We won it before it was cool, man! They sold out with the Super Bowl!
Let's look at the list of official Super Bowl wins and appearances. This is what most people are familiar with today:
Pittsburgh Steelers: 6 wins in 8 appearances
Dallas Cowboys: 5 wins in 8 appearances
San Francisco 49ers: 5 wins in 6 appearances
Green Bay Packers, New York Giants: 4 wins in 5 appearances
New England Patriots: 3 wins in 7 appearances
Oakland-Los Angeles Raiders, Washington Redskins: 3 wins in 5 appearances
Denver Broncos: 2 wins in 7 appearances
Miami Dolphins: 2 wins in 5 appearances
Indianapolis-Baltimore Colts: 2 wins in 4 appearances
Baltimore Ravens: 2 wins in 2 appearances
St. Louis-Los Angeles Rams: 1 win in 3 appearances
Chicago Bears, Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs: 1 win in 2 appearances
New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints: 1 win in 1 appearance
Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings: 0 wins in 4 appearances
Philadelphia Eagles, Cincinnati Bengals: 0 wins in 2 appearances
Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals, San Diego Chargers: 0 wins in 1 appearance
It's true that only counting Super Bowl wins and appearances can be a bit misleading. It benefits teams that were good only after the Super Bowl came into being, especially if they didn't even exist before it started. Baltimore the new (with the Ravens only) has won two Super Bowls since its inception in 1996, while the franchise it destroyed, Cleveland, has never even made it. Painful. Furthermore, if you look at the years right before the Super Bowl, there were some teams like the Browns that were awesome and now they don't get to be on that list. The Steelers have been around since before WWII, but they only had real success after 1970. Now we think of them as one of the best franchises. You can also apply this to the Redskins and 49ers, and somewhat the Giants, who have all been around a very long time but were sometimes bad for long stretches. The Cowboys, Patriots, Broncos, Raiders, Bills, and Vikings didn't even exist until 1960, but they've been in the Super Bowl a lot, so we think of them as the great franchises.
On the other hand, maybe it's not such a great idea to put teams of the past in with teams of the present. Football has changed dramatically since the 1920's. It barely even resembles the game of old sometimes. It's way more popular, competitive, high-scoring, pass-oriented, with players who are incredibly bigger and faster then they ever were. It's gone from small town teams to the most billion dollar franchises in all of American sports. I don't know if we should think of the past championships in the same light.
Let's look at how the league developed in terms of teams, which may give you a little history lesson...
The Raw Beginnings: 1920-1937
Pro football was barely a sport at this point. It was rough and disorganized and no one made a lot of money. College football was much, much, much more popular. There were a number of leagues all trying to compete, and the NFL had teams in towns like Hammond, Akron, Racine, LaRue, Kenosha, Rock Island, and Duluth. Can you guess which states some of those are in? The Bears, Packers, and Redskins were around and did pretty well, but I don't know if that's worth much. Do you know or care that the Providence Steam Rollers won the 1928 title? Probably not. Let's move ahead.
The War Era: 1938-1949
Out of all those teams from the very nascent era of pro football, 10 made it past 1938, and 9 of those are still around today. The league actually had some stability in this era, despite the war years that forced some teams to suspend play or join together (STEAGLES!!!). The same 10 teams lasted all throughout, which is pretty amazing considering all the early turmoil: Packers, Bears, Redskins, Giants, Eagles, Steelers, Cardinals, Lions, Rams, and one franchise that didn't make it - the Brooklyn Dodgers, who eventually became the Boston Yanks, then New York Yanks, then moved a few times and folded. (Yes, football teams often stole their names from baseball teams back then. Did you know the Steelers were originally called the Pirates? They wore an onion on their belts, which was the style at the time. Wait, I'm rambling.)
I don't know if I would count this era either. The league was really depleted during the war. The years after, it got better, but it faced competition from a rival league called the AAFC, which existed from 1946 to 1949. College football was still way more popular. The NFL was catching up, but still, I don't know if anyone really wants to bring up this era. Let's move on again. (And yes, I know this discounts the two titles that the Eagles won in '48 and '49. Sorry, Steve van Buren and Greasy Neale.)
