2010 Season - Week 20

Last Thursday 5 current BUMS, one old BUM and a BUMS cheerleader gathered at Bodeans to chow down and chat Gridiron, and bloody good it was too. We had to go to the Tower Hill branch (bigger than Soho which was full) but it did mean a number of hungry young BUMS couldn’t make it. So I propose we go to Tower Hill again, in early March, either Tuesday 8th, Wednesday 9th or Thursday 10th. Plenty of time to get it in the diary, please let me know which dates suit and which don’t if you wish to come and we’ll go with the majority (of those that didn’t make it last time but had hoped to come) ie the decision is in the hands of Craig, David S, Daz, George, John, Mark and Ron. Anyone who wants to go let me know your can and can’t do days by Superbowl Night. Dynasty Controversy Great to have two-time runner up Paul Privitera back in blighty and he entertained us at Bodeans with a great Excel spreadsheet which created some debate. Paul’s premise is that to be a dynasty a team has to dominate in it’s own conference over a fixed period of time. Paul broke the Championship games into 5 years periods and looked at how many times teams made their Championship game in that spell and the 5 years either side. His conclusion is that there have only ever been 3 Dynasties in the Superbowl era, Dallas in the 60’s and 70’s when he Cowboys made the NFC title game 3 times in the first 5 Superbowl years, 4 times from ’71-75 and 3 more times from ‘76 to ’80. If you are counting that’s 10 NFC Championship Games in 15 years and very worthy of the Dynasty title. They did however only win the Superbowl twice, after the ’72 and ’78 seasons. The Raiders of the same period were next on Paul’s list visiting the AFC title game 4, 3 and 3 times in each five year period (again 10 finals) but only won it in the last of the 15 years, 1980. The final dynasty is the 49ers who from 1981-1995 went to the Conference final 3 times in each of the five years, going on to win the Superbowl on all five occasions they got there (after the 1981, ‘84, ’88. ’89 (Chief was there) and 1994 seasons. This created some keen discussion. For mine I look at teams of the decades based on winning the whole enchalada. Not only did the Packers win the first 2 Superbowls they also won the NFL Championship in 1965 making 3 straight championships. In the Seventies the Steelers won 4 titles in 6 years. I agree with Paul that San Francisco’s 4 wins give them the ’80s, Dallas take the ’90s with 3 wins and Pittsburgh could tie New England for 3 in the Noughties. If you wish to give your team a shout or add to the general debate this website may give you food for thought www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/list-of-super-bowl-winners Maybe we can continue the dscussions at Bodeans in March.