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Even The Few, The Proud & The Elite rarely get to the Superbowl

Hottoddie

Veteran
I meant to post this prior to the Superbowl, but I just never got to it. I almost threw it away, but felt that it was rather interesting. I put this data together in response to several posters that were lamenting about the Texans (once again) missing out on the Superbowl & having to watch some other teams play instead. I feel your pain, but maybe this will ease the pain a little.

This data only deals with Superbowls & doesn’t take into account the conference championships prior to 1967. There have been 48 SB’s with the potential of 96 teams playing in them. In a perfect world, since there are 32 teams (cities), each team would have played in 3 SB’s & won 1 SB, with half the league winning 2 SB’s. Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect world & the numbers don’t shake out that way. There are the elite teams, the good teams, the average teams & the basement dwellers. The first SB was in 1967. 28 of the 32 teams (87.5%) have played in the SB at least once. 19 teams (39.6%) have won all 48 SB’s. So, while 12.5% of the teams have never sniffed a SB, 60.4% have never won a SB. In fact, 5 teams (Green Bay, Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Francisco & NY Giants) have won 50% (4+ wins) of all the SB’s.

For the purpose of this thread, I’m dividing the teams up by Elite (6+ SB appearances), Good (4-5 SB appearances), Average (1-3 SB appearances) & Basement Dwellers ( 0 SB appearances). I’ve put the number & % of SB appearances next to each team in parenthesis. Keep in mind that with 2 SB contenders per game, the percentages could add up to 200%.

Elite: Dallas (8) (16.7%), Pittsburgh (8) (16.7%), Denver (7) (14.6%), New England (7) (14.6%) & San Francisco (6) (12.5%)

Good: Green Bay (5) (10.4%), Oakland/LA (5) (10.4%), Miami (5) (10.4%), Washington (5) (10.4%), NY Giants (5) (10.4%), Indy/Baltimore Colts (4) (8.3%), Minnesota (4) (8.3%) & Buffalo (4) (8.3%)

Average: STL/LA Rams (3) (6.3%) Baltimore Ravens (2) (4.2%), Kansas City (2) (4.2%), Philadelphia (2) (4.2%), Cincinnati (2) (4.2%), Chicago (2) (4.2%), Seattle (2) (4.2%), Carolina (1) (2.1%), Tampa Bay (1) (2.1%), Tennessee/Houston (1) (2.1%), NY Jets (1) (2.1%), San Diego (1) (2.1%), Atlanta (1) (2.1%), Arizona (1) (2.1%) & New Orleans (1) (2.1%)

Basement Dwellers: Houston (0), Cleveland (0), Jacksonville (0) & Detroit (0)

The next part lists the teams in order of SB appearance. If a team had played in the SB previously I did not list them again. That’s why you will see only one team in some years & some years not listed at all as a result of both teams being repeat participants. The first date is the year of that team’s first SB appearance. The second date is when the team was originally founded. The next two numbers are the number of SB appearances & the number of SB wins. The final number is the number of years it took to get to their first SB appearance starting from 1967.

Note: The Baltimore Ravens show that they were founded in 1996, but they were actually the Cleveland Browns which were founded in 1946. When the Browns moved from Cleveland to Baltimore, the city of Cleveland refused to release the Browns team name & kept all the history as well. So, on paper it looks like the Ravens were a brand new team, but they were in reality an established franchise with players, coaches & front office personnel. I’m pointing this out because the time it looks like it took for them to make their first SB appearance appears to be just 5 years when it was actually 35 years. I’ve listed both numbers next to their name below.

