1986 NFL season
The 1986 NFL season was the league’s 67th regular season. The Chicago Bears and New York Giants both finished 14-2, with the Giants earning the NFC title on tiebreakers. The season concluded with Super Bowl XXI, where the New York Giants beat the Denver Broncos 39–20 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, winning their first league title in 30 years.
Regular season: September 7 to December 22, 1986. Playoffs began December 28, 1986. AFC champions: Denver Broncos. NFC champions: New York Giants. Pro Bowl played on February 1, 1987 at Aloha Stadium.
1986 NFL draft: Held April 29–30 in New York. The first pick was running back Bo Jackson, selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from Auburn.
Officiating notes: Dick Hantak was promoted to referee after eight seasons as a back judge (the position would be called field judge in 1998). Fred Silva suffered a heart attack in the offseason. Chuck Heberling was set to be an instant replay official but remained on the field; Heberling later worked the AFC Championship.
International game: The 1986 season included the only American Bowl game that year, held at Wembley Stadium in London.
Broadcasting: This was the fifth and final year of contracts with ABC, CBS, and NBC for their respective packages. Beginning in 1987, ESPN would broadcast a slate of Sunday night games. ABC moved to a two-man booth with Al Michaels as the play-by-play announcer and Frank Gifford as the main color commentator, with Gifford occasionally calling play-by-play when Michaels was tied up, and Lynn Swann or O. J. Simpson filling in as needed.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 04:08 (CET).