Pro Football Grows: 1950-1960
In the 50's, the NFL started to catch up with college football. Those 10 teams moved on. The Dodgers/Yanks eventually folded, but some of their players were given to a new team in 1953, the Baltimore Colts. After 1949, the AAFC folded, and two of its teams joined the NFL: the Cleveland Browns and the San Francisco 49ers. Throughout the 50's, the NFL had 12 teams in two divisions and a championship game that became more and more popular. The 1958 title game between the Colts and Giants has been widely hailed as one of the most important games to help popularize the NFL in this time. The dominant teams in this era were the Browns and Lions. They played for the title in 1954. What are the odds of THAT ever happening again?
Football was still a long way away from where it is now, but it was getting modernized. I'll keep this era i n mind.
Two Leagues Before They Met: 1960-1965
In 1960 and 1961, the NFL added two more teams in the Vikings and Cowboys, to get up to 14 teams. But they were once again challenged by another pro league, and this time, a rival league had some real strength. The American Football League started in 1960 with 8 teams - Broncos, Bills, Chargers, Chiefs, Jets, Raiders, Patriots, and Oilers. (Later on they added the Dolphins and Bengals.) The AFL was better and had more funding than any other league that had tried to face the NFL before. The NFL initially scoffed at the new league, but it gained momentum. Eventually, the NFL and AFL decided to have a game where the league winners met, and that's how the Super Bowl was born.
This makes counting titles in the early 1960's the same as the Super Bowl tricky. The NFL was getting more popular, football started to beat out baseball in the ratings, and the addition of the new league created a rivalry. The AFL also meant, however, that talent was spread out between more teams, and each league only faced itself. The NFL had 14 teams (the addition of the Falcons and Saints made it 16, but that came after the Super Bowl started). The AFL had 8 teams from 1960-65. Compare that with the Super Bowl winners from 1968 on, which had at least 24 teams to overcome. It's not quite the same feat.
So, How Do We Compare?
Here's what I'd like to try: what if we awarded pre-Super Bowl titles like conference championships? From 1950-1965, there was only one playoff game in the NFL, the title game. The AFL also only had one in its brief time before the Super Bowl. After 1966, the NFL had a divisional game, then the NFL title game, then the Super Bowl. From that point until now, any team would have to win at least 3 games in the playoffs to win a Super Bowl. So, I think it would be fair if we awarded teams who made the Super Bowl in the new era the same amount as those who won their own league before it. It is much tougher with double (or more) the amount of teams and playoff games.
We already have the Super Bowl standings. I'm not going to contest those. Let's see what happens if we count all the titles from 1950-1965 for the NFL and AFL like conference championships. Here is the tally of conference championships won from 1950-present with this system in place:
Steelers, Cowboys, Packers: 8
Patriots, Broncos: 7
49ers, Giants, Colts, Bills: 6
Raiders, Redskins, Dolphins: 5
Vikings, Browns, Rams: 4
Bears, Eagles, Oilers-Titans, Chiefs, Lions: 3
Bengals, Ravens, Seahawks, Chargers: 2
Saints, Bucs, Panthers, Cardinals, Falcons, Jets: 1
I think this is a bit more fair. It shows us a little more about teams that had success before or after the Super Bowl. The Browns and Lions have the most to gain using this comparison, obviously, but the Packers and Colts increased their already good numbers.
"But," you say, "that only compares conference championships. That doesn't account for who actually WON the Super Bowl." True. It doesn't. Since I equated championships in the pre-Super Bowl era with just making the Super Bowl in the post era, maybe I should create an adjusted score to account for Super Bowl winners. So let's count pre-SB titles and post-SB conference championships as 1 point, and then give another point to the teams that also won a Super Bowl. Here are the adjusted numbers for that:
Steelers: 14 points
Cowboys: 13
Packers: 12
49ers: 11
Patriots, Giants: 10
Broncos: 9
Raiders, Redskins, Colts: 8
Dolphins: 7
Bills: 6
Rams: 5
Vikings, Browns, Bears, Chiefs, Ravens: 4
Eagles, Oilers-Titans, Lions, Seahawks: 3
Saints, Bucs, Jets, Bengals, Chargers: 2
Panthers, Cardinals, Falcons: 1
That might be better. I also thought about making the Super Bowl worth .5 points or maybe .7 points but I don't know if that helps. I'm sure the Bills would trade all their appearances for the one Super Bowl win that the Bucs and Saints had. You can do the math with different variables if you want, but....
