Coffee's for Closers...and Rings are for Hall of Fame Quarterbacks
NFL Super teams: You need one position - quarterback - to have a legitimate chance
Jan 29, 2019, 9:23 am
David Silverman, Patriots team website
"There's only a few NBA teams that can actually win a title."
The NBA was buzzing yesterday as news came down that Anthony Davis wanted out of New Orleans. Odds-makers named the Los Angeles Lakers as the favorite to trade for his services.
The mention of pairing a superstar of "The Brow's" caliber with LeBron James, immediately had the masses out to air their usual grievance with "The King." The statement in which I opened the article with, was one of the most repeated I saw all of yesterday.
While the statement is true, I find the timing odd. We are literally days away from Tom Brady playing in his ninth Super Bowl out of the last 18 NFL seasons. When you look at all of the participants in the big game since Brady's first Super Bowl appearance, you'll notice a trend of superstar quarterbacks.
The Super Bowl has become a preconceived notion for anyone watching the game for the last 20 years. For two decades, Brady and Bill Belichick have been in the Super Bowl, on average, every other year. Yet, it's not the moans of the NFL fans that roar the loudest with their outcry of select super powers in their field.
At least in the NBA, superstars like LeBron James have moved around to different markets and brought championships to fans of multiple teams. James won titles in Cleveland and Miami. If "LeBrow" comes to existence then James would have brought the storied Lakers franchise back to life for the first time since the retirement of Kobe Bryant. Signal callers with Hall of Fame potential don't get shipped off in the NFL, unless there's a health concern and the team already has Plan B in place. Peyton Manning & Drew Brees both ended up in a second market but the moves came after injuries. Also, the Chargers had already drafted Philip Rivers and the Colts had the No. 1 pick in the draft to use on Andrew Luck.
Since that first Brady Super Bowl, NFL fans in markets without a future Hall of Fame quarterback had next to zero chance of making the Super Bowl and if you were a fan of an AFC team, then Brady had already secured that spot every other year. What makes it worse for NFL fans is the fact that the team that will play in their ninth Super Bowl in the last 18 years, received their boost from seven years of spying on opponents via video. Roger Goodell destroyed the evidence after viewing it and handed down a penalty that would not setback the franchise.
The Pats were slapped on the wrist with a fine for the coach of $500,000, a fine for the team in the amount of $250,000 and they were forced to forfeit a first round draft pick. During the time the Patriots were busted for cheating, they won their first three Super Bowls in franchise history. After the Patriots were caught, they went 8 years before winning another Super Bowl. They have since gone to four out of the last five.
The New England Patriots were valued at $3.7 billion in 2018. In the United States, only the Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees are more valuable sports franchises. That statement won't surprise anyone today, but it would have shocked everyone if you would have predicted their skyrocketing value before their scandal(s).
A franchise that was 0-2 lifetime in the Super Bowl after losses to the famous Chicago Bears and a gunslinger named Brett Favre, went on to do something no one ever thought possible. They did it with a coach that struggled previously in Cleveland and a sixth-round quarterback prospect drafted 199th overall.
I still find it odd that in the era of "put an asterisk on the Rams win vs New Orleans"..."put an asterisk of Barry Bonds' home runs"..."put an asterisk on LeBron's super teams"...that the Patriots reign for the last two decades isn't viewed more as a stain on America's number one sport. More so, how the cries against the dearth of championship caliber teams in a league isn't pointed more directly at the NFL and specifically the New England Patriots.
