NFL 2021-2022 Season

The 102nd NFL season, the first to hold a full 17-game schedule, has officially ended. This football season was an unusual year, which would be an understatement, as the league worked through the coronavirus pandemic for the second consecutive year. COVID-19 outbreaks hit several teams, affecting more than hundreds of players throughout the season.

With a new season comes new regulations, including COVID-19 protocols regarding the health and safety of every team. The league began by encouraging vaccination among each player, coach, and staff member. On July 22nd, 2021, the NFL later issued a warning to teams that if Covid-19 outbreaks developed between unvaccinated players and a game cannot be rescheduled within the 18-week regular-season schedule, the team responsible for the epidemic will be charged with a forfeited loss, as well fine the players $14,650 that violates protocols.

The 2021-2022 NFL playoff tournament began with a late start, as it was pushed back until January 15th, 2022. Rather than 12 teams, the NFL playoffs are now made up of 14 teams- with seven teams from each conference, AFC, and NFC, making the postseason longer than usual. This was the first postseason since 2010-2011. Neither the top-seeded teams advanced to their respective championship games; it was also the first playoffs in which neither Aaron Rodgers nor Tom Brady reached a conference Championship game since 2009-2010.

The postseason was later concluded with Super Bowl LVI (56) on February 13th at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. The game ended with the Rams defeating the Bengals, 23-20.