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AFC teams: West, Central, East

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NFC teams: West, Central, East

The1998 NFL season was the 79thregular season of theNational Football League (NFL). The season culminated withSuper Bowl XXXIII, withthe Denver Broncos defeatingthe Atlanta Falcons 34–19 atPro Player Stadium in Miami. The Broncos had won their first thirteen games, the best start sincethe undefeated 1972 Dolphins, and were tipped by some to have a realistic chance at winning all nineteen games.^[1][2]The Minnesota Vikings became the first team since the1968 Baltimore Colts to win all but one of their regular season games and not win the Super Bowl. After no team had won 14 regular season games sincethe 1992 49ers, three teams went 14–2 or better for the only time in a 16-game season.

The1998 NFL draft was held from April 17 to 18, 1998, atNew York City'sTheater at Madison Square Garden. With the first pick, theIndianapolis Colts selected quarterbackPeyton Manning from theUniversity of Tennessee.

Dale Hamer andGary Lane returned to head linesman and side judge, respectively.Tony Corrente andRon Winter were promoted to referee.

Mike Pereira left the field after two seasons as a side judge to become an assistant supervisor of officials. He succeededJerry Seeman as Vice President of Officiating in2001. Pereira's replacement,Terry McAulay, assumed Pereira's old position and uniform number (77). McAulay was promoted to referee in 2001 and was crew chief for three Super Bowls (XXXIX,XLIII andXLVIII).

• The officiating position titles of back judge and field judge were swapped to become more consistent with college and high school football. The field judge is now 20 yards deep, positioned on the same sideline as the line judge, while the back judge is 25 yards from the line of scrimmage near the center of the field.
• Tinted visors on players' facemasks are banned except for medical need.
• A defensive player can no longer flinch before the snap in an attempt to draw movement from an offensive lineman.
• A team will be penalized immediately for having 12 players in a huddle even if the 12th player goes straight to the sideline as the huddle breaks.
• During the season, the rules regarding the coin toss were changed to where the visiting team must make the call before the coin is tossed instead of while it was in the air. OnThanksgiving, the game between thePittsburgh Steelers andDetroit Lions went to overtime. During the coin toss, Steelers running backJerome Bettis was heard calling "tails" but refereePhil Luckett claimed he said "heads". The coin landed on tails, and the Lions won the toss and eventually the game on aJason Hanson field goal. It was later revealed that Bettis had changed his mind during the call and was originally going to call "heads" but stopped.^[3] Thus, the rule change was adopted to prevent any further confusion.

The 1998 Hall of Fame Class included Paul Krause, Tommy McDonald, Anthony Muñoz, an offensive lineman for the Cincinnati Bengals, Mike Singletary, a member of the Chicago BearsSuper Bowl XX championship team, and Dwight Stephenson, a Pro Bowl offensive lineman with the Miami Dolphins.

This was the first season where the late games kicked off at 4:05 p.m. ET (for those games on the single game network) and 4:15 p.m. ET (for those on the doubleheader network), replacing the original 4:00 p.m. ET start time to give networks more time to finish the early games before the start of the late games. Dallas' Thanksgiving game was also likewise moved from 4:00 to 4:15 ET. The 4:15 start time would last until2011 when kickoff times would be pushed later to give networks even more time between games.

Monday Night Football broadcasts were also pushed back from its 9:00 p.m. ET start time to 8:00 p.m. ET, with the actual kickoffs at 8:20 p.m. to allow for a 20 minute pregame show.

Highlights of the 1998 season included:

• Thanksgiving: Two games were played on Thursday, November 26, featuring thePittsburgh Steelers at theDetroit Lions and theMinnesota Vikings at theDallas Cowboys, with the Lions and Vikings winning. The Steelers-Lions game is notable for going into overtime, where the Steelers'Jerome Bettis called the coin toss in the air, but refereePhil Luckett awarded the Lions the ball after he thought Bettis tried to call both heads and tails at the same time. The Lions went on to kick a field goal on the first possession, winning 19–16. In the other game, Vikings rookie wide receiverRandy Moss caught three touchdowns, all of over 50 yards in a 46–36 win.

