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Before leaving Benny Rodriguez’s room, fictional Babe Ruth offered a piece of advice to the aspiring young baseball player in the 1993 hit movie “The Sandlot.”
“Remember kid, there’s heroes and there’s legends: Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.”
The Babe’s quote can also apply to the NFL. While there have been many championship teams, there are only a handful of champions that have reached the status of legendary. These teams continue to live on through the memory of the fans who feverishly watched their team’s championship quest. A few of these teams actually crossed over to pop culture, as the ’85 Bears are remembered just as much for their iconic “Super Bowl Shuffle” as they are for Buddy Ryan’s devastating “46” defense.
With 58 Super Bowls in the books, here is a rundown of the 25 greatest teams of the Super Bowl era. The criteria used when creating this list included the team’s overall record, Hall of Fame representation, coaching, dominance vs. the field, quality of opponents, and offensive/defensive standings (largely points scored and points allowed).
Honorable mention: 2005 Steelers
15-5 (including playoffs) Super Bowl XL champions Won eight straight games after 7-5 start First sixth seed to win the Super BowlFirst team to win three straight road playoff games
Fresh off of a 15-1 regular season, the ’05 Steelers started slow before finding their stride at the perfect time. Pittsburgh’s run started with a 21-3 win over the then 9-2 Bears that featured the final 100-yard game of Jerome Bettis’ Hall of Fame career. In the playoffs, the Steelers defeated the AFC’s top-three seeds before defeating the NFC’s top seed (the Seahawks) in the Super Bowl.
Pittsburgh’s first championship in 26 years was spearheaded by a defense that featured future Hall of Fame safety Troy Polamalu. The Steelers’ also enjoyed an X-factor of sorts in receiver Antwaan Randle El, a…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ranking-the-top-25-teams-of-the-nfls-modern-era-two-super-bowl-losers-make-the-cut/
Author : Bryan DeArdo
Publish date : 2024-07-02 20:48:55
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