The 2003 season was a variation on the NFL's favorite phrase, "on any given Sunday." This was any given season.
Last year's outs were this year's ins and vice versa.
When the playoffs start Jan. 3, at least eight of the 12 qualifiers will be teams that didn't make it last season. Among them will be the Dallas Cowboys, 5-11 for three straight years, but revived by Bill Parcells in his first season as their coach.
There also have been some rare individual performances.
Baltimore's Jamal Lewis set a single-game rushing record with 295 yards against Cleveland on Sept. 14, then got 205 more against the Browns on Dec. 21.
So he headed into the final week needing just 48 yards to become the fifth player to run for 2,000 in a season. He also was just 153 yards away from Eric Dickerson's record of 2,105, set in 1984.
Peyton Manning of Indianapolis, meanwhile, threw for six touchdowns against New Orleans on Sept. 28 , then five against Atlanta on Dec. 14. That made him just the fifth quarterback since 1970 to have five or more TD passes in a game twice in one season, joining Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, Warren Moon and Dan Fouts.
Washington's Bruce Smith, at age 40, broke the record he stayed around for: Reggie White's career sacks mark. He got his 199th against the New York Giants on Dec. 7.
And Arizona's Anquan Boldin, a second-round pick chosen 54th overall, broke Terry Glenn's seven-year-old rookie receiving record of 91 and had a good shot at 100.
Boldin and Arizona, of course, won't be in the playoffs; the Cardinals have been there only once in 22 seasons.
But Manning will be there and Lewis was on the verge. The Ravens needed a win in their final game to make the playoffs after missing out last season.
Among those on the outside will be Tampa Bay and Oakland, last year's Super Bowl participants.
The Bucs, who won the championship game 48-21, needed a win Sunday just to finish 8-8. The Raiders were 4-11 after 15 weeks, victims of advancing age and the injuries that go with it.
Tampa Bay couldn't win two straight games until December and was hurt by internal strife. Because of differences with coach Jon Gruden, unhappy wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson was deactivated for the season with six games left.
There was early controversy involving an outsider, conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, hired by ESPN for its pregame show. In the third week of the season, Limbaugh declared that Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb, who struggled early, was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.
After an intensely negative reaction, from US senators on down, Limbaugh resigned. McNabb led the Eagles to nine straight wins and into the playoffs and was voted to the Pro Bowl.
This season's dominant teams were no strangers to the top.
St. Louis and New England, who contested the Super Bowl following the 2001 season then missed the playoffs last year, led their conferences going into the final week.
The Patriots, who won that Super Bowl, overcame a host of injuries to go 13-2 as coach Bill Belichick juggled players to fill gaps and got major production from six rookies.
Kurt Warner, the Rams' quarterback in their two previous Super Bowls, suffered a concussion in the team's opener, a loss to the New York Giants. He was replaced by Marc Bulger, who led the team to 12 wins and Warner never got his job back.
Of last season's playoff teams, the only repeaters were Indianapolis, Tennessee and Philadelphia -- with Green Bay a win away from ensuring it would return entering the final week.
Atlanta and the New York Jets were effectively eliminated in the exhibition season when they lost their quarterbacks: The Falcons' Michael Vick broke his leg and the Jets' Chad Pennington broke his left wrist.
The Falcons' collapse cost coach Dan Reeves his job. Jim Fassel of the Giants, another 2002 playoff team, was fired with two games to go, although he stayed on to finish out a dismal season.
The other 2002 playoff teams to miss out were Pittsburgh, Cleveland and San Francisco, the 49ers without coach Steve Mariucci, who was hired by Detroit. But Mariucci couldn't keep the Lions from setting an NFL record with 24 consecutive road losses, three full season's worth.
Three of this season's turnaround teams were Dallas, Carolina and Cincinnati.
Parcells was hired in January by Jerry Jones, who finally realized he needed the strong coach the team hadn't had since Jimmy Johnson left a decade ago.
The Cowboys did it without Emmitt Smith, released in a salary cap move after 13 seasons in which he set the career rushing record. He signed with Arizona but was hurt for a good part of the season.
Otherwise, the Cowboys' roster was basically the same as the one that lost 11 games a year ago. The emergence of quarterback Quincy Carter was a major factor in their improvement.
The Panthers, under John Fox, won the NFC South two seasons after finishing 1-15. They were led by running back Stephen Davis, released before the season by Washington, plus a stout defense led by linemen Kris Jenkins and Michael Rucker.
The Bengals, under Marvin Lewis, were at 8-7 heading into the final week, with a chance to have their first winning season since 1990 and an outside shot at the AFC North title. Lewis not only turned around a team that was 2-14 a year ago, but was the de facto general manager as team president Mike Brown stepped back.
Lewis became the third black coach in the league -- there have never been more than that.
But with the prospect of a half-dozen or more vacancies, there appeared to be a good chance for at least four next season, especially with stricter interviewing guidelines in place. Detroit president Matt Millen was fined US$200,000 because he didn't follow the league's minority hiring policy when he chose Mariucci.
And of course, players came up with creative ways to celebrate.
After scoring a touchdown in a game against the Giants, New Orleans' Joe Horn pulled out a cell phone and started dialing. On the same Sunday, Cincinnati's Chad Johnson held up a sign that read: "Dear NFL: Please don't fine me again."
It did.
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