Football and the NFL: The Ultimate Team Sport

Despite winning 3 MVPs in a row, Favre only won 1 Super Bowl

Because I have too much to say in one post, this is part one of a multi-part discussion about the NFL, quarterbacks, all-time rankings, and more. There are many reasons to love the NFL: the excitement, the violence, the theater, the debates; however, I think the idea that gets lost with a lot of people is the fact that football is the ultimate team sport. 53 guys make up an active NFL roster, not to mention a plethora of coaches for offense, defense, and every position on the field.

The first topic I’d like to discuss is the love of quarterbacks, and the notion that winning is a legacy-builder for that position. I’d agree, the quarterback is the most important player on each NFL roster; however, I contend that quarterbacks receive far too much credit for wins and far too much blame for losses. When you think of the great NFL dynasties over the last 30 years, three teams come to mind: The 49ers of the 80s, The Cowboys of the 90s, and The Patriots of the 2000s. Now, if you listen to ESPN or pretty much anyone talking about these teams, what’s the first thing you hear about? For most people, it’d be Montana, Aikman, and Brady. Montana had the advantage over the other two by winning a fourth Super Bowl, but their playoff stats are all pretty similar (note: I am a stats guy, but I put more stock in how a player looks, plays, and what he does on the field).

The parallels between Montana and Brady are numerous

While I never had the privilege of watching Montana in his prime, it seems that his playoff stats were aided by some absurd blowouts that really boosted his TDs and QB rating. The same can be said about Aikman. All three QBs have playoff career ratings in the 85-90 range - solid, but very unspectacular. The bigger point here is that these quarterbacks shouldn’t be applauded as the reason for Super Bowls, but rather that they were just another cog in a team that came together to win. What you’ll never hear about any of the 10 combined Super Bowl winning teams headed by these three QBs are the spectacular defenses that these teams sported. Rankings are in terms of least points allowed:

49ers - 2nd, 1st, 3rd, 8th

Cowboys - 2nd, 3rd, 5th

Patriots - 6th, 1st, 2nd

You can see that these teams all sported defenses in the top 10, with only the 1988 49ers outside the top 6. In fact, over the last 32 years, only 6 Super Bowl winners have had team defenses ranked outside the top 6 (actual ranking in parentheses): the ‘83 Raiders (13th), ‘88 49ers (8th), ‘98 Broncos (8th), ‘06 Colts (23rd), ‘07 Giants (17th), and ‘09 Saints (20th).

Peyton, Eli, and Brees had to overcome defenses in the bottom half of the league to win their Super Bowls, a pretty momentous feat if you ask me, a feat that has happened less than five times in the Super Bowl era. Were the other guys (Montana/Brady/Aikman) simply game managers? No, I’m not saying that either. I just think those guys see far too much credit, while other guys don’t get the credit they deserve.

To be continued...