Does It Really Matter?
Look, I don't know if going back really far helps anyone but historians and the most intense of fans. Sports change so much. We look at baseball the same way because it hasn't changed too much from a basic outlook in 100 years. The major leagues had pretty much the same 16 teams from 1905-1960, and they're still around. But now, they've expanded to almost double that size, they've become more diverse, they have free agency, they have more playoffs, and it's not the only pro sport. Do you really care how many series you won before 1950? 1970? Unless you're a Yankees or Cardinals fan (or a Cubs fan, for the opposite reason), it might not matter that much to you.
The NBA has been around in some form since a little before 1950, but most writers agree it didn't really take off until 1980, and it has changed in big ways since those times. Its popularity has soared, especially in the numbers of kids playing it. In the 50's and 60's there were only a few teams, only a few seven footers, and the teams often had racial restrictions. It can't even compare to now.
The NHL had a grand total of 6 - SIX!!! - teams from 1942 until 1966. They have 30 now. That's a difference.
I already went over how much the NFL has changed. The 40's and 50's were a far cry from what we have now. Even the 60's and the early Super Bowl games did not quite resemble the game of today. The rise of the NFL to the most popular league in America, the changes in offense, the advent of free agency and the salary cap, the growth of players... all of this makes it hard to really compare eras. I for one don't really give much thought to anything that I wasn't born for. Can you really be proud of a team for winning Super Bowls that you didn't even see? It's nice to have history, but getting caught up in the past before your own time seems pointless.
I know people will say that I do this as an Eagles fan, but really, shouldn't we all just be concerned with what we've actually rooted for? I wish I could have seen those early 80's Sixers teams with Dr. J, but I didn't, and they don't mean a whole lot to me. Cowboys, Redskins, and Giants fans like to tease us for the lack of Super Bowl wins, and the Giants have two recently that I can't argue with. But I don't remember any of those Joe Gibbs titles, COOCH, and I really don't feel scared about any more soon with The Daniel in charge. I do remember the Cowboys winning in the 90's, but since I really started paying attention to football, they've had one title and a whole lotta Romoceptions. Steeler fans have also done this, and with two titles last decade, they sure can. But I don't need to hear any more stories about the Steel Curtain. That was a great team; that was also 40 years ago.
So maybe this will answer some questions and give some insight on what the Super Bowl records mean and how they match up with history. You can look at it, you can ignore it, but if you wondered what it meant, here it is.
(From pro football reference - the winners from 1950-1966):
| 1965 | NFL | AFL | Green Bay Packers (NFL,10-3-1), Buffalo Bills (AFL,10-3-1) |
| 1964 | NFL | AFL | Cleveland Browns (NFL,10-3-1), Buffalo Bills (AFL,12-2) |
| 1963 | NFL | AFL | Chicago Bears (NFL,11-1-2), San Diego Chargers (AFL,11-3) |
| 1962 | NFL | AFL | Green Bay Packers (NFL,13-1), Dallas (Chiefs) (AFL,11-3) |
| 1961 | NFL | AFL | Green Bay Packers (NFL,11-3), Houston Oilers (AFL,10-3-1) |
| 1960 | NFL | AFL | Philadelphia Eagles (NFL,10-2), Houston Oilers (AFL,10-4) |
| 1959 | NFL | Baltimore Colts (NFL,9-3) | |
| 1958 | NFL | Baltimore Colts (NFL,9-3) | |
| 1957 | NFL | Detroit Lions (NFL,8-4) | |
| 1956 | NFL | New York Giants (NFL,8-3-1) | |
| 1955 | NFL | Cleveland Browns (NFL,9-2-1) | |
| 1954 | NFL | Cleveland Browns (NFL,9-3) | |
| 1953 | NFL | Detroit Lions (NFL,10-2) | |
| 1952 | NFL | Detroit Lions (NFL,9-3) | |
| 1951 | NFL | Los Angeles Rams (NFL,8-4) | |
| 1950 | NFL | Cleveland Browns (NFL,10-2) |
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