NFL Irregularities

In 1984, the Chicago Bears beat an NFC East team, the Washington Redskins, to reach the NFC championship and lost to a west coast team, the 49ers. The 49ers went on to beat the Dolphins in the Super Bowl, an AFC East team. In 1985, the Bears beat another NFC East team, the New York Giants, and played another west coast team, the Los Angeles Rams. After beating them they went on and defeated the New England Patriots, an AFC East team.

In all three of the New York Giants Super Bowl victories, they played the same teams they would eventually beat earlier in the year. The only team they didn't was the Baltimore Ravens, the team that defeated the Giants in Super Bowl XXXV.

O.J. Anderson, the long time running back for the Cardinals and Giants, believed he was destined to win Super Bowl MVP in his home state of Florida when he grew up. Just prior to retirement his dream came true when he helped the Giants upset the Bills in Super Bowl XXV in Miami.

Jimmy Johnson, aside from being the architect of the Cowboys dynasty of the 1990s, also has the distinction of replacing two Hall of Fame coaches, Tom Landry in Dallas and Don Shula in Miami, both of whom won two Super Bowls just like Johnson.

The Green Bay Packers are the only team to have two shots at a three-peat. Everyone remembers their success from 1965 to 1967, but many forget their first attempt ended in failure thanks in large part to their archrival Chicago Bears, who won the title in 1963 after defeating Green Bay twice during the season.

No team has won three straight championships in the Super Bowl era, the team to come the closest was Miami, who went from 1971 to 1973, winning twice but losing the first to Dallas. Since then only San Francisco and Dallas have come almost as close, losing their respective conference championship games in their third year.

Every decade seems to have a quarterback that compiles stats and a quarterback that compiles championships. In the 1960s it was Bart Starr winning the titles and Daryl Lamonica getting the stats. In the 1970s it was Terry Bradshaw getting the titles and Fran Tarkenton getting the numbers. The 1980s was probably the best example with Joe Montana and Dan Marino. The 1990s ushered in Jim Kelly who's Hall of Fame numbers fell victim to Troy Aikman twice in the Super Bowl. Even the new millennium has one like that, with Tom Brady getting rings and Phillip Rivers passing himself towards Canton, all while never getting to the big game.

The St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals have combined for just four Super Bowl appearances in 43 years. Quarterback Kurt Warner is responsible for three of them.

Only one team has never gotten to visit the President following a Super Bowl victory. The 1985 Chicago Bears were indefinitely postponed due to the disaster of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Quarterback Jim McMahon never forgot that, wearing his Bears jersey to the Packers ceremony in 1996 when he backed up Brett Favre.

No Super Bowl game has reached overtime, though several playoff games have. One such game between the Raiders and Colts reached double overtime in 1977.

The Jacksonville Jaguars were a force in 1999. They went 14-2 and were primed for a Super Bowl run. The only team to beat them that year was the Tennessee Titans, defeating the Jaguars both times. As luck would have it, the Jaguars arrived in the AFC championship to find the Titans, fresh off their Music City Miracle, waiting for them. Jacksonville ended up losing three games that year, all to the same team.

From 1984 to 1996, the NFC crushed the AFC in the Super Bowl a staggering thirteen straight times. John Elway of the Broncos was the recipient of three such losses, the last one being a humiliating 55-10 destruction at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers. However, in 1997, Elway became the most unlikely and most fitting one to break that curse, defeating the defending champion Packers to finally get his ring and get the monkey off the back of the AFC.