The 1975 NFL season was the 56th regular season of the National Football League. Instead of a traditional Thanksgiving Day game hosted by the Dallas Cowboys, the league scheduled a Buffalo Bills at St. Louis Cardinals contest. This was the first season since that the Cowboys did not play on that holiday. The playoff format was changed so that the division champions with the best regular season records were made the home teams for the divisional round, with the division champion advancing to the conference championship game with the best record hosting the title game. Previously, game sites rotated by division. The caveat stipulating that a wild card team cannot face its own division champion in the divisional round was kept in force. The season ended with Super Bowl X when the Pittsburgh Steelers repeated as champions by defeating the Dallas Cowboys 21–17 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

Draft

The 1975 NFL draft was held from January 28 to 29, 1975, at New York City's Hilton at Rockefeller Center. With the first pick, the Atlanta Falcons selected quarterback Steve Bartkowski from the University of California.

New officials

Jerry Seeman, who would go on to serve as referee for Super Bowl XXIII and Super Bowl XXV before a 10-year tenure as the NFL's Director of Officiating from 1991 to 2001, was hired as a line judge. Fred Swearingen, the referee in the 1972 Raiders-Steelers playoff game which produced the Immaculate Reception, was demoted to his former position, field judge (now back judge). Gene Barth, the line judge on Jim Tunney's crew the previous four seasons, was promoted.

Major rule changes

Division races

Starting in 1970, through 2001, there were three divisions (Eastern, Central and Western) in each conference. The winners of each division, and a fourth "wild card" team based on the best non-division winner, qualified for the playoffs. The tiebreaker rules were changed to start with head-to-head competition, followed by division records, records against common records, and records in conference play.

National Football Conference

American Football Conference

Final standings

Tiebreakers

Playoffs

Awards

Coaching changes

Offseason

In-season

Stadium changes

Uniform changes

Television

This was the second year under the league's four-year broadcast contracts with ABC, CBS, and NBC to televise Monday Night Football, the NFC package, and the AFC package, respectively. CBS restored The NFL Today title for its pregame show. Brent Musburger was named as its new host, former player Irv Cross as an analyst, and former Miss America Phyllis George as one of its reporters. NBC's pregame show GrandStand made its debut, hosted by Jack Buck (who had left CBS after the previous season) and Bryant Gumbel.