In Defense of Lost NFL History -- the NFL Championship

With the storied Packers franchise picking up its 4th Super Bowl and 13th championship overall, an old bugaboo of mine is raised again -- the erasure of NFL history from 1920-1966.  The era before the Super Bowl.

Casual NFL fans don't know about, or don't care about, anything before the Super Bowl.  Part of this is the NFL's fault, for trying to smooth over its merger with the rival AFL in 1970, by emphasizing the new Super Bowl as the championship of both leagues and an entirely new animal.  Part of this is the laziness of the sports media, not bothering to keep history alive.  Part of this is the fact that the Super Bowl has become an icon unto itself and sees increasing hype every year.  Part of this is the ignorance of bandwagon fans who follow whoever is winning this year and don't recall 5 years ago.  Part of this is fans who follow teams whose only success has come in the Super Bowl era (The Steelers are the perfect example of this.  While very successful with 6 Super Bowl wins in 8 appearances, the team has been around since 1933 and for the first 40 years didn't even make the playoffs one single time).

As I get older, I come to appreciate history more.  In baseball I am a Yankee fan, and the Yankees revel in their incredibly rich history.  In football I am a Giants fan, and the Giants tend not to toot their own horns, at all, despite a very rich history dating back to 1925.  The Giants are the 4th oldest team in the NFL (behind the Cardinals, Packers, and Bears), and are one of the tall oaks of the NFL forest.  The Giants are responsible for countless innovations in the game and the growth of the league.  In a frustrating sidenote, they have competed in the NFL championship game a record 18 times (including 4 Super Bowl appearances); unfortunately they lost in the title game a lot -- they went to 6 championship games in 8 years and only won one.  Worth something getting there, but losing 5 out of 6 in 8 years must have been heartbreaking.  You wouldn't know about all this history by looking around Giants Stadium or the New Meadowlands (they have added a secret "legacy room" as a museum of sorts in the new stadium).  Adding the ring of honor was a good start.

Thorpe Trophy

The NFL did not start in 1967 when the first Super Bowl was played.  It started in 1920.  Until 1932, teams won by having the best record.  Starting in 1933, the two best teams in each division played in the championship game.  There was a team standing alone at the top each season as champions.  It wasn't imaginary.  There was a trophy, called the Thorp Trophy.  Much like the NHL's Stanley Cup, it was passed from champion to champion each year.  Ironically, the trophy has been lost; the Minnesota Vikings were the trophy's last custodian as the last NFL champion before the merger and they can't find it.

Green Bay is a perfect example of my point.  Vince Lombardi's Packers are the ultimate dynasty, and there's a reason the NFL championship trophy is named after Lombardi.  He won 5 championships in 7 years, including being the only modern era team to win 3 in a row.  Only the last two of those championships were Super Bowls; the first two Super Bowls.  Saying Title Town only has 4 Super Bowls is a great disservice to the legacy of the NFL and Vince Lombardi in particular.  Green Bay has stood at the top of the professional football world, the NFL, 13 times. 

Back when the Super Bowl was new, they didn't make a distinction between old NFL championships and the Super Bowl; this is a recent "don't bother me, kid" move by the sports media.  As evidence, I cite the Packers' ring from Super Bowl II.  You will note that it has three diamonds, representing the feat of winning 3 championships in a row (which has not been equaled since).  The last NFL championship and the first two Super Bowls.  They seem to be treated equally here.

Usually you will get arguments from Cowboys fans (whose teams were eligible to win a championship from their first year in 1960, but didn't) or Steeler fans (whose team didn't even make the playoffs a single time from 1933-1972), saying that old NFL championships don't count, only Super Bowls count.  Well, first they have a reason to say that because it makes their teams look better, and since neither team won any, they see no reason to include them.

They will say those old NFL championships aren't relevant.  As if a Super Bowl won in 1971 when there were fewer rounds of playoffs, 6 fewer teams, and a 14 game season, is relevant?  In my book if we can dismiss history as being irrelevant, 1966 and 1971 seem to be equally dismissible from the vantage of 2011.  They will say there were fewer teams; that the rules of the game have changed; that the playoff format has changed; that it was pre-merger and thus doesn't count.

We don't have such a break in any other sport; why do we have it in football?

Baseball has had rule changes (notably the Designated Hitter rule), expansion teams added, and the playoff format has changed (until 1969 there were no playoffs; the pennant in each league was determined by standings alone and the two pennant winners played in the World Series; the wild-card didn't exist until 1995).  We don't throw away World Series titles won before 1969.

Basketball has undergone a merger (with the ABA in 1977), expansion teams, and rule changes (notably introduction of the shot clock) but we don't throw away NBA championships that predate them.

In football, if we make a break at the introduction of the Super Bowl, why stop there?  Some other notable changes in the NFL that have happened since the Super Bowl started:

• Several divisional realignments
• 6 new expansion teams (Bucs, Seahawks, Panthers, Jaguars, Texans, new Browns).
• 14 game season expanded to 16; may be increased to 18 in 2011.
• Playoffs expanded from 4 teams total to 12; wilcard and then extra rounds added.
• Free Agency

So why not throw away old Super Bowls too, since the sport has changed so much?  I say let's start at 1985, a nice round figure of 25 years, and then nobody has more than 3 trophies.

I call for an end to the hypocrisy.  We do these hard working early NFL pioneers a disservice by discounting their history.  The announcers of this year's Super Bowl did right to acknowledge the Packers' 13 title and not just their 4th Super Bowl.

And I urge the league to honor its past by not throwing away this history.