Last Year's Big Game

I have been amiss in not keeping up my annual commentary on the greatest team to date at the end of the last championship season. Instead, I tweeted my comments. Since it is impossible (at least for me) to find tweets from February of last year, I will make some notes now for continuity with next month's column on the 2020 Season.

Wow. Mahomes. Wow.

It is probably all we will be saying next month too, but we play games for a reason - just in case.

If being there year after year is the essence of greatness (win or lose), then Green Bay moved up by losing the NFC Championships. They are now tied with Pittsburgh, the NY Giants and Dallas at number 2, at 24 championship game appearances (sorry Pack, I don't count non-playoff titles). New England is at the top with 27 AFL, AFC, and Super Bowl appearances. They also retain the overall championship title with 17 total trophies. Had Green Bay won the NFC and the Big Game, they would have moved into a tie with New England (they currently have 15) and would have had one more appearance, for a total of 25.

By winning the NFC but losing the Big Game, San Francisco remained in 6th place on the appearance chart, with a new total of 23. Their overall trophy ranking is now 5th with trophy number 12. They leap frog over New York because SF has only 11 championship losses. NY has 12.

Losing the AFC title game gives Tennessee (nee Houston's Oilers) 11 appearances, with 3 wins. They remain in sole possession of 23rd place for trophies and 18th for appearances.

Kansas City had been tied with Seattle for total appearances at 20th with seven. With two more, they stand alone. Rumor has it that they may be moving up for a while - or down - given who is in the playoffs in the same zone of experience this year.

KC jumped from 18 to 15 in total trophies, with six. Buffalo also has six, but with six losses to KC's three. 

There are fourteen teams in the hunt for the 2020 season - almost half of the league. Pittsburgh, Green Bay and even Washington could cause movement at the top end of the all-time list, but there is a whole lot of potential for movement in the middle.