2003–04 NFL playoffs

The National Football League playoffs for the 2003 season began on January 3, 2004. The postseason tournament concluded with the New England Patriots defeating the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII, 32–29, on February 1, at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas.

Beginning with the 2003–04 season, the NFL changed the selection procedures regarding officials for playoffs games. The league suspended the prior practice of assembling "all-star" officiating crews of highly rated individual officials. Instead, the league began using the entire crews that were highest rated during the regular season, preserving familiarity and cohesiveness in the officiating. The "all-star" crews were later resumed, beginning with the 2005–06 Conference Championships.

Participants

National Football League playoffs

The National Football League (NFL) playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Six teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season records, and a tie-breaking procedure exists in the case of equal records. The tournament ends with the Super Bowl, the league's championship game, which matches the two conference champions.

NFL postseason history can be traced to the first NFL Championship Game in 1933, though in the early years, qualification for the game was based solely on regular season records. From 1933 to 1966, the NFL postseason generally only consisted of the NFL Championship Game, pitting the league's two division winners (pending any one-game playoff matches that needed to be held to break ties in the division standings). The NFL playoffs then expanded in 1967, when four teams qualified for the tournament. When the league merged with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970, the playoffs expanded to eight teams. The playoffs were expanded to 10 teams in 1978 and 12 teams since 1990.

Eli Manning

Elisha Nelson Manning (born January 3, 1981), known as Eli Manning, is an American football quarterback for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He is the son of former NFL quarterback Archie Manning and the younger brother of Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning played college football at the University of Mississippi after attending prep school at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. He was drafted as the first overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers and immediately traded to the New York Giants, who in return gave up a package highlighted by fourth overall selection Philip Rivers.

Manning holds Giants franchise records for most passing yards, touchdown passes and completed passes in a career, and the NFL record for most fourth-quarter touchdown passes in a season. He led the Giants to victory in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI, defeating the New England Patriots in both games. Manning was named Most Valuable Player in each Super Bowl, becoming one of only five football players to have two or more Super Bowl MVP rings (Bart Starr and Terry Bradshaw have two, while Joe Montana and Tom Brady have three Super Bowl MVP rings). He is the only quarterback in NFL history to throw for more than 4,900 yards and win the Super Bowl in the same season. Manning is also currently the active iron man for consecutive starts by a quarterback. Often cited as a game manager with statistics significantly lower than his brother Peyton, they each have two Super Bowl rings. Eli is the third quarterback in NFL history with at least 44,000 career yards, 290 touchdowns, four Pro Bowl appearances and two Super Bowl championships, joining John Elway and Tom Brady. Brother Peyton became the fourth quarterback to join the club after winning his second championship in February 2016.