NFC Super Bowl run from 1984 to 1996

[lastcat3]

Much was talked about this during the early and mid nineties. However when did the media really start catching on and talking about this streak to the point to where you could almost crown the NFC team even before the game?

The Broncos were actually favored over the Redskins for Super Bowl XXII so it definitely wasn't around at that point. Super Bowl XXIII was a close game that took the 49ers until the last drive of the game to win so it definitely wouldn't have started by that point either. Super Bowl XXIV was a blowout but then the next year the Bills were favored over the Giants. So my guess is is that the media grabbed on to it somewhere around Super Bowl XXVI and Super Bowl XXVII (both of which were one sided affairs with the Bills getting handled rather easily). We know by the 1994 season the media had definitely latched onto it because Sports Illustrated called the '94 NFC Championship the real Super Bowl.

[L.C. Greenwood]

Much was talked about this during the early and mid nineties. However when did the media really start catching on and talking about this streak to the point to where you could almost crown the NFC team even before the game?

The Broncos were actually favored over the Redskins for Super Bowl XXII so it definitely wasn't around at that point. Super Bowl XXIII was a close game that took the 49ers until the last drive of the game to win so it definitely wouldn't have started by that point either. Super Bowl XXIV was a blowout but then the next year the Bills were favored over the Giants. So my guess is is that the media grabbed on to it somewhere around Super Bowl XXVI and Super Bowl XXVII (both of which were one sided affairs with the Bills getting handled rather easily). We know by the 1994 season the media had definitely latched onto it because Sports Illustrated called the '94 NFC Championship the real Super Bowl.

My recollection is how the media really missed a key reason why the NFC was better, and that's the fact they dominated the AFC in procuring USFL talent. Outside of Jim Kelly and Kent Hull, there wasn't much USFL representation. By contrast, the NFC had USFL help not only in the SB wins, but elsewhere. I never saw this discrepancy covered in any of the TV coverage I saw during this time.

[74_75_78_79_]

I don’t know or remember exactly when the press or fans in-general started to totally recognize the NFC’s Super Bowl dominance. It’s likely what you suggest, cat; Redskins and Dallas’s lopsided SB wins vs Bills. Pretty good point as well, LC, about NFC/USFL. Never really thought of that.

I do remember that ’86 Wash/NYG NFCC getting more of a general buzz than the other CC. Giants’ powerful regular-season finish, earning 14-2 top-seed, and then demolishing SF, 49-3; and Redskins winning at the defending-Champs by more than a TD as well as having already been in two SBs so far this decade really made it feel like a ‘real’ SB. Also consider that 1986 was the first year of the decade that all three ’70s stalwarts (Steelers, Dolphins, Raiders) failed to make the playoffs (Dallas in NFC also missing). A sense of ‘change-of-guard’ had to be felt.

Only one NFC team won-it-all (twice) in the ’70s and that was Dallas; Raiders only AFC team to win (twice as well) in the ’80s, Broncos (twice yet again) being only AFC winner in the ’90s. I’d think SBXXX (Dal over Pit) and SBXXXI (GB over NE), the first good SBs since Bills/Giants although NFC still won both, signaled not only the end of that very NFC-dominance but (finally) the end of lopsided SBs being a regular thing. This despite Bill Walsh writing this very piece for SI after that very not-lopsided Steelers/Dallas Bowl...(pretty pessimistic of AFC coming around again anytime soon)...

https://www.si.com/vault/1996/02/05/209 ... ed-the-afc

And also despite defending-Champ, Packers, being quite the heavy fave going into their affair with Broncos.

[7DnBrnc53]

I’d think SBXXX (Dal over Pit) and SBXXXI (GB over NE), the first good SBs since Bills/Giants although NFC still won both, signaled not only the end of that very NFC-dominance but (finally) the end of lopsided SBs being a regular thing.

Before SB XXX, there was an NBC pre-game segment on NFC dominance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjO3IMKcI1k

[lastcat3]

I’d think SBXXX (Dal over Pit) and SBXXXI (GB over NE), the first good SBs since Bills/Giants although NFC still won both, signaled not only the end of that very NFC-dominance but (finally) the end of lopsided SBs being a regular thing.

Before SB XXX, there was an NBC pre-game segment on NFC dominance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjO3IMKcI1k

Yep that was actually the same video that was linked in the post just above you.