Dynastys require FOUR Super Bowls in ONE decade.

[MikeG]

At minimum.

That is all.

[freedom_to_read]

1. those grapes tasting a little sour, amigo?

;-)

based on your avatar, I know where your loyalties lie!

[MikeG]

9. IX, X, XIII and XIV. FOUR.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. Salary caps have reduced that requirement

sorry.

[MikeG]

7. Nope. Still the same. No excuses. FOUR.

[Ravenseye]

19. I Disagree

The Steelers in the 1970's as with most teams had to build their team via the draft primarily. The last two superbowls in the 70's were won by two Steeler teams made ENTIRELY of players drafted and raised in their system. No free agents whatsoever.

You have two options as to what is easier:

1. You start with a bad team. All you have is the draft to bring in new players. You have 4 years to win a Superbowl. Once you win the Superbowl you have to win 3 more over the following 5 years. You must do this by using ONLY the draft.

2. You start with a bad team. You have both the draft and free agency to bring in new players. There is a salary cap so you will have to lose players perhaps one a year, which you'll have to replace on an ongoing basis with the draft and free agency. In addition other teams have the same problems so you may be able to get upgrades of experienced players along the way.

I think having to rely on the draft is much more difficult. How many players on the Steelers and Patriots teams this year were there in their last Championship meeting? I think it's something like 40%.

Yes it's easier with the same players to form unit cohesion. This is offset by the fact that EVERY team has this same unit cohesion. What's more devastating are career ending injuries, and bad drafting.

Essentially the comparrison comes down to whats more difficult

a) Drafting the right players to go at least 10 years and be good.
b) Drafting some right players, and picking the rest up in free agency after you KNOW they are good.

I think a) is harder.

[ThorsHammer]

25. Devil's Advocate - there is also a dilution of talent now

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

3. I'm a Steelers fan too but where did you get that criteria?

New England played a really good game and Big Ben is just a newbie who made some newbie mistakes. We aren't being sore losers now are we?

We can now cheer for either the AFC team from the blue Northeast to win or for Pennsylvania to win...I can think of plenty of other teams that I would REALLY hate to see in the Superbowl.

[MikeG]

6. I'll cheer for them, but dynasty, no.

[rinsd]

4. All previous Steeler glory has been erased....

....by the continuing idiocy of Terry Bradshaw.

[MikeG]

10. The greatest QB of all time.

[TomClash]

22. You're on crystal meth nt

[TomClash]

5. Face it

Your team got beat up and down the field.

[MikeG]

8. Still need four, sparky. FOUR. not THREE.

[WilliamPitt]

11. You need to bone up on those coping skills, Mike

:)

That having been said, the dynasty word is going to get bandied about if the Pats win again. Personally, I think they qualify given the league situation - free agents, parity, etc. - but anyone who rates them with the Steelers of the 70s is deranged. The Pats will have to pretty much win two more after this one to overcome that record. They could do it, but until they do, the 70s Steelers reign supreme.

And, btw, all this is moot if the Pats geek and lose on the 6th. First things first.

[MikeG]

12. I'm rooting for the Pats and think they'll win.

But the Steelers stand between three and four.

And I'm coping fine. Let's go Bucs.

[WilliamPitt]

13. "Let's go Bucs."

LOL

:)

[TomClash]

20. I agree, the Steelers of the 70s were better in their time

They had everything - even their special teams were excellent.

[Ravenseye]

23. I say 2 more, including this year,a nd dynasty is fair.

If they win 4 in 5 years, including 3 in a row...Yeah that's a fair dynasty label.

so 2 more, WITH this one.

As I've written in other posts I don't think it's more difficult now to have a dynasty. Where is the evidence of it? The dynasties that we speak of changed. They weren't always the same players. SUre they had a good solid core of players, but the key was the coach.

Chuck Noll, Bill Walsh, Tom Landry, Vince L-mbardi...These are coaches who had tenure the likes of which is no longer seen in the bait and switch NFL. I remmeber vividly when Bill Cowher was hired. Youngest coach in the NFL at the time. Now he's the old man of the sea. I think people aren't willing to give a coach free reign and then let them have 4-5 years to get a team going anymore. They demand results NOW or the coach is gone. How many coaches in the league have losing records and hold onto their job for even 3 years nowdays?

That's the big difference. Belichek got his losing out of the way with the Browns and then hit the jackpot with the Patriots. All the right combinations of pieces were there for him to strike gold fast, and he did.

So all things being equal. Win this year, great team. Win this year AND next year. Dynasty.

[Mojambo]

14. I never heard that rule

Did you just make it up?

It won't matter because the Patriots are very well positioned to win more in this decade anyway.

[MikeG]

15. You're leaking assistant coaches.

Cowher would love to have some of his back.

[Mojambo]

16. I'm leaking assistant coaches?

I'm a Seahawk fan (requisite pity accepted.)

As long as New England hangs on to their top guy and their QB they'll be playing for the chance to go to the Superbowl pretty much every year.

That organization is ROCK solid, IMO.

[MikeG]

17. No. They'll be falling apart shortly. Nothing lasts forever.

Those no name players will want more $.

And where were they in 02.

The Steelers made every playoff from 72 through 80.

[Mojambo]

18. Well, put on some Doobie Brothers, grab your Pet Rock

And celebrate!

I love ancient history!

[TomClash]

21. Why don't you go over to the Freeper Lounge?

You sound like one of them. Arguing nothing about nothing.

:puke:

[leeman67]

24. Dynasty's do not require 4 championships in 1 decade.

They require 6. Said the Packers' fans. :P

[Lexingtonian]

26. Dude, get over it already

It's not worth your agonizing or even the annoying of other people. It's a friggin' game for hardass 22 year olds with nothing better to accomplish in life.

And it would be nice if you stopped grabbing stuff out of your @$$. It's not fun to watch.

[MikeG]

27. FOUR. and you only have TWO. Can the dynasty talk.

[Lexingtonian]

28. I care nothing one way or another

You can make it six or sixteen for all I care. I'm just wondering why you insist on having a pole up your #*& about this imaginary notion, which largely exists so that pre-game show talking heads and sports columnists have something to opine on.

As far as I'm concerned, it has simply taken three good runs at the SB for a certain kind underhanded obloquy of the Belichick Pats to come to something of an end. At least that's why I think the team has been willing to give the thing this many hard runs and 'getting no respect' is a motivator with them. Maybe another way of saying it is that the poisonous Reagan Eighties egocentric machismo still in the NFL, which really surpassed and degraded the 'mere' jock machismo always in the game, couldn't live with the BPs style and it really has taken this long for the attitude to (quite literally) get beaten down some.

'Dynasty' whoop-de-do. You can keep 'dynasty' and your Steel Curtain. It simply would be nice if the rules about it weren't as flexible as college dorm definitions of 'tradition'.

[sniffa]

31. hey, it couLd be worse

he couLd be this guy:

"We're all like devastated," Nick Hoban said after the game. Hoban, who lives on the South Side, said he already had purchased six airline tickets, six Super Bowl tickets and several Jacksonville, Fla., hotel rooms for him, his two sons and three nephews. Total cost: $25,000.

[pres2032]

29. i agree

or at least lasting for over 10 years, like the niners from 1980-1995. Pats aren't a dynasty yet.

[DaveinMD]

30. three in four years

will be a dynasty and I don't have a dog in this hunt.

[MikeG]

32. Need FOUR.

[DaveinMD]

33. why?

three in 4 is good enough

[THUNDER HANDS]

34. as an Islanders fan, I agree

coming from the 4-championship club. Those who have not won like this will never know true dynastydom.