49
THE FAN
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culture
the 49ers’ West Coast offense. Players were bound to the franchises
that dra ed them; coaches had time to implement and refine their
schemes. Good teams tended to stay very good, while bad teams
remained in the cellar.
That all changed in the early ’90s with the advent of unrestricted
free agency and the salary cap. Teams today have to make choices.
Take Polian’s Colts, who spent lavishly on quarterback PeytonMan-
ning and his support systemwhile relying on their dra ing acumen
tofillotherspotswithrelativelycheapandu erlyreplaceableplayers.
The first great team to be broken up prematurely was the Dallas
Cowboys. Theywon three Super Bowls in four years—but themore
theywon, themore theykept losing complementaryplayers toother
teams. It wasn’t long before a rition whi led down a roster that
had been le vulnerable by poor long-term planning.
There’s still a handful of teams who are successful each year,
thanks inpart to forward-thinkingmanagement and smart dra ing.
For everyone else, though, the constant roster turnover has not just
undercut potential dynasties, but also considerably shortened the
time frame for rebuilding. Over the past four seasons, more than
three quarters of the teams in the NFL have made the playoffs at
least once. There have been seven different Super Bowl participants
and four different champions, and none of those championship
teams had the best record in the league. The outliers in all this are
the Patriots, who won three of four Super Bowls in the early 2000s,
but even they have been undone in recent years by
the fickle nature of the postseason.
3.
SPEAKING OF FICKLE …
Themost compelling Super Bowl of themodern
erawas the 2008 contest betweentheundefeated
Pats and the 10-6 Giants, whomade the playoffs
as a wild card and won three straight playoff
games on the road. The Giants emerged with the
Lombardi Trophy a er a sensational last-minute
comeback that included an 83-yard drive in just over two minutes.
That kind of postseason run was practically unheard of in the ’80s
and ’90s, when the best teams steamrolled through the playoffs
and treated the Super Bowl like a four-hour coronation.
The Giants repeated their achievement in eerily similar fash-
ion against the Patriots last season, establishing themselves as
something of a model in today’s boom-or-bust NFL. They got
hot at exactly the right time, with a roster stacked with pass
defenders and a quarterback adept at engineering last-minute
comebacks. Yet even with that same lineup, they’d failed to win
a single playoff game in the three seasons between their Super
Bowl triumphs.
Recent NFL history is rife with other unlikely contenders, while
heavily favored teams have been knocked out of the playoffs a er
one game. Unlike in the NBA, where the best teams almost always
win in the seven-game playoff series, or baseball, with its relentless
162-
game schedule, success in the NFL has become fleeting and
unpredictable. And that, in turn, has helped make the Super Bowl
not merely an all-day television spectacle, but also the flat-out best
sports event of the year.
Yes, even be er than the Bud Bowl.
PAUL FLANNERY
plans to spend Super Bowl Sunday in the no-huddle,
calling audibles between the guacamole and cheese dip.
Passionate About Animal Health
© 2012 Virbac AH, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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