Pass on Patriots: ESPN Snubs Brady-Belichick in 'Dynasty' Rankings?!
Clearly a "prisoner of the present," ESPN had the audacity on Tuesday morning to unveil a list of the NFL's all-time best dynasties without the New England Patriots at the top. Or for that matter, even among its top four.
On its Get Up! show, host Mike Greenberg presented his Top 5 dynasties. The Patriots were inexplicably beaten out by not only the current Kansas City Chiefs but also a past team that won only two Super Bowls.
Greenberg did admit to subjectively tweaking his list of supposed "Super Bowl era" dynasties, allowing in the pre-Super Bowl Green Bay Packers and breaking into two parts the Patriots' 18-year run which featured a record six titles.
"If we include the Patriots as one group it's unquestionably No. 1," Greenberg said. "And it's not even close."
For New England, how (in)covenient.
Strangely, the teams with arguably the two most dominant periods of pro football were left off the list. Only the Dallas Cowboys (1992-93, '95) and Patriots (2001, '03-04) won three Super Bowls in four years.
Instead, ESPN's Top 5:
5. Bill Belichick-Tom Brady Patriots 2014-18 - 3 Super Bowl wins, 5 AFC Championship Games in 5 years.
4. Andy Reid-Patrick Mahomes-Travis Kelce Chiefs 2019-23 - 3 Super Bowl wins, 4 Super Bowl appearances, 5 AFC Championship Games in 5 years. Chance for historic 3-peat in 2024.
3. Joe Montana San Francisco 49ers 1981-89 - 4 Super Bowl wins in 9 years.
2. Steel Curtain Pittsburgh Steelers 1974-79 - 4 Super Bowl wins - including back-to-back titles in '74-75 and '78-79 - and 5 AFC Championship Games in 6 years.
1. Vince Lombardi Packers 1961-67 - 5 championships (including the first 2 Super Bowls) in 7 years with a roster that featured 13 future Hall of Famers.
Let's remove the obvious - and admittedly irrelevant - fact that any of the Pats' six champions would run circles around Lombardi's Packers.
The more pertinent question is why ESPN decided to split the Patriots' one dynasty into two mini-dynasties, while allowing the 49ers' nine-year reign to be considered as only one?
Montana was the quarterback for all four San Francisco Super Bowls in the '80s, but receiver Jerry Rice was only there for two and the team had two different coaches in Bill Walsh (3) and George Seifert (1).
While winning its six Super Bowls from 2001-18 sure the Patriots had tremendous turnover. The first run included the likes of Tedy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel, while the second featured Rob Gronkowski, Malcolm Butler and Julian Edelman.
Belichick-Brady, however, was the constant thread.
During their nine-year gap between Super Bowl wins 2005-13, the Pats made five AFC Championships and two Super Bowls and only missed the playoffs once in 2008 when Brady suffered a season-ending injury in Week 1. Oh, and in 2007 they went 16-0.
Any talk of greatest all-time NFL dynasties without the Patriots No. 1 isn't any sort of definitive list ... just talk.
