Football: NFL

Ray Lewis, Korey Stringer, the XFL and Sept. 11.

 It began with a Super Bowl that centered on Ray Lewis, who had been charged the previous year with murder and pleaded guilty to obstructing justice. He was voted the MVP of a game the Baltimore Ravens won 34-7 over the New York Giants.

 Then a new league run by the World Wrestling Federation came and went, most remembered for gimmicks and a player who wore "He Hate Me" on the back of his jersey -- and later wound up in the NFL.

 The NFL's usually low-profile officials demanded a huge pay raise and were locked out for their trouble.

 Korey Stringer, one of the Minnesota Vikings' most popular players, died of heatstroke at the beginning of training camp.

 And then came Sept. 11. The terrorist attacks stopped the NFL, something even the assassination of President Kennedy had not done.

 "The last thing we want to do is get on a plane and go to California for a game when all four of those planes that were hijacked were going to California," New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde said. "My suggestion is if they want to play these games, each owner has to travel with his team to the game."

 Games scheduled for the second week of the season were moved to the first weekend of January. That pushed back the playoffs and forced the league to move the Super Bowl from Jan. 27 to Feb. 3 -- but not before protracted negotiations with New Orleans and the National Automobile Dealers Association, which had scheduled its convention for the new Super Bowl week.

 The NFL paid NADA more than $7 million for the inconvenience.

 The 2001 Super Bowl, like the previous two in this era of salary cap-dictated parity, had surprise teams: the Ravens were 8-8 the previous season, the Giants 7-9.

 But Lewis overshadowed the other 105 players on the teams, so much so that at Baltimore's first news conference of Super Bowl week, coach Brian Billick told about 400 reporters not to question Lewis about the court case.

 When someone suggested he was arrogant, Billick replied: "You think I'm arrogant? Very good, I like that."

 Lewis was the star of a title game between two defensive teams and marked by touchdowns on three consecutive plays in the third quarter -- none by the offense. Duane Starks returned an interception for a Baltimore touchdown; the Giants' Ron Dixon returned the ensuing kickoff for a score; and the Ravens' Jermaine Lewis retaliated with another TD return.

 No sooner had that game ended than the XFL began. It was created by the WWF and NBC, which had dropped out in the bidding for the NFL television contract in 1998.

 The XFL got high television ratings the first week, but plummeted every week with its wrestlinglike format -- it told players to wear anything they wanted on their backs. Thus "He Hate Me," a running back for the Las Vegas Outlaws.

 The league folded after the season, but "He Hate Me," aka Rod Smart, carried on and was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles.

 A crackdown on taunting -- something the XFL most definitely would not have done -- was put in place for the 2001 NFL season. League owners also approved a realignment system in which Seattle would move to the NFC, expansion Houston would join the AFC and there would be eight four-team divisions for the 2002 season.

 A huge trade preceded April's draft, with San Diego sending the top pick to Atlanta rather than select quarterback Michael Vick of Virginia Tech. The Falcons took Vick, who mainly languished in a backup role as a rookie.

 Soon after training camps opened, tragedy struck the Vikings. Stringer, a 27-year-old Pro Bowl tackle, collapsed from heatstroke during practice and died the next morning.

 "Korey meant so much to us because he always had that smile on his face," coach Dennis Green said.

 Stringer's widow, Kelci, said she planned to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against the team, but then took part in a November ceremony to retire his number.

 The NFL told teams to re-examine their safety procedures for practices in extreme heat.

 Before the season began, game officials, all part-timers, asked for more money, quadruple in some cases. The league offered to double them, but the officials balked, so the NFL locked them out. Replacements worked the final exhibition games and the first week of the regular season.

 The next day was Sept. 11.

 Commissioner Paul Tagliabue postponed Week 2 and play resumed Sept. 23 with the regular officials back. All was not the same, of course, and patriotism swept through every NFL stadium.

 The Giants were cheered when they took the field in Kansas City, one of the league's most partisan cities. The Jets were cheered in New England, where any team named "New York" is routinely disliked.

 The Redskins didn't worry about cheers, so bad were they in the early going. They started 0-5, leading to speculation that Daniel Snyder, the impulsive owner, might fire new coach Marty Schottenheimer.

 But then the Redskins did what is standard in a wacky season. They won five in a row to get back into playoff contention -- the first such turnaround in NFL history.

 Other teams pulled off surprises of their own.

 Chicago, 5-11 a year ago, clinched a playoff berth in Game 13 and had its first season of double-digit wins in a decade. Linebacker Brian Urlacher emerged as a star in his second season and every bounce seemed to go the Bears' way.

 San Francisco, 6-10 in 2000, also was 10-3 through 13 games and headed to the postseason.

 But Tennessee, one of the AFC favorites, started 0-3 and never recovered. The NFC champion Giants lost one-point games early to St. Louis and Philadelphia and went downhill from there, hovering around .500 even though defensive end Michael Strahan challenged the single-season sacks record.

 Even Baltimore slid back, although it won enough for a good shot at a wild-card playoff spot, the same way it got in last season before winning the Super Bowl. The Ravens were hurt by a season-ending injury in training camp to running back Jamal Lewis. A defense that allowed a record-low 165 points in 2000 was past that mark not long after the midway point of 2001.

 In mid-December came an ugly weekend.

 Cleveland, a much improved team under new coach Butch Davis in its third year back in the league, was trailing Jacksonville 15-10 in the final minute. A a fourth-down completion seemed to give the Browns a first down at the Jaguars 9. Quarterback Tim Couch spiked the ball, but referee Terry McAulay ruled he had been buzzed by the replay booth to review the previous play and nullified the spike.

 Then McAulay ruled that the replay showed the pass was incomplete, essentially giving the Jaguars the victory.

 Players, fans and officials were bombarded from the stands with bottles, most of them plastic and filled, and McAulay took the teams off the field, declaring the game over. Tagliabue, however, ordered the final 48 seconds played and the game resumed a half-hour later.

 The next night in New Orleans, the field was pelted with objects by fans protesting a call against the Saints. That disturbance was quelled in less than a minute by security personnel, some of whom were on hand planning for extra tight security at the Super Bowl.

 Whatever happens, it will be a strange ending to a strange year.