A Brief History of Random NFL Champions in the 21st Century
One Yard
One Block[1]
One Tuck
One Kick - Again
One Leg [2]
One Arm
One Pass [3]
One Catch
A Brief History of Non-Arbitrary NFL Champions in the 21st Century
The 2003 Tampa Bay Bucs and their all-world defense is
our decade’s only Super Bowl Champion that needed no luck.
[1] The 2001 Champion Baltimore Ravens season may have hinged on a pivotal blocked field goal against the Tennessee Titans in the 4th quarter playoffs. If converted, the Titans would have taken the lead, but it was returned for a 90 yard touchdown instead. The Ravens were outperformed in every offensive statistical area but the scoreboard.
[2] The only team aside from the dominant Bucs that may be more than "one play" away from a loss is the 2005 Pats 3-point win over the Philadelphia Eagles. The game was more notable for Terrell Owens valiant comeback on one good leg which seemed to affect his role as a deep threat receiver.
[3] Sure, you remember Peyton Manning’s game winning drive against the Pats before beating the Bears in the Super Bowl. However, before that drive if Tom Brady had converted his 3rd & 5 pass the Pats would have run the clock out and won the game.
Yeah, I’m biased, as a Steelers fan. The one arm might not have been needed had the refs called that interception by Polamalu right in the AFC Championship against the Colts. That may have been the worst officiated championship game in history.
How about, “One completely insane Center”
If you recall, Barrett Robbins went all types of looney the days prior to Super Bowl XXVII against the Bucs. His backup (Adam Treu) was completely overwhelmed, helping the Bucs convert 5 sacks & 5 Ints en route to a 48-21 blowout.
Farfetched? Sure. But not moreso than your other examples.
Interesting. But every game of note is going to have “a pivot play” that people will talk about afterwards. In reality, it’s these plays that determine the result of every close game.
What you are really emphasizing here is that this decade has feature more close Super Bowls than any other before (although a few of the references above, like the Tuck and the Ravens game, refer to non-Super Bowl games).
Again, very interesting.
“That may have been the worst officiated championship game in history.”
Wrong kos. That WAS the worst officiated game, and the Polamalu call was the single worst ever.
meech, Robbins abscence hurt the game but the raiders were also blown out of the water. I would say that this is much more farfetched than all of the examples which besides T.O. hinged on one single play.
SML, I think that most of these example are more than just “pivot plays”. So “the tuck”, “Ben’s arm”, and the Brady “3rd and 5″ last year would have directly changed the Super bowl champion. “The Del Greco blocked kick” and the Tyree catch would have very likely changed the Super Bowl Champion. Then “one yard” and “the kick” would have left tie games in which the outcome would be 50- 50.
Bottom line: The difference in outcome of 7 of 9 last Super Bowl champions can be reduced to one single play. That is an amazing fact and speaks to a certain arbitrariness to our “champions” and the miniscule gap between who we call a winner and a loser.
Well, when folks are acknowledging how Bad Phil Luckett tried to rob my boys, I don’t need to say a peep.
Of course, the Bucs didn’t need luck because, well, they had the playbook.
This also speaks to the extreme competitiveness of the teams that played the game. The teams are closely matched. How boring would it be if 5-10 plays decided each games, like many of the superbowls during the 80s. I’m not longing for the 45-10 blowouts.
Fair enough coops and I probably agree with you about the boring blowouts, but it still strikes me as odd how narrow the gap is on a continual basis. I would have guess that we’d see more games in between blowouts and coming down to one play. Don’t get me wrong, I love the theater of it. This past Super Bowl was incredible.
[...] one single reversed play would undo the fates of every single Super Bowl Champion this decade besides the dominant Bucs and [...]