NFL Announces League Will Play All 16 Games
The NFL announced on Tuesday that the week 2 games that were postponed following the tragedy that took place last week will now be played on the weekend of January 5-7 in order to retain a 16-game regular season schedule.
League commissioner Paul Tagliabue felt that it was important for each team to play a full schedule.
“We believe that a full 16-game regular-season schedule is vital to our fans and the integrity of our season,” said Tagliabue.
“Each team needs to be guaranteed the same number of home and away games plus an equal number of divisional games. The NFL Competition
Committee was unanimous on that point.
“We continue to work on keeping six division winners, six Wild Cards and our entire postseason format intact. Several options have been presented to us in recent days that would help us accomplish that. We will review them and make a decision shortly. If we cannot resolve our entire postseason lineup in a satisfactory fashion, we then will go to a system of six division winners and two Wild Card teams for this one season only.
“Meanwhile, we wanted to confirm the 16-game schedule at this point so that our fans and teams could count on a full regular season.”
That means that the Patriots will make up their game against Carolina that weekend.
WEEK OFF HELPED
New England lost several players to injuries that would have kept them out had the Patriots played Carolina last weekend. Instead everyone participated in practice on Tuesday and they should be in good shape this weekend against the Jets.
Posted Under: 2001 Patriots Season
Tags: 2001 NFL Season 2001 Patriots Season New England Patriots Paul Tagliabue
