2011 NFL season 2011 NFL season The 2011 NFL season was the 92nd regular season of the National Football League. It began on Thursday, September 8, 2011, with the Super Bowl XLV champion Green Bay Packers defeating the Super Bowl XLIV champion New Orleans Saints 42–34 at Lambeau Field and ended with Super Bowl XLVI, the league's championship game, on February 5, 2012, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis where the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots 21–17. Due to a labor dispute between league owners and players, a lockout began on March 11 and ended on July 25, lasting 18
Super Bowl III following season, 1969, would be the last one before the AFL-NFL merger. The AFL's Kansas City Chiefs would go on to defeat the NFL's Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. That victory by the AFL squared the Super Bowl series with the NFL at two games apiece before the two leagues merged into one. As part of the merger, the Colts were one of three NFL teams that moved to the newly formed American Football Conference (AFC) with the Jets and the other AFL teams (the other two were the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers, who were first division rivals