Super Bowl Participants since 2002:
2002
New England Patriots - 20 (Tom Brady)
St Louis Rams - 17 (Kurt Warner)
2003
Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 48 (Brad Johnson)
Oakland Raiders - 21 (Rich Gannon)
2004
New England Patriots - 32 (Tom Brady)
Carolina Panthers - 29 (Jake Delhomme)
2005
New England Patriots - 24 (Tom Brady)
Philadelphia Eagles - 21 (Donovan McNabb)
2006
Pittsburgh Steelers - 21 (Ben Roethlisberger)
Seattle Seahawks - 10 (Matt Hasselbeck)
2007
Indianapolis Colts - 29 (Peyton Manning)
Chicago Bears - 17 (Rex Grossman)
2008
New York Giants - 17 (Eli Manning)
New England Patriots - 14 (Tom Brady)
2009
Pittsburgh Steelers - 27 (Ben Roethlisberger)
Arizona Cardinals - 23 (Kurt Warner)
2010
New Orleans Saints - 31 (Drew Brees)
Indianapolis Colts - 17 (Peyton Manning)
2011
Green Bay Packers - 31 (Aaron Rodgers)
Pittsburgh Steelers - 25 (Ben Roethlisberger)
2012
New York Giants - 21 (Eli Manning)
New England Patriots - 17 (Tom Brady)
2013
Baltimore Ravens - 34 (Joe Flacco)
San Francisco 49ers - 31 (Colin Kaepernick)
2014
Seattle Seahawks - 43 (Russell Wilson)
Denver Broncos - 8 (Peyton Manning)
2015
New England Patriots - 28 (Tom Brady)
Seattle Seahawks - 24 (Russell Wilson)
2016
Denver Broncos - 24 (Peyton Manning)
Carolina Panthers - 10 (Cam Newton)
2017
New England Patriots - 34 (Tom Brady)
Atlanta Falcons - 28 (Matt Ryan)
2018
Philadelphia Eagles - 41 (Nick Foles)
New England Patriots - 33 (Tom Brady)
2019
New England Patriots - (Tom Brady)
Los Angeles Rams - (Jared Goff)
AFC QB - Super Bowl Appearances & Record (Since 2002)
Tom Brady 9 games (5-3)
Peyton Manning 4 games (2-2)
Ben Roethlisberger 3 games (2-1)
Joe Flacco 1 game (1-0)
Rich Gannon 1 game (0-1)
NFC QB - Super Bowl Appearances & Record (Since 2002)
Eli Manning 2 games (2-0)
Russell Wilson 2 games (1-1)
Kurt Warner 2 games (0-2)
Drew Brees 1 game (1-0)
Aaron Rodgers 1 game (1-0)
Brad Johnson 1 game (1-0)
Nick Foles 1 game (1-0)
Cam Newton 1 game (0-1)
Matt Ryan 1 game (0-1)
Colin Kaepernick 1 game (0-1)
Donovan McNabb 1 game (0-1)
Jake Delhomme 1 game (0-1)
Rex Grossman 1 game (0-1)
Jared Goff 1 game (0-0)
As you can tell from above, if you have been a fan of an NFL team for the last two decades and didn't have a future Hall of Fame quarterback, then you've just been watching with zero expectation to reach the ultimate prize.
Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger have accounted for every AFC Super Bowl win in the last 17 years with the one exception being Joe Flacco, who had Ed Reed, Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata on the defensive side of the ball that season.
On the NFC side, Eli Manning, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers have amassed four of the seven titles won. Russell Wilson, Brad Johnson and Nick Foles make up the other three Super Bowl wins for the NFC since 2002. Wilson is still young; he could move over to the Hall of Fame side of this list in the future but it's way too early as of now.
Recap: If you are a fan of an NFL team without a future Hall of Famer playing quarterback, there is almost no reason for you to believe that your team has Super Bowl aspirations.
Only Nick Foles, Joe Flacco and Brad Johnson have won a Super Bowl in the last 18 years as the starting quarterback and not have a Hall of Fame resume (Wilson - book still being written).
For the majority of my adult life, the Super Bowl has been a foregone conclusion for AFC fans. If an AFC team wanted to win the Super Bowl from 2002-2019, there were four opportunities to get the right guy over the last 20+ years:
The Four Opportunities for AFC Teams
- 1998 - Draft Peyton Manning #1 overall
- 2000 - Draft Tom Brady
- 2004 - Draft Ben Roethlisberger
- 2012 - Sign Peyton Manning in free agency
Joe Flacco is the one exception to the rule in the last 18 years, as long as you have Ray, Ed, Ngata and Suggs on the defensive side.
