0
3	BALTIMORE	2–1–0	PITTSBURGH*	2–1–0	OAKLAND*	2–1–0	2 teams	2–1–0
4	BALTIMORE	3–1–0	CLEVELAND	3–1–0	OAKLAND*	3–1–0	KANSAS CITY	3–1–0
5	BALTIMORE	4–1–0	CLEVELAND	4–1–0	OAKLAND*	4–1–0	KANSAS CITY	4–1–0
6	MIAMI	4–1–1	CLEVELAND	4–2–0	OAKLAND*	5–1–0	KANSAS CITY	5–1–0
7	MIAMI	5–1–1	CLEVELAND	4–3–0	OAKLAND*	5–1–1	KANSAS CITY	5–1–1
8	MIAMI	6–1–1	CLEVELAND*	4–4–0	OAKLAND	5–1–2	BALTIMORE	6–2–0
9	MIAMI	7–1–1	CLEVELAND*	4–5–0	OAKLAND	6–1–2	BALTIMORE	7–2–0
10	MIAMI	8–1–1	CLEVELAND*	5–5–0	OAKLAND	7–1–2	KANSAS CITY	7–2–1
11	MIAMI	9–1–1	CLEVELAND	6–5–0	OAKLAND	7–2–2	BALTIMORE	8–3–0
12	MIAMI	9–2–1	CLEVELAND	7–5–0	KANSAS CITY	8–3–1	BALTIMORE	9–3–0
13	BALTIMORE	10–3–0	CLEVELAND	8–5–0	KANSAS CITY	9–3–1	MIAMI	9–3–1
14	MIAMI	10–3–1	CLEVELAND	9–5–0	KANSAS CITY	10–3–1	BALTIMORE	10–4–0

Final standings

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

– clinched wild card

Wild card (sports)

The term wild card refers broadly to a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play.-International sports:...

 berth, – clinched division title

Note: Prior to 1972, the NFL did not include tie games when calculating a team's winning percentage in the official standings

Tiebreakers

• New England finished ahead of N.Y. Jets in the AFC East based on better point differential in head to head games, 13 points.

Playoffs

Note: Prior to the 1975 season

1975 NFL season

The 1975 NFL season was the 56th regular season of the National Football League. It was also the first time that featured an entire season with no games ending in a tie. The league made two significant changes to increase the appeal of the game:...

, the home teams in the playoffs were decided based on a yearly rotation.

Awards

Most Valuable Player NFL Most Valuable Player Award The National Football League Most Valuable Player Award is given by various entities, most notably the Associated Press , to the player who is considered most valuable in the league. When the award is referred to without mentioning the organization, it generally means the AP award. The AP NFL MVP...	Alan Page Alan Page Alan Cedric Page is a justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1963, received his B.A. in political science from the University of Notre Dame in 1967, and received his J.D. from the University of... , Defensive Tackle, Minnesota
Coach of the Year NFL Coach of the Year Award The National Football League Coach of the Year Award is presented annually by various news and sports organizations to the NFL head coach who has done the most outstanding job of working with the talent he has at his disposal. Currently, the most widely recognized award is presented by the...	George Allen George Allen (football) George Herbert Allen was an American football coach in the National Football League and the United States Football League. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002.-Early life:... , Washington
Defensive Player of the Year NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award The NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award is given by the Associated Press to the league's most outstanding defensive player at the end of every NFL season since 1971. Multiple-award winners include Lawrence Taylor, who won it three times, and Joe Greene, Mike Singletary, Bruce Smith, Reggie...	Alan Page Alan Page Alan Cedric Page is a justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1963, received his B.A. in political science from the University of Notre Dame in 1967, and received his J.D. from the University of... , Defensive Tackle, Minnesota
Offensive Rookie of the Year	John Brockington John Brockington John Stanley Brockington is a former American football running back. He was the National Football League's Green Bay Packers' 1st round draft choice out of the Ohio State University, and was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1971.-College career:Brockington played halfback and fullback for... , Running Back Running back A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running... , Green Bay
Defensive Rookie of the Year	Isiah Robertson Isiah Robertson Isiah "Butch" Robertson is a former professional American football player who played linebacker for the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills . He was selected to six Pro Bowls during his years with the Rams. He picked off 25 passes in his career, returning three for touchdowns... , Linebacker Linebacker A linebacker is a position in American football that was invented by football coach Fielding H. Yost of the University of Michigan. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up approximately three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage, behind the defensive linemen... , L.A. Rams