September 19: The Philadelphia Eagles sign Wide Receiver Roy Green.[4]
September 21: The Pittsburgh Steelers sign quarterback Rick Strom.[4]
September 21: The San Diego Chargers sign Wide Receiver Yancey Thigpen.[4]
September 26 : The San Francisco 49ers sign Defensive End Jim Burt.[4]
Trades
July 22: The Atlanta Falcons traded Defensive Tackle Tony Casillas to the Dallas Cowboys.[5]
August 14: The Los Angeles Raiders traded Vencie Glenn to the New Orleans Saints[6]
August 19: The New Orleans Saints traded Robert Massey to the Phoenix Cardinals [6]
August 21: The New Orleans Saints traded wide receiver Brett Perriman to the Detroit Lions [6]
August 27: The Green Bay Packers traded kicker Brad Daluiso to the Atlanta Falcons [6]
August 27: The Los Angeles Raiders traded quarterback Steve Beuerlein to the Dallas Cowboys[6]
August 28: The Chargers traded quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver to the Atlanta Falcons[6]
September 11: The Seattle Seahawks traded kicker Norm Johnson to the Atlanta Falcons.
Retirements
Four-time Super Bowl champion Mike Webster announced his retirement on March 11, 1991, after a 17-year career with a total of 245 games played at center.[7]
Art McNally resigned as the league's Director of Officiating during the offseason. He had held the position since 1968.[8] Longtime NFL referee Jerry Seeman, who worked the previous season's Super Bowl XXV, was named as McNally's replacement.[9]
Jim Tunney retired after 31 years as an NFL official. He remains the only referee to have worked consecutive Super Bowls (XI, and XII).
Gene Barth died on October 11, 1991.[10] For the remainder of the 1991 season, NFL officials wore a black armband on their left sleeve with the white number 14 to honor him.
Source: Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League (ISBN0-06-270174-6). pp 1583–1592.
The definition of a drop kick, field goal, and punt is modified: all three can only be attempted from behind the line of scrimmage.
If a foul by a player causes an injury to an opponent, a team time out will not be charged to the penalized team anytime during the game instead of only during the last two minutes of a half/overtime.
The game clock will not start until the next snap following any change of possession, even if the player went out of bounds.
Officials will immediately blow the play dead when a defensive player is offsides before the snap and clearly rushes beyond the offensive line in such a way that he becomes an unabated threat to the quarterback.
A touchback will be ruled when a player fumbles the ball in the field of play and it goes out of bounds in the opponent's end zone.
A touchback, not a safety, will also be ruled when a player fumbles the ball in his own end zone and the opponent is the one that knocks the fumble out of bounds in the end zone.
An offensive player cannot deliberately bat a backward pass forward.
Paul Brown: Brown died on August 5, 1991, at home of complications from pneumonia. A longtime coach of the Cleveland Browns and co-founder of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1968, also serving as their first coach, Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967.
N.Y. Jets finished ahead of Miami in the AFC East based on head-to-head sweep (2–0).
Chicago was the first NFC Wild Card based on better conference record than Dallas (9–3 to Cowboys' 8–4).
Atlanta finished ahead of San Francisco in the NFC West based on head-to-head sweep (2–0), and was the third NFC Wild Card ahead of Philadelphia based on better conference record (7–5 to Eagles' 6–6).
October 21: James Lofton became the oldest player to record 200 yards receiving as well as 200 yards from scrimmage in a game (35 years, 108 days), as the Buffalo Bills defeated the Cincinnati Bengals by a 35–16 final.
The NFL shield was added to the yoke of the jerseys and the left thigh of the pants. The NFL shield was also added to the right breast of the officiating uniforms.
The Washington Redskins switched from big block numbers to skinnier font size numbers.
The San Francisco 49ers removed the white stripes on its red socks, making them solid red.
Just before the start of training camp, owner Eddie DeBartolo unveiled a new helmet logo with "49ers" in a modern font, replacing the interlocking "SF" which had been on the team's helmets since 1962. After severe fan backlash, DeBartolo reversed course two days later.
Television
This was the second year under the league's four-year broadcast contracts with ABC, CBS, NBC, TNT, and ESPN. ABC, CBS, and NBC continued to televise Monday Night Football, the NFC package, the AFC package, respectively. Sunday night games aired on TNT during the first half of the season, and ESPN during the second half of the season.[11]
