Crazy Packers Fan wrote: ↑Fri May 23, 2025 12:10 pm
I am fully on board with the Lions' proposal to change seeding - wild cards should be able to get higher seeds than division winners, as long as division champions still get in the playoffs. However, I can't agree that the 2002 realignment ruined division rivalries. Nearly every rivalry stayed intact after the move to 32 teams.
Atlanta, Carolina, New Orleans - moved from NFC West to (new) NFC South
Jacksonville and Tennessee - moved from AFC Central to (new) AFC South
The only ones who really moved were Indianapolis, Arizona, Seattle, and Tampa Bay. Of those, all were the "misfits" of the division who either were out of place geographically, or didn't have as many roots with rivalries with their divisional foes. (The Patriots-Colts rivalry of the 2000s happened after they were in different divisions.)
Seattle and San Francisco quickly became rivals. Indianapolis did the same with Tennessee, and Tampa Bay fit perfectly into the NFC South. And Arizona was never really rivals with anyone in the NFC East to begin with.
tl;dr Rivalries haven't really been lost since the 2002 realignment.
I think I probably meant more that the 2002 realignment killed the feel that 5 team divisions had where they were like a mini league within the NFL. To me something about that was lost with only 4 teams per division. But looking closer at it I think that realignment coming so soon after franchises moving/changing did kill a certain element of rivalries in the NFL.
Oilers moving to Tennessee seemingly almost instantly killed the vibe of Oilers vs Steelers even though they played in the same division for a few more years, certainly didn't have the same energy as true Houston vs Pittsburgh glory days. Then separating those two teams with the 2002 realignment killed it altogether. Steelers vs Oilers was a good one.
Oilers moving to Tennessee also instantly killed Oilers vs Cowboys, while not a big rivalry it was still a thing. The Tennessee Oilers played Dallas one of those seasons 97-98 if I remember right and it just felt off big time, like nowhere near a big of a deal.
Oilers vs Bengals and Browns also meant something and both killed off with the Oilers move/name change then realignment splitting them apart 5 years later with the realignment.
Ravens vs Titans was the best rivalry in the NFL to me starting with the 1999 games spilling into the trilogy of games in 2000 that got me back into the NFL after a few years of not really caring for it. To me my favorite trilogy of games in NFL season ever. That was the real Super Bowl in 2000, they split that apart with the realignment is a big one that was lost.
Moving the Colts out of the East split apart all of the potential trilogies of Manning vs Brady we could have had, with division titles on the line. We lost that due to the 2002 realignment, also Colts vs Pats was kind of a thing, while not a real heated rivalry, something to me was really lost when you split up Colts vs Jets, Colts vs Dolphins, Colts vs Bills, and Colts vs Pats.
While on the subject I'm a huge hater of the AFC South they created. It was basically the Manning division, custom made for him. He was the chosen face of the league and for good reason, but that division seemed to set him up for a pretty nice career, 2X vs warm weather/indoor expansion team that was set to fail at the beginning(Texans), annual trip to his alma matter(Tennessee), and annual road game to nice weather Jacksonville. Indianapolis Indiana is pretty far from being in the south, this division makes no sense now that the golden boy it was created for has been retired for a few years. I like that the Texans and Titans are in the same division but hate that Indy and Jacksonville are in it.
What rivalry is really there with Indy vs Tennessee or Indy vs Jacksonville? Both sound gross and make no sense to me. With the AFC South I feel like you could make a strong case to realign the teams again. Indy being in the AFC South is equally as geographically incorrect as Atlanta and Carolina being in the NFC West, at least it was cool and made sense to see Falcons/Panthers vs 49ers/Saints/Rams, that all just worked. Indy vs Tennesse and Jacksonville doesn't for me.
Moving over to the NFC I have always really really hated seeing Seattle in the NFC. It's the equivalent of seeing Johnny Unitas in a Chargers uniform or what have you. Taking them out of their rivalries with Denver, the Raiders, Chargers, Chiefs, those are classic matchups for Seattle. The 4 team AFC West we have now is not the same without Seattle being in the mix, several seasons where that division was really it's own thing within the NFL(1999 was a fun year for that division for example). Seattle vs NFC teams doesn't work for me brother. Seeing them in the NFC playoffs or Super Bowl is just plain gross.
Also not a fan of Tampa being moved away from Green Bay, Chicago, Detroit, and Minnesota, same applies to Seattle and the AFC West, that 5th team being Tampa made that more interesting than it is now. We also lost San Fran vs Atlanta those teams had a good history, San Fran vs Carolina was instant rivalry as soon as Panthers entered the league that had wheels that were lost. New Orleans vs San Fran also was something good that was lost. Definitely a whole lot more lost than gained from that 2002 realignment for me.
Also forgot about the Cardinals, splitting them apart from their biggest rivals the Cowboys. That could have been good for the franchise though since there were more Cowboys fans in Arizona than Cardinals. But Cardinals vs Cowboys was definitely a thing that had history, Cards vs Eagles also I liked that and history was there. You could argue that they didn't have any strong rivals in the NFC east(I would argue that Dallas vs AZ was there was always at least AZ's highest drawing game as far as attendance anyways, the owner complained about the realignment when it happened because they lost the annual Cowboys game that made them a ton of money) but I would counter by asking is AZ vs SF/LA/Sea really anything any more meaningful? At least with Philly and Dallas there was some legit history there.