Is that the rapping Fridge team?

Prufrock wrote:Mike,

I think your picks are the result of having actually witnessed those teams in action.  Of course we cannot compare them head to head anymore than we can compare the college teams of today against the college teams of yesterday.  The picks you made you "saw" with your own eyes rather than take someone's evaluations of a team you may have only seen highlights from.

I forgot about the 1985 Bears - I would put them up there with the '72 Dolphins.

Martin

Can't argue that, obviously, since I started watching football "seriously" about 1976 or so.  By head to head I was assuming you could stick that team against another team on the field and the time you pick would win more often than not. Unfortunately if that were the case, there is not a team from the early 70s or before that could stand up to even the Bengals, Rams or Lions of today.  Training, size, speed, heck even medical issues are so much better today it's really no comparison....like putting one of the great Celtics teams of the 60s up against the Pacers of today. It would be 100-4 by halftime!

However, if you just mean a "greatest team of all time" list with no head to head component, it would be a lot different.  Lombardi's Packers would be there, as well as a few others.  I'd have to think on that a bit, and go by historical stuff rather than teams I just saw personally.

Also, remember, we didn't have the saturation NFL on TV back in the 60s and 70s we have now. We take it for granted we can watch any game we want each Sunday, bitd, we were stuck with 2-3 games a day AT MOST, with the Monday Night football game.  So most markets only caught their team every week in a game, and maybe an early or late game, and the Monday night game. It wasn't until the playoffs, for example, that you even saw a lot of the other teams you had been hearing about all year.

In the Dallas market we were lucky, as we got Cowboy games (obviously) every weekend, and on the weekends the Cowboys were on Monday night we got Oilers games (so I got to see a lot of Earl Campbell's greatness).  Conversely, I bet I only saw a handful of Raiders or Packers games at most during the same period....I know I never saw a Lions game except for Thanksgiving day and the rare occasions they might have played the Cowboys.  Probably any team not in the NFC east (Redskins, Giants, Cardinals or Eagles) I hardly saw during the regular season.  Thank goodness for technology nowadays!

Mike B.

Badmike wrote:
They might have won another couple of SBs with him there.

Mike B.

IF they kept Dicka.  He went out and got Buddy if I remember correctly.  Dicka has to be mentioned as one of the all time great coaches even if he only won one SB as a coach.

Martin

Plaag wrote:
Sure, how about them Seahawks, yeah you like to put an * beside the Superbowl wins of the Steelers, but the refs team doesn't count does it

But hey the Packers having no single owner and have a waiting list to get season tickets prove you don't need to have the biggest and best stadium.

ShaneG.

As a Bears fan, that's the one cool thing about Green Bay. The stadium is owned by the county (I think the team as well, no?), and they raffle off thousands of tickets to the residents for each of their 8 home games and 2 home pre-season games. That's how I got to see the Bears play in Green Bay for a couple of years ('06 and '07). And the new Lambeau Field is an excellent stadium, with a wonderful view, even at the nosebleed seats.

And it's spelled Ditka - D I T K A. DA COACH

Too bad they couldn't put a whole defense into the Hall of Fame as opposed to individual players, else there would be room for the '85 Bears Defense...

Plaag wrote:
Sure, how about them Seahawks, yeah you like to put an * beside the Superbowl wins of the Steelers, but the refs team doesn't count does it

But hey the Packers having no single owner and have a waiting list to get season tickets prove you don't need to have the biggest and best stadium.

ShaneG.

Remember that our context here is the financial dominance of the big market teams if the salary cap goes away.

Note that the resurgence of the Packers coincides with the salary cap rule.  The Packers sucked for decades after their Super Bowl wins.

Players already want to go to Dallas just for the endorsement money and other opportunities.  Those opportunities would be stacked with up-front salary money if the salary cap goes away...not to mention revenue sharing.

And, yes, it's six* for the Steelers, even if people forget what happened.

JohnGaunt wrote:I will gloat if I beat the The Brits No-Hopers.  

I must go check my team... but enjoy your moment!

FormCritic wrote:
And, yes, it's six* for the Steelers, even if people forget what happened.

OK, I've got to ask (rather than searching for it) why the * and what happened....

ashmire13 wrote:
OK, I've got to ask (rather than searching for it) why the * and what happened....

In a nutshell:  Poor officiating cost the Seahawks a touchdown, gave the Steelers a touchdown they didn't score, took away the opportunity for a later go-ahead touchdown by the Seahaks and thus fundamentally altered the course of the game.

It was surely unintentional, but the officiating was apparently influenced by the Steelers' de facto homefield advantage and the relative star power of the two teams.

It was an embarrassing moment for the NFL which everyone outside of Washington State has wished to fade from memory.  

It was a ripoff for the Steelers, who won a flawed game.  It was also a boon for Seattle tight end Jerramy Stevvens, because it overshadowed his dropped passes which might have given the Seahawks a victory in spite of everything.

When Ditka got hired Buddy Ryan was a holdover from the prior regime. The ironic thing is the 1986 Bears gave up fewer points then the famed 1985 Bears did....If the question is "What is the greatest single-season team in NFL History ?" I think the following teams would be in the equation: 1962 Packers, 1972 Dolphins, 1978 Steelers, 1984 49ers, 1985 Bears, 1989 49ers, 1992 Cowboys , 1996 Packers.