Wednesday, January 25, 2006
AFC Superiority?
When the big game comes along, I like to ponder the pedigree of the teams involved. Were they part of the original league? Expansion teams? Formerly in another city? This weekend I was thinking about the four NFL finalists, the two AFC teams and the two NFC teams. Where'd they come from?
The NFC teams weren't part of that show twelve years ago. Carolina was added in the mid-90's, and Seattle was switched from the AFC West three years ago. So by mid-90's standards, the NFL final four were three AFC teams and an expansion squad. AFC superiority, right? But go back a little further.
Most people don't remember that the Seahawks were originally an NFC team. That's right. In 1976, Seattle built a modest 2-12 record behind the Rams, 49ers, Falcons (whom they beat) and the Saints (whom they didn't) out in the NFC West. In '77 Seattle and Tampa Bay switched conferences and settled in new divisions for many years.
The Steelers were part of the original three-team NFL cadre that went to flesh out the AFL when the two leagues merged in 1970. The Browns, Colts, and Steelers weren't too happy about getting reassigned with the upstarts. A good move, as it turned out, for the Colts remained competitive in those early 70's, with a Super Bowl appearance two years after the Jets beat them. The Steelers, of course, won those four trophies in the 70's.
(An aside: the Colts and Browns were refugees themselves from the post-WWII AAFC. Those two teams, along with San Francisco were absorbed into the NFL in 1950. Without the AFL presence in Oakland, I wonder if the 49ers would've ended up as the third team to switch instead of Pittsburgh. The Browns and Steelers went as a unit to the AFC in 1970, which now makes sense. But I still wonder if the Colts weren't a better geographical choice than the Ravens to add to the AFC North. Peyton Manning would be on a higher learning curve playing the Steelers twice a year)
Denver was the only original AFL team in the final four this year. But to a football fan of fifty years ago, only the Steelers would have been recognizable.
