I see no problem with having Jared Allen. He’s a beast of a player that tends to disappear at times, and then take over games with no warning.
I ran across this is my vain attempt to put off having to deal with the fact we’re in the offseason. It’s the “ultimate” rankings of all 32 franchises in the NFL, from best to worst. It is the kind of stupid article sportswriters write when they’re desperate. Here’s how the NFC North teams ranked:
#1. Green Bay Packers: The Lombardi Trophy is back in TitleTown, USA. The Packers won their fourth Super Bowl Sunday night. They also have a storied history, lunatic fans, a rebuilt shrine to football and a leadership in Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy that is far from finished winning titles. Oh, and they have the next great passer in Aaron Rodgers. Do the Packers ever run short in that category?
#5. Chicago Bears: Loads of history. Great players. Great coaches. Fantastic fans. But they have no Super Bowl victories since 1985. That hurts. Even so, this is a storied franchise that will always seem to be near the top of these rankings. Their pre-Super history is loaded with successes.
#21. Minnesota Vikings: Their next Super Bowl victory will be their first. They haven’t been there since the 1970s and have never won a title in their 50 seasons. They also play in a bad stadium that has to be replaced. The fan base is strong. Owner Zygi Wilf seems to care, but he’s made some strange decisions (see babying Brett Favre).
#32. Detroit Lions: The Lions haven’t been to the playoffs since 1999, haven’t won a playoff games since 1991 and haven’t won a championship since 1957. That’s big-time droughts for all three. They do have a nice, new stadium and an ownership that seems to care. They also have tradition on their side and a solid, long-suffering, fan base.
There is no way the Lions, with their history, is worse than the Jags, Carolina, Bengals, and Texans. The Vikings are about right. But he has the Broncos above the Colts and Eagles, which is just insane.
At least he got the best franchise in the NFL right.
Forgot the link.
I tell you, it’s awesome being a Lions fan.
Well, you don’t have to concern yourself with the “could this be our year?” questions leading up to the season…
Not sure why you’re so down on the Broncos. They have 2 Super Bowls and have been in 6 of them. That alone ought to be enough to blow the Eagles and Colts out of the water. They had Elway a hell of a fan base and a quality stadium. The last few years have been trouble some, but the Broncos are perhaps the premiere franchise in the AFC behind the Steelers. I’m not sure how heavily you want to favor recent success versus past success, but I think you can make a hell of a case for the Broncos over the Pats. The Eagles are the team that looks like it’s about a mile too high for me. What have they every actually won? They have an all time record that barely better than the Lions. The Eagles history of great players is pretty shallow, and their best player won his ring and maybe had more success in Green Bay.
Yeah, because those questions aren’t fun to mull over. Instead, the talk is “Can we make it to 8-8?” Sports radio these days are mulling over the possibility of the Lion making the playoffs next year, which seems extremely premature to me, but they’re trying to drum up conversation.
The 1960 NFL Championship, giving Lombardi’s Packers their only postseason loss. 
(And, yes, I’m being a little sarcastic…)
This is a little late but the ESPN.com NFC North blogger and all around dipshit Kevin Seifert trotted out his version of his All NFC North Team a few days after we did. His results aren’t wildly different but I figured I’d post it as an excuse to talk about football a little bit more.
Ah, Kevin “All Vikings, All the Time” Seifert. The downfall of the Vikings makes him have to talk about other teams, which is nice.
The Arizona Cardinals should have been #32 in the all-time rankings - a founding NFL team, and what do they have to show for it?
Very true. Two NFL championships (the most recent in 1947), one Super Bowl appearance, and only 6 playoff appearances in the Super Bowl era. Save for the Super Bowl appearance, they even make the Lions look like relative successes.
Can’t we have something? We can’t even win at sucking.
I dunno, given your one playoff win in over 40 years, I wouldn’t say it sp clear cut that the Cardinals should be #32.
RIP Double D
Key member of that great 85 defense… a good guy and a man among men. DOuble D was to me a great example as a kid. Graduated Notre Dame with a degree in a real major… (econ) articluate and insightful in interviews. Hit like a ton and played with his head as well. Successful in his post football life… RIP number 22#…
BTW Robbie Gould is the best kicker in the NFC north… hands down…
Thank you! Recognition we deserve!
I hate football.
I’ve been following that story off and on, and it’s sad, bizarre, scary, and fascinating all at once. The method of his death, as well as his … deterioration in life, is sad, but I’m now paying a lot more attention to the brain injury issue in the NFL. It’s something I’ll actually be reading up on.
It’ll be interesting to see where it goes. I’m not ready to jump to a conclusion that he had this disease and that it caused his death and/or the failures at the end of his life. I’m certainly not knowledgeable about all the details and I wasn’t keeping up with DD’s life but I can see a scenario where DD fell on hard times due to poor financial decisions and a failing economy and simply took the easy way out. It’s possible he felt like a victim and that he wanted to place blame on something outside of his control and due to the media attention on concussions and this disease it was an easy scapegoat. We’ll see.
I’m not so interested in DD’s story (and I want to avoid a discussionof suicide), but rather the effects of having more people, especially more players, becoming more knowledgable about the long term effects of head/brain injuries. I can see less and less parents letting their kids play, more athletes choosing different sports, and more money going to long term care for ex players. It will be interesting.
I think there’ll be a leap forward in helmet technology that renders it all mostly moot going forward. Helmets are way too hard and too easy to use as weapons. Softer shells and gel interiors that are less affected by the cold, something like that.