I wasn’t a early Patriots fan. But they’ve grown on me as the years have passed.
It’s so rare to see a championship dynasty like this. I watched Staubach and the Cowboys in junior high school. That was the first time that I saw a team that was consistently good season after season.
My personal favorite was San Francisco during the Joe Montana era. It was the only time in my life that I rearranged my schedule to be home to see those fantastic regular season games.
The relationship between Tom Brady and Bill Belichick reminds me of Joe Montana and Bill Walsh. The special relationship between coach and quarterback lead to their greatness. Individually these men would have never achieved so much.
Belichick failed miserably Coaching Cleveland. Brady was not appreciated at Michigan. A backup to Brian Griese for two seasons. Brady has excelled under Belichick’s system.
How would you rank the top five NFL teams?
A few candidates
Certainly the Giants during the Lombardi and Landry era fit in there. Maybe the Giants during Bill Parcels tenure?
The Cowboys with Coach Landry and Roger Staubach
San Francisco during the Bill Walsh and Montana era.
Maybe Green Bay with Mike Holmgren and Bret Favre. Holmgren was the 49’s offensive coordinator during their glory days.
I nearly forgot George Seifert took over the 49ers after Walsh left. That makes the 49er era even more incredible. They sustained it with two coaches and even into the Steve Young era.
Five Superbowls between 1981 and 1994. Walsh won three and Seifert won two.
I’d really have a hard time ranking the Patriots much above the 49ers. The 49ers played at the same time as the Giants under Bill Parcels. That was an incredible period for the NFL.
Lombardi’s Packers need to be on the short list. 6 championship game appearances in 8 seasons (1960-1967), with five NFL championships, plus the first two Super Bowls. Ten players from those teams are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as well as Lombardi himself.
Also: the 1970s Steelers: four Super Bowl wins in six seasons. Nine members of those teams are in the Hall, plus coach Chuck Noll.
Another team to at least have in the conversation: the Cleveland Browns of the late '40s and early '50s, with Paul Brown as coach and Otto Graham as QB.
They dominated the AAFC, winning all four of that league’s championships, before being merged into the NFL for 1950. They then won the NFL championship in their first year in the league, and followed that up by appearing in the championship game for the next five seasons, as well (winning twice more).
I could possibly debate order of those four, but I agree that those are very probably the top four teams.
I also think about it in terms of decades, and which was the dominant team in each decade.
1950s: Cleveland Browns
1960s: Green Bay Packers
1970s: Pittsburgh Steelers
1980s: San Francisco 49ers
1990s: Dallas Cowboys (maybe*)
2000s: New England Patriots
The Cowboys won three Super Bowls in four seasons ('92, '93, '95), but then fell apart as their core players aged, and the Jerry Jones / Jimmy Johnson “marriage” soured.
It seems likely, with 3 Super Bowl appearances (and two wins) so far. But, there are still three seasons left to go in the decade, and so, I didn’t want to close that book yet.
Lombardi. I’m aware of what Lombardi did, and why the Lombardi trophy is named what it is.
Packers won 6 NFL championships in 8 years under Lombardi. 13 NFL championships since their founding. No team has won more NFL championships. Super bowls came along decades after the NFL started playing championship games. The first two weren’t even considered big deals, since they were played against the upstart, inferior AFL, by the reigning NFL champion. (said ‘inferior’ status eventually laid to rest by Joe Namath)
Or do you wish to only consider the 5 top NFL teams since the Super Bowl began? A somewhat arbitrary division and a bit short sighted, IMHO (perhaps because I cut my teeth on football before the Superbowl came along), but defensible. If so, the Pack really isn’t in the running for the top 5 spots, having only won 4 Superbowls.
Qadgop the Packerfan, NFL owner (3 shares in the family!)
They won 5 NFL championships in the '60s ('61, '62, '65, '66, '67). They would have won 5 Super Bowls, had they been held then, but the AFL was still too green to matter. Calling their pre-Super Bowl NFL Championships “conference” championships is just revisionist BS.
Sorry, sorry! Pack won 5 titles in 7 years under Lombardi. I misremembered the outcome of the Packers-Eagles 1960 championship game. Had to take my nap during the final quarter, I guess. :o
Can’t easily forget that game and its result: foggy as heck in the fourth quarter. Packers need to score to win. Starr completes a pass to Jim Taylor, and Taylor heads for the goal line. Out of the fog looms Chuck Bednarik, the only Eagle between Taylor and the win. Bednarik wrestles Taylor to the ground, then lays on him until the gun sounds to end the game. Ugh.
I’m going to argue that the Patriots are the least impressive of all the dynasties mentioned so far. The salary cap era has robbed the league of great teams. I don’t think the Patriots have ever beaten anybody that good.
For one thing, their division has been a joke for their entire run. And in the pre-salary cap days, there were always a group of teams talented enough to become dynasties. The Steelers had to contend with Oakland and Miami, both of which were good enough to have won multiple super bowls. They also had to face Dallas twice in the super bowl.
The '80s had some of the greatest teams of all time. The NFC had the 49ers, Giants, Bears, and Redskins. To win a super bowl at that time meant you had to beat one of those teams. What franchises today offer competition like that? Who have the Patriots beaten who were all-time greats?
And of course the NFL constantly changes rules to create more passing. The game is different today to make scoring easier. And now a flag is thrown if you barely touch the receiver or hit the QB too hard. Take the Patriots in a time machine back to the '70s or '80s and they get their asses handed to them.
And finally, they reached their first super bowl in this era because of one of the worst calls in NFL history.
