2001 NFL season The 2001 NFL season was the 82nd regular season of the National Football League . Following a pattern set in 1999 , the first week of the season was permanently moved to the weekend following Labor Day . With Super Bowls XXXVI - XXXVII already scheduled for fixed dates , the league initially decided to eliminate the Super Bowl bye weeks for those two years to adjust . In the wake of the September 11 attacks , the games for September 16 – September 17 were postponed and re - scheduled to the weekend of January 6 – January 7 . In order to retain the full playoff format , all playoff games , including the Super Bowl were re - scheduled one week later . The season - ending Pro Bowl was also moved to one week later . This was the last season in which each conference had 3 divisions , as the conferences were realigned to 4 divisions for the 2002 NFL Season . Canceling the games scheduled for Sept . 16 – 17 was considered and rejected . That would have canceled a home game for half the teams of the league , and also would have resulted in an unequal number of games played ( Sept . 16 – 17 was to have been a bye for San Diego , so that team would still have played 16 games that season and each of the other teams would have played only 15 games ) . As a result of rescheduling Week 2 as Week 17 , the ESPN Sunday Night Football game for that week was changed . It was originally scheduled to be Cleveland at Pittsburgh , but it was replaced with Philadelphia at Tampa Bay , which was seen as a more interesting matchup ( it was the only night game the Browns had on the schedule , whereas the Steelers had a few others ; so 2000 and 2001 marked the first back - to - back seasons for the Browns without a primetime game since 1974 - 76 ; the Browns would finally play in Heinz Field at night in 2003 ) . Ironically , the Eagles and the Buccaneers would both rest their starters that night , and they would meet one week later in the playoffs . In recognition of this , when NBC began airing Sunday Night Football in 2006 , there would be " no " game initially scheduled for weeks 10 - 15 and 17 - a game initially scheduled in the afternoon would be moved to the primetime slot , without stripping any teams of a primetime appearance . This way of " flexible scheduling " would not be utilized at all in 2007 , and since 2008 , it is only utilized in the final week . The games that eventually made up Week 17 marked the latest regular season games to be played during what is traditionally defined as " NFL season " ( under the current format , the regular season cannot end later than January 3 in any given year ) . Also , this was the only NFL season where every jersey had a patch to remember those to die in 9 / 11 , and the NY Jets and NY Giants wore a patch to remember the fire fighters who died . The season ended with Super Bowl XXXVI when the New England Patriots defeated the St . Louis Rams . Final regular season standings . " W = Wins , L = Losses , T = Ties , PCT = Winning Percentage , PF = Points For , PA = Points Against " " Clinched playoff seeds are marked in parentheses and shaded in green " Milestones . The following teams and players set all - time NFL records during the season :