Can There Really Be Parity in the NFL

For the sixteen years between 1982 (Super Bowl XVI) and 1997 (Super Bowl XXI), the National Football Conference (NFC) won all but one of the contests - 1984's Super Bowl XVIII, when the Los Angeles (previously and once again, Oakland) Raiders smoked the Washington Redskins 38-9. We saw 2 repeat Champions in that decade and a half - the San Francisco 49ers (Super Bowls XXIII, XXIV) and the Dallas Cowboys (Super Bowls XXVII, and XXVIII). In fact, the only thing separating the Cowboys from stringing together 4 consecutive Super Bowls was that same San Francisco 49ers team - the 49ers went on to play in and win Super Bowl XXIX, while the Cowboys were back as champs the next year, 1996, in Super Bowl XXX. During that period, the league saw only four champions who had not previously won.

It was this stretch, and the advent of Football Free Agency in 1993, that convinced the league that the health of the product was in parity.

In the stretch between 1998 and 2003, five first time winners of the big game were crowned "Champion" with one repeat: The Denver Broncos (who repeated the next year), St. Louis Rams, Baltimore Ravens, New England Patriots, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The last two of which - the Patriots and Buccaneers - had historically been laughingstock losers and perennial doormats.

Since that stretch of six games, though, parity has become less a factor. It would seem that the league has returned to some old ways - in the four Super Bowls since the Buccaneers won, there has been one repeat champion - the Patriots (Super Bowls XXXVIII and XXXIX) - and two other teams returning to reclaim the Lombardi Trophy: the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Indianapolis (nee Baltimore) Colts. The American Football Conference (AFC) have won all of those contests save two.

The modern history, or Super Bowl era, of the National Football League, suggests an inevitable cycle of strength exists: the early Super Bowl appearances were dominated by the Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Minnesota Vikings, and Dallas Cowboys; the 1980s were dominated largely by the San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins, and to some extent the Denver Broncos as runners up. The 1990s saw the emergence of the Buffalo Bills (as 4-time bridesmaids), the Cowboys, and to some extent the Giants.

Even as of 1997, we see some glimmer of the push toward parity with the reemergence of the Green Bay Packers as Champion. When taken as a whole, though, the 2000's have really been about one team: The New England Patriots. A few years into the 2000's, the conversation had turned to a league of parity, now in retrospect it has been the era of New England: Three championships and another appearance in the AFC Title game gives the Patriots representation in HALF of the titles earned in this decade.

When the league was not focused on the concept of parity, there was NO period in which a champion won more than twice consecutively and NO period in which a champion repeated three times of four. Since 1993, two champions have done that: Dallas and New England. A third, the Broncos, repeated. In the fifteen opportunities since 1993 to crown a new champion, there have been three repeats; in the first fifteen opportunities of the Super Bowl era, there were four repeats and three of those were in the first nine games.

So much for parity in the NFL. It seems like the league was doing a better job at parity before they were paying attention to it.