Kansas City (1967) (1960) (2) (1) (1 year)
Green Bay (1967) (1921) (5) (4) (1 year)
Oakland/LA (1968) (1960) (5) (3) (2 years)
NY Jets (1969) (1960) (1) (1) (3 years)
Indy/Balt. Colts (1969) (1944) (4) (2) (3 years)
Minnesota (1970) (1961) (4) (0) (4 years)
Dallas (1971) (1960) (8) (5) (5 years)
Miami (1972) (1966) (5) (2) (6 years)
Washington (1973) (1932) (5) (3) (7 years)
Pittsburgh (1975) (1933) (8) (6) (9 years)
Denver (1978) (1960) (7) (2) (12 years)
STL/LA Rams (1980) (1937) (3) (1) (14 years)
Philadelphia (1981) (1933) (2) (0) (15 years)
San Francisco (1982) (1946) (6) (5) (16 years)
Cincinnati (1982) (1968) (2) (0) (15 years)
Chicago (1986) (1920) (2) (1) (20 years)
New England (1986) (1960) (7) (3) (20 years)
NY Giants (1987) (1925) (5) (4) (21 years)
Buffalo (1991) (1960) (4) (0) (25 years)
San Diego (1995) (1960) (1) (0) (29 years)
Atlanta (1999) (1966) (1) (0) (33 years)
Tennessee/Houston (2000) (1960) (1) (0) (34 years)
Baltimore Ravens (2001) (1996) (2) (2) (*6 years) (*35 years)
Tampa Bay (2003) (1976) (1) (1) (28 years)
Carolina (2004) (1995) (1) (0) (10 years)
Seattle (2006) (1976) (2) (1) (31 years)
Arizona/STL (2009) (1920) (1) (0) (43 years)
New Orleans (2010) (1967) (1) (1) (44 years)

Detroit (????) (1930) (0) (0) (48 years & still counting)
Cleveland (????) (1946) (0) (0) (48 years & still counting)
Jacksonville (????) (1995) (0) (0) (20 years & still counting)
Houston (????) (2002) (0) (0) (13 years & counting)

The numbers for the years to get to their first SB are eschewed a bit for some teams because I didn’t account for the years without a team after one moved out & the next one moved in. But, it’s close enough. We all want our team to get to the Superbowl & always will. That’s what fans do. So, the next time you start feeling depressed over the Texans not making the Superbowl again, pull this post up & thank God you’re not a Detroit, Cleveland or Jacksonville fan. :D
 
Its been more then 13 years for people here in Houston


since the oilers never got the job done either its what prob like 30 years and counting LOL
 
Great thread, man. I've always talked about this, as well, as it seems some teams are able to inspire current players to strive for greatness by looking at past success. I have no doubt that seeing multiple Super Bowl trophies in a team's trophy case causes awe in new players arriving to teams with multiple championship histories.

One of the reasons I pulled for the Seahawks for the last SB was because they had never won one. Now let's hope one of the four Basement Dwellers can make it, or specifically the Houston Texans. I can only imagine in my wildest dreams how crazy this city would be with Super Bowl fever if the Texans could just get there.
 
Great thread, man. I've always talked about this, as well, as it seems some teams are able to inspire current players to strive for greatness by looking at past success. I have no doubt that seeing multiple Super Bowl trophies in a team's trophy case causes awe in new players arriving to teams with multiple championship histories.

One of the reasons I pulled for the Seahawks for the last SB was because they had never won one. Now let's hope one of the four Basement Dwellers can make it, or specifically the Houston Texans. I can only imagine in my wildest dreams how crazy this city would be with Super Bowl fever if the Texans could just get there.

I agree. The beautiful part is that the Texans & Detroit are real close to busting through. You have to feel sorry for the Browns though, the Ravens moved out of town & won a SB 5 years later & Cleveland is still waiting 48 years & counting.

The stat that blew me away was that 5 teams have won half the SB's. WOW!
 
Great work, thanks!

Not the same thing, but this guy has been doing a franchise ranking for the last 10-12 years or so, which I find very interesting

LINK
 
Great work, thanks!

Not the same thing, but this guy has been doing a franchise ranking for the last 10-12 years or so, which I find very interesting

LINK

Nice link. That would've saved me a lot of time. I see where I've made a mistake by subtracting the year before they were founded from 2014. While that works for all the teams founded prior to 1967, it doesn't work for teams founded after 1967. For those teams, I need to subtract 1 year off the total. So, Houston would be 12 years & counting while Cleveland would still be 48 years & counting. Oh well, I guess there's only one thing left to say. Oops. :D
 
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