manny... i don't really think that is possible. the superbowl is huge very huge and a lot of the people attending are from out of state etc.. they made flight arrangements etc and have had hotel rooms booked and everything for months if not years... it would cause a lot of trouble for people who spent big bucks already on the superbowl for several reasons.. first off some might not be able to come on a different date which would mean they wasted the thousand or so they spent on tickets.. many of the plane and hotel reservations probably would be nonrefundable meaning the people attending the game would now only have to pay for the hotel and plane t ickets for the new scheduled date but also for the ones they already have set.. additionally the nfl and new orleans i'm sure have spent millions probably on merchandise with the already set date on it.. not too mention tv stations advertising for that date etc... i just think it would probably cause a whole lot of problems if they tried to delay it and cost fans planning on attending thousands of dollars... to get a scope of how big it is.. i remember last year the day the superbowl was anounced it would be in houston in 2004.. people were reportedly already booking hotels.. these reservations have been made for years and will cause huge problems
I don't recall this time period, but perhaps there was a work stoppage or something that caused the playoffs to be shortened in 1981. That's just a guess, though.
From my Football Encyclopedia by Neft & Cohen: 1981 AFC Playoffs: Buffalo 31, NY Jets 27 San Diego 41, Miami 38 Cincinnati 28, Buffalo 21 Cincinnati 27, San Diego 7 1981 NFC Playoffs: NY Giants 27, Philadelphia 21 Dallas 38, Tampa Bay 0 San Francisco 38, NY Giants 24 San Francisco 28, Dallas 27 Super Bowl XVI San Francisco 26, Cincinnati 21 Now in 1982 there was the strike and teams only played 9 regular season games; however, 8 teams from each conference made the playoffs for a total of 16 overall.
It's not just that the Superbowl is such a big deal, which it is, but the city of New Orleans is a HUGE convention town. That place is booked solid just about every week of the year, so there would be too many <i>other</i> events that would have to be rescheduled if the Superbowl was pushed back a week. It all comes down to whether the NFL would make more money with 15 regular season games, or 4 playoff games. Personally, I think they would make more money with 15 regular season games, so they'll probably go with the 16 game schedule and axe the wildcard weekend for a year...