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A.J. Hinch led Houston to a championship in 2017, and the last time he managed a postseason game it was the Astros’ loss in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series.
The following January he was suspended for a year by Major League Baseball and fired the same day for his role in Houston’s sign-stealing scandal.
Hinch returns to the playoffs Tuesday with the Detroit Tigers in their first postseason appearance in a decade when they face the AL West champion Astros in Game 1 of a best-of-three Wild Card Series. Detroit ace Tarik Skubal (18-4, 2.39 ERA) opposes fellow left-hander Framber Valdez (15-7, 2.91) in the opener.
Hinch, who has managed the Tigers since 2021, insists this series is not about his redemption.
“I’m not proud of the story to get here,” Hinch said Monday before the Tigers worked out at Minute Maid Park. “I’ve owned up to that and I will continue to do that. I’m very sorry for how it all went down. But all I had was the next opportunity to try to make it better and try to do my part to make this happen as fast as possible for the Detroit Tigers.”
“And that group that’s in the clubhouse over there waiting to go work out has worked tirelessly to get to feel this feeling,” he continued.
The Tigers were 10 games out of the last AL wild-card spot on Aug. 10 before going 31-13 the rest of the way to punch their ticket to the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
Now, they’ll face a playoff-tested Houston team that's in the postseason for an eighth straight year. Detroit outfielder Riley Greene believes the Tigers' path to this point will help them this week.
“I feel like we’ve been playing playoff baseball since August,” he said. “We’re young and all we really want to do is win and we’re doing whatever we can to win.”
The Astros also had a difficult path to the playoffs this season. Houston overcame a 7-19 start to win its fourth straight AL West title and its seventh in eight years, only falling short during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Hinch and Astros manager Joe Espada share a close bond after Hinch hired Espada as his bench coach in Houston before the 2018 season. Espada is in his first season as manager after Dusty Baker’s retirement.
“I’m actually looking forward to it,” Espada said. “He’s a good friend. We have spent a lot of time together. I’ve learned a ton from A.J., but I think this series is about the Astros against the Tigers.”
Valdez’s Mental Growth
Valdez is looking for a much better postseason this year after he lost each of his three playoff starts last season while giving up a combined 19 hits and 12 earned runs.
The 30-year-old has worked on improving his mental toughness over the past few years with the help of Dr. Andy Nunez, a psychologist in the Astros organization.
“With Dr. Andy, I’ve talked to him almost every day, whether it’s on the phone, whether before a game, after a game, even if I’m not playing, I try to take the moment and talk to him,” Valdez said in Spanish through a translator. “We talk about life, try to talk about the mental aspect of it, how to handle certain situations … (and) I try to take that advice and make the most of it.”
Espada has been impressed with the growth of Valdez since his rookie season in 2018.
“I’ve seen this young kid that got up here in the big leagues a long time ago really mature both personally and on the mound,” Espada said.
Skubal’s Crown
Skubal, who had 228 strikeouts to go with his 18 wins and 2.39 ERA, became the first American Leaguer to win the pitching Triple Crown since Cleveland’s Shane Bieber did it in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and the first in a full season since Justin Verlander in 2011.
The likely AL Cy Young Award winner is looking forward to his playoff debut.
“It means a lot to have the confidence from A.J. and the organization, and I’m going to roll out there (Tuesday) and do my best to put our team in position to win,” he said.
The 27-year-old Skubal has faced Houston twice this season with a win and a loss. But both starts were early in the season, with the last one coming on June 14.
After the Tigers use their ace in Game 1, don’t expect to see any Detroit pitcher for more than two or three innings for the rest of the series.
“Our plan, to give you a brief overview, is Tarik Skubal (on Tuesday) and pitching chaos the rest of the way, which is kind of how it’s been the last two months,” Hinch said.
Availability of Alvarez
The Astros are waiting to see if outfielder/designated hitter Yordan Alvarez can play this week. He’s been out since spraining his right knee on a slide Sept. 22.
Espada said Monday that Alvarez would hit in the cage and run on the field and the team would determine his availability after that.
Alvarez led the Astros with a .305 batting average, 35 homers and 86 RBIs this season.