The Minnesota Vikings entered the 1997 season as an established contender. They had made the playoffs four times in their five seasons under head coach Dennis Green. One thing they had not done, however, was actually win a postseason game. After a wild roller-coaster ride of a regular season, the Vikings again made the playoffs—and […]
The Washington Redskins entered 1997 looking for a breakthrough. Norv Turner had taken over in 1994 and his rebuilding project showed signs of life by 1996, when the Redskins nearly made the playoffs. Improvement was expected in ’97. But while Washington was still competitive and stayed in the hunt to the bitter end, the postseason […]
The New York Giants were on a four-year decline coming into the 1997 season. After making the playoffs in 1993 under Dan Reeves, the Giants steadily slipped and then bottomed out with an 11-21 record over 1995-96. New York made a coaching change, hired Jim Fassel and won the NFC East for the first time […]
The 1997 Jacksonville Jaguars came into the season on a high. As a second-year franchise in 1996, they shocked the world with a late-season run to squeak into the playoffs and then reached the AFC Championship Game. Was that real or was it a fluke? In ’97, the Jags enjoyed a stronger regular season, got […]
The Dallas Cowboys were the NFL’s gold standard in the first half of the 1990s. From 1991 through 1996, they made the playoffs every year, won five NFC East titles and captured three Super Bowl trophies. But all runs come to an end eventually and 1997 was the year the Cowboys fell out of the […]
After missing the postseason, the 1997 Detroit Lions got back on track and Barry Sanders won a co-MVP award. Read the game-by-game narrative of how it unfolded.
Everything was about redemption for the 1997 Denver Broncos, both short-term and long-term. In the short-term, this was a team that had the #1 seed in the AFC playoffs in 1996 and lost in a big upset at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars. In the long-term, 37-year-old quarterback John Elway had yet to win a […]
The 1996 Jacksonville Jaguars were in just their second season of existence. To no one’s surprise, they had gone 4-12 in their first year. To everyone’s surprise, they made a stunning late season push in 1996 to sneak into the playoffs. And to everyone’s shock, Tom Coughlin’s Jags then made it all the way to […]
After a surprise run to the AFC Championship Game in 1995, the Colts had to find a new coach. Ted Marchibroda, who had led this franchise to the postseason in both its Baltimore and Indianapolis iterations, called it a career. The front office tapped offensive coordinator Lindy Infante. While Infante had flamed out in a […]
Jim Kelly came to the Buffalo Bills in 1986, after a brief stint in the defunct United States Football League (USFL) out of college. Kelly’s tenure in Buffalo was the greatest in franchise history. By 1988, the Bills were a perennial contender. They won a historic four straight AFC crowns from 1990-93. Even though they […]
The Houston Oilers came into existence in 1960 with the rest of the old American Football League. They won the first two AFL championships. In the late 1970s, they had the “Luv Ya Blue” teams of Earl Campbell that reached a pair of AFC Championship Games. In the late 1980s and early 1990s there was […]
The 1996 Miami Dolphins were starting a new era in franchise history. The 26-year run of the legendary Don Shula ended after the 1995 season. Shula had won two Super Bowls, five AFC titles and made the playoffs in four of his final six years. But with the great quarterback Dan Marino getting older, the […]