Short answers, pulled from the story.
The 1990 NFL season marked the first time since 1966 that teams played a bye week. This change stretched the traditional 16-game schedule across 17 weeks to generate more revenue for all franchises.
Paul Tagliabue entered his first full year as commissioner after taking over mid-season from Pete Rozelle the previous year. On October 8, the league announced that the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award would be renamed the Pete Rozelle Trophy.
Elvis Patterson signed with the Los Angeles Raiders on the 2nd of April 1990 as a Plan B free agent while Jeff George went first overall to the Indianapolis Colts in the 1990 NFL draft. Emmitt Smith went seventeenth overall to the Dallas Cowboys before retiring as the league's all-time leading rusher.
The number of officiating crews dropped from sixteen in 1989 to fifteen in 1990 to match weekly game loads. Dick Jorgensen died five months later on October 10 prompting officials to wear black armbands bearing the white number 60 throughout the rest of the season.
Four American Bowl exhibition matches took place outside the United States during August 1990 including games at Tokyo Dome, Wembley Stadium in London, Olympic Stadium in Montreal, and Olympiastadion in West Berlin.