It’s the morning after Super Bowl XLVI, I just woke up and I have two points to make.
Here’s the first: The NFL is an NFC-dominated league once again.
They’ve won three Super Bowls in a row. Three years ago it was the Saints beating the Colts. Last year it was the Packers beating the Steelers. Now, the Giants beat the Patriots for the second time in four years (Before that, the AFC had won four Super Bowls in a row).
When I was growing up, the best teams in football were the Niners, the Cowboys and the Packers. Now, the best teams are the Niners, the Packers, the Saints and the Giants – all in the NFC.
The AFC, which was supreme after John Elway beat Brett Favre in the Super Bowl in 1997, only has two elite teams right now – the Patriots and the Ravens – and those teams are both flawed. The Patriots are excellent on offense and the Ravens are excellent on defense.
With Tom Brady entering his mid-thirties and Eli Manning heading into his prime, it feels like the NFC is going to become even more dominant over the next few years.
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What’s the second point?
#2: The 49ers are going to the Super Bowl in 2012, baby!
Sorry, couldn’t resist… Perhaps we’ll get #2 tomorrow…
There’s three kinds of people in this world. Those who can count and those who can’t.
lol :-)
Is this a Romney ad ?
Leo, there are actually TWO kinds of people in the world: The people who believe there are two kinds of people in the world, and the people who DON’T believe there are two kinds of people in the world.
@Rusty
Actually, I think there are 7 billion kinds of people. lol
The Houston Texans may be the best team in the AFC, however they didn’t show well this year when their starting QB went down. They probably represent the AFC’s best chance of winning the Super Bowl for the next few years.
Good point. Never count out the Pats though, that team is able to morph quickly and always stay competitive. I wonder how they will fix their receiver situation. DON’T FREAK OUT about the next statement. But Brady seems to have trust issue similar to Alex’s with his receivers — he throws to the guys he trusts and rarely to others. So like ASmith, they need to get him some WR in addition to Welker and then build trust with them quickly.
Not sure Houston is the best, but you certainly have to include them in the elite category in the AFC. They really got hammered withg injuries this season, yet still were a threat in the playoffs. I also expect to see them in the Superbowl at some point.
I agree the pendulum is swinging to the NFC. I also think the NFC West is on the rise.
Harbaugh, Carroll, Fisher and Whisenhunt will spend the next several years putting physical, defensive minded teams onto the field. All these coaches have won playoff games. All love to pound opponents into a pulp with defense and strong power running.
No matter what the record, the rest of the NFL will not enjoy having the NFC West on their rotation.
While the rest of the NFL produces the diva offenses, the NFC West will continue to go retro… the next true Black and Blue division.
It’s not looking good for the AFC
Remember the good ole days when the NFC won what, like 15 straight Superbowls thru the ’97 season? That’s the way it should be.
Having one conference dominant makes for great regular season rivalries (Niners/Giants 80s, Niners/Cowboys 90s, Patriots/Colts 00s), but it can make the Super Bowl an afterthought to the Championship game. While the NFC was so dominant, the Super Bowls were usually lopsided and,
except for the fans of the winning team, really boring.
Kinda like this one?
true 49er fan just keep doing what you do 9ers don’t give in too da hype
this pendulum thing is a bit overdone. i like the NFC winning the last 3 and hope the Niners make it, say, 6 straight, but in the NFL a decent team is always 1-2 drafts from being a good team – and the Giants just showed, as the Cards almost did a few years ago, that you can win a SB by being a fairly good team (unless you all think 9-7, rumors that your coach is getting sacked, and barely making the playoffs is very good or great) that gels at the end of the season.
Niners and their NFC brethren get to prove how good they are next year.
Grant,
I think you can add Pittsburgh to the list of elite teams. After all, they did finish tied with the Ravens, and if not for some injuries to key players late in the season might have been a tougher out in the playoffs.