By which I mean, if you could choose any team past or present, which team would you be most hesitant about putting against your current team?
Me, I’m not much of a football historian, but I’d not want the current Steelers to play the most recent Superbowl Steelers. It would be just too crushing morale-wise and psychologically.
My current team? Christ, I’d be worried about putting last year’s Lions against my Brownies this year.
But I’d have to go with the '94 49ers. They put together a fantastic defense to go along with the fantastic offenses of the 80’s teams.
I think the Lions are afraid of a football.
Boozahol, I haven’t seen a lot of the Browns games this year, but I think it’s still safe to say that the Browns would beat the Lions of last year.
The current Steelers are their own worst enemy but with their Swiss cheese secondary I’d rather avoid RoboPeyton from any year.
I don’t think this years Cardinals would do too well against some of those Super Bowl Cowboys teams from the early 1990s. I think the Cards would look too much like those Bills teams the Cowboys destroyed.
2007 Pats. All the other historic superteams had brilliant defenses and good or very good offenses… so you’d lose, but you wouldn’t get blown out.
Yeah, I’d have to go with the '07 Pats.
I’d like to see the '07 Pats play the '85 Bears, though. Unstoppable force/immovable object.
I remember the Bears in '85! Wasn’t that the Refrigerator Years?
Well, '85 was just one year, but yes.
It’d be kind of fun to watch the '86 bears against the '00 Ravens. Or maybe the '98 Vikings or '99 Rams againts the '07 Patriots, although the former would be somewhat contradictory…
1984 49ers and 1985 Bears. Back-to-back 18-1 Super Bowl Champs, both of which would beat the living tar out of the 2007 Pats.
Isn’t the OP asking which of your favorite teams past teams would you least like to see play it’s current incarnation?
Depends on which years officials are running things though. How bad can you mug Brady and his wideouts?
No, that was just the OP’s own choice. That said, I think the 2002 Buccaneers are pretty obviously the best Bucs team ever, and the defense led the league in total defense, scoring defense and takeaways.
As a Chargers fan, I’m gonna go with the mid-90s Cowboys. The Bolts biggest weakness right now is stopping a power run game… enter, Emmitt Smith and the best O-Line in NFL history. We could put some points on the board, but their D would be good enough to hold us in the teens while their O was busy dominating time of possession.
Plus, of course, their Offensive Coordinator would have an uncanny ability to ferret out everything our Head Coach was trying to do.
Get it? Norv Turner vs. Norv Turner. Ha! I kill myself. 
Pbbt. …during the Refrigerator Years.
It wouldn’t be the SDMB without somebody nitpicking. But yes, that was his rookie year.