Tom vs. Patrick -- Super Bowl LV thread

Not necessarily. Before 1933, the league champion was the team with the best record. Such a team could have lost its last game (but I haven't checked so I don't know).

 

How many NBA Finals did Russell play in?

 

12 won 11, played 13 seasons.

 

So if the NBA "championship" has been on since 1947, there have been 73 championships.

Russell played in 12, or 16% of all championships.

List of NBA champions - Wikipedia

 

OK, so I looked it up.

The only team to lose its last game but still win the NFL championship (pre-championship game) was the 1931 Green Bay Packers, who went 12-2 but lost to the Chicago Bears 7-6 intheir season finale.

A number of championship teams tied their last game: the 1920 Akron Pros (tied their last two), 1921 Chicago Staleys, 1926 Frankford Yellow Jackets, 1928 Providence Steam Roller and the 1930 Green Bay Packers (finished loss-tie).

Totally off subject, the '32 Bears had the craziest record of any NFL champion: 7-1-6. They opened the season 0-0-3, then lost the next week to start 0-1-3.

 

A reminder: Otto Graham played 10 years of pro football with the Browns. He ALWAYS played in a championship game. And he quite because he was like 33 (WW2 effect) and because he could make more money as Sylvania's chief pitchman (I got an autographed football from him at age 5 at an appliance dealership, long gone now, alas) than he could in the NFL, he retired relatively early. On the list of somehow underrated although still seen as great Hall of Famers, guys like Bob Lilly, Forrest Gregg, Jack Lambert, Mel Blount, Graham is number one.

 

Lambert is underrated?

 

I think so. I mean, everyone thinks he's great, but HOW great?

 

How about the worst?

Brad Johnson over Rich Gannon? Trent Dilfer over Kerry Collins?

 

I mean no because the others have been around too long it’s becoming impossible.

Bill Russell has more championship appearances than Brady winning 11 titles. After his last appearance, Russell had (edit) won 11 of 23 NBA championships. As it stands, he has (won) 15 percent of the titles.

 

Depends on how you define "worst." Are we talking the overall reputation/legacy of the two QBs involved? Or their respective performances in the game?

Only three of the last 33 Super Bowls (35, 37 and 47) and had matchups where both quarterbacks either did not make the Hall of Fame or are not likely to make the Hall of Fame. There are eight such matchups across all 54 Super Bowls. Narrowing it down to those eight, I think you wind up with these as the bottom two. Most of the others, at least one of the QBs in question had some redeeming quality (a good season or a good performance) that kept them off the list.

1) Dilfer over Collins in SB 35. Two average at best QBs who both played pretty poorly in the Super Bowl.

2) Morrall vs. Morton in SB V. Both guys had insanely successful careers for a couple of journeymen, but neither is among the best ever and this Super Bowl was so bad people forget that it had one of the few truly exciting finishes in the first 25 years of the game's history.

If you want to add a third one, go with Griese vs. Kilmer in SB 7. The Dolphins winning to finish the perfect season makes people forget how dreadful this Super Bowl was. Griese and Kilmer were a combined 22-for-39, for 192 yards, with one touchdown, four interceptions and four sacks. There was one completed pass longer than 20 yards in the entire game.
Griese is a Hall of Famer, but it wasn't like he was ever known for lighting it up with his arm.