With NFL Season Underway In A Couple weeks Lets talk History

Littleton Football fans I wanted to post an article/blog ahead of my talk at the Littleton History Museum Sept 6th at 7PM (tickets free in advance of the date). I may be letting some cats out of the bag here but I know Bronco fans will be glad they attended to garner a ton of useful facts to head into the new season!

Lets get the details on what’s on tap for 2018…

Might as well start with why the publication even exists. The Broncos may have fumbled away my hope of having them sport the best winning % 1970-2019 as we will have completed 50 total NFL regular seasons in Denver after winning 39 of 140 games in the American Football League (’60-’69). I have done the math and it kills me to say that it would take a pair of 15-1 seasons for Denver and two 3-13 campaigns for the Steelers for the Broncos to take that title. Denver even slipped to 3rd after spending ’15 & ’16 in 2nd but I have a lot of confidence they will make up that spot they lost when the Eagles didn’t need to beat the Cowboys and K.C. won in Denver in week 17 last January. So that’s the top 3: Pitt-Dal-Den! Lets talk about the rest of the top 10 as I was just noticing if you flip through NFL Since 1970 backwards it’s like a country western song played forward for Patriots fans.

This team has rarely let a year go bye this century without picking up a spot, as they stayed steady at #5 going into ’18 (even with being 10 over .500 again for ’17). The next victim to be passed will more than likely be the Dolphins and to have that division compilation position of games flip flop at top after Miami held the #1 spot in the league from 1984 to 2010 is almost as hard to believe as the 214 - 74 regular season record of N.E. since 2000.

Some teams never have never climbed out of the lower 20’s in ranking since ’70 and MIA has never been M.I.A. from the top 3 spots (ok #4 briefly when you add ‘70 to ’71…we don’t nitpick here) so to see them close to dropping behind the Patriots to #5 is a steep price to pay for a lot of mediocre play at the southern most NFL stadium. As a non-Patriot hater (My Dad’s side is from New Bedford) I do welcome another team in the 5 Super Bowl loss column and I hope Denver can regain the lead over the Pats on my Pat Bowlen tribute page. I was so excited to finally place a Bronco helmet #1 for ’15 &’16. I added up every regular season game played since he bought the Broncos in 1984.

Vikings at #6 are also at their low point over the last 48 years and missed that chance to beat the Patriots at home. It would have left #16 Carolina and #12 Philly as the only teams on the winning side (above) without a title. Instead, it’s the painful fact the team has provided Viking Nation so many regular season wins but no hardware and that a smaller and smaller subset of fans that even saw that last January 1977 attempt are around. The 49ers jumped four spots in 1984 and landed at #10 and have not given up an elite spot. They ruled the 80’s & 90’s win total for each decade but never cracked that top spot overall. The Ravens at #8 are worthy although I’ll never stop wishing they were the Baltimore Colts or Cleveland Browns. Love thePackers and equally love telling people about how they were #25 out of 28 in 1992 when a team that was worse traded them Favre. They rocketed to #13 at 10 over .500 and then Rogers took over to launch them into the #9 spot. What I will always love the most is the Raider franchise tank job that allowed that top 10 spot to be available. Redskins were a ½ game out of the top 10 in ’71 behind the Browns and have ever since been an elite team in this stat but no longer Lombardi-less Philly is gunning to knock them out as the Redskins continue to flounder this century. I give the Raiders that #11 spot going into ’18 because they did beat the Eagle team they are tied with at .522 in S.B. XV. If you are reading this and want to hear more as I group the stories of #11-16 & the losing half of the league at #17 to the dead last Bucs at #32 shoot me an email and give me your thoughts on my takes. Tampa’s 25 seasons of 10 losses or more since showing up in ’76 are brutal but they have a title. Scott@nflsince1970.com