• Miami finished ahead of Buffalo in the AFC East based on better net division points (6 to Bills' 0).
• Oakland finished ahead of Seattle in the AFC West based on head-to-head sweep (2–0).
• Carolina finished ahead of St. Louis in the NFC West based on head-to-head sweep (2–0).

* Indicatesovertime victory

• Oakland Raiders –Jon Gruden; replacedJoe Bugel, who was fired after the 1997 season.
• Indianapolis Colts –Jim Mora; replacedLindy Infante, who was fired after the 1997 season.
• Dallas Cowboys –Chan Gailey; replacedBarry Switzer, who resigned after the 1997 season.
• Buffalo Bills –Wade Phillips; replacedMarv Levy, who retired after the 1997 season.

• San Diego Chargers -June Jones; replacedKevin Gilbride, who was fired after Week 6 of the 1998 season.
• Atlanta Falcons -Rich Brooks; served as interim head coach for Weeks 16 and 17 of the 1998 season whileDan Reeves recovered from quadruple bypass surgery.

• Baltimore Ravens: The Ravens moved fromMemorial Stadium toRavens Stadium at Camden Yards
• Buffalo Bills: Rich Stadium was renamedRalph Wilson Stadium after Bills founder and ownerRalph Wilson
• Oakland Raiders: The Oakland Coliseum was renamedNetwork Associates Coliseum after the software companyNetwork Associates acquired the naming rights
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The Buccaneers moved fromHoulihan's Stadium toRaymond James Stadium, withRaymond James Financial acquiring the naming rights
• Tennessee Oilers: The Oilers moved from theLiberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis toVanderbilt Stadium in Nashville

• TheBaltimore Ravens began wearing their white pants instead of black with their white jerseys.
• TheDetroit Lions wore blue pants and silver-topped socks with their white jerseys for this season only.
• TheJacksonville Jaguars removed the black side panels on uniforms.
• TheNew York Jets unveiled a modernized version of the team's classic design and logo used from 1964 to 1977.
• TheSan Diego Chargers returned to navy pants with their white jerseys.
• TheSan Francisco 49ers switched from white to gold pants.

This was the first season thatCBS held the rights to televise AFC games, taking over fromNBC. Meanwhile, this was the first time thatESPN broadcast all of theSunday night games throughout the season (this was also the first season in which ESPN's coverage used theMonday Night Football themes, before reverting to using an original theme in 2001).ABC andFox renewed their rights forMonday Night Football and the NFC package, respectively. All of these networks signed eight-year television contracts through the 2005 season.^[4]

MNF broadcasts were pushed to an 8:00 p.m. ET start time. The actual kickoffs were at 8:20 p.m., preceded by a new pregame show hosted byChris Berman.Frank Gifford was then reassigned as a special contributor to the pregame show, whileBoomer Esiason replaced Gifford in the booth.

Longtime CBS Sports announcerJim Nantz was named as the host of the revivedThe NFL Today pregame show, withMarcus Allen,Brent Jones, andGeorge Seifert withMike Lombardi replacing Seifert by week 13 as analysts. For its new lead broadcast team, CBS hiredGreg Gumbel (who hostedThe NFL Today from 1990-93) andPhil Simms from NBC.Randy Cross also came from NBC, and was paired with longtime CBS Sports announcerVerne Lundquist to form the network's new #2 crew.

Fox hiredCris Collinsworth from NBC to replaceRonnie Lott as one of theFox NFL Sunday analysts.

ESPN hiredPaul Maguire from NBC to joinMike Patrick andJoe Theismann in a three-man booth.

• Football Outsiders 1998 DVOA Ratings and Commentary
• Pro Football Reference.com – 1998

• NFL Record and Fact Book (ISBN 1-932994-36-X)
• NFL History 1991–2000 (Last accessed October 17, 2005)
• Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN 0-06-270174-6)
• Steelers Fever – History of NFL Rules (Last accessed October 17, 2005)

• NFL seasons
• 1998 NFL season
• 1998 in American football

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• Use mdy dates from November 2013