Will This Year’s NFL Playoffs Be Historic?
The regular season of the National Football League (NFL) ended last Sunday night when the Detroit Lions defeated the Minnesota Vikings, 31-9, to win both the National Football Conference (NFC) North division and the NFC’s top seed for the playoffs that begin today.
Fourteen of the NFL’s 32 teams are in the playoffs — seven in the NFC and seven in the AFC (American Football Conference). Those 14 teams and their fan bases passionately dream of their team winning a few more games and hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, which goes to the winner of the Super Bowl — the single biggest sporting event of the year in American professional sports.
The other 18 teams are already looking ahead to next year. Several head coaches and a larger number of offensive and defensive coordinators and position coaches already have been fired, with more to follow. Several general managers are in the hot seat, too, waiting to see if the axe will fall. The NFL compensates its executives and coaches handsomely, but they had better win, or else. Team owners seek to placate their fans by taking whatever steps are necessary to put a winning team on the field. That is true for every team; indeed, the competition in the NFL is fierce, unforgiving, and never-ending.
The fans of the eliminated teams are already comparing mock drafts of players coming out of the college ranks who will be drafted by NFL teams in late April. Fans nationwide fervently hope that their team will identify and draft players who will take their teams to the next level — the level of getting into the playoffs and competing for a championship. Millions of those fans will also tune in to watch the playoffs, both because of their love for the sport itself and to dream of their favorite team participating in the playoffs in the future.
Those 18 eliminated teams can be divided into roughly three groups: the chronically downtrodden, the borderline teams that some years squeak into the playoffs and other years fall short, and a longtime successful team (like the San Francisco 49ers) for which everything went wrong this year, leaving them on the outside looking in.
Similarly, the 14 teams in the playoffs also belong to one of three groups: the relative newcomers who for years wallowed in mediocrity and futility, but have turned their franchises around; the perennial bridesmaids — usually good enough to get into the playoffs, but not good enough to get to “the Big Dance” (the Super Bowl) — and the occasional perennial powerhouse.
The two top seeds in this year’s playoffs are a study in contrasts when it comes to their respective histories. One team’s history has been glorious, the other, abysmal. Let’s start with the NFC’s top seed, the Detroit Lions.
The Lions have broken the hearts of their fans for close to 70 years. I grew up on the outskirts of Detroit and am a lifelong Lions fan. I saw my first professional football game on a black-and-white TV in my next-door neighbor’s basement on Dec. 28, 1958. That was the classic NFL championship game when Johnny Unitas and the Baltimore Colts defeated Frank Gifford and the New York Giants in sudden-death overtime. That was the day I attained football consciousness.
Unfortunately, it happened one year after the last time the Lions won the NFL championship. Since then, I have watched every NFL championship game (with the exception of a couple of early Super Bowls I missed because I was studying abroad), and not once have my Lions made an appearance in the big game.
Occasionally, the Lions fielded excellent, or at least very good, teams: There was the early 1960s team when the Lions had five future Hall of Famers on defense, but always finished second to the Vince Lombardi-led Green Bay Packers. Then there was the 1990s, when the Lions had the human-highlight-reel known as Barry Sanders, a phenomenal running back. More recently, in the 2010s, the Lions had three wild-card appearances (all losses). In total, between their last championship in 1957 through last year, the Lions won a grand total of one playoff game.
Last year, the picture brightened. The Lions won not one, but two playoff games. Then, the familiar feeling of heartbreak returned when the Lions blew a 24-7 halftime lead in the NFC Championship game and lost, 34-31.
Will this be the year that the Lions finally get into the Super Bowl, and maybe win it? That will be one of the major storylines in this year’s playoffs. As was the case when the New Orleans Saints (long known as the “Ain’ts”) went to their only Super Bowl in 2010 (and won it!), I suspect the Lions will be cheered on by millions of fans who have a soft spot in their heart for the perennial underdog — especially given the way the Lions have heroically overcome the depletion of their defense through injuries and for which Head Coach Dan Campbell refuses to accept sympathy or make excuses, winning the respect of sports fans everywhere.
In the AFC, the top seed is the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are almost the polar opposite of the Lions. They are chasing history, trying this year to become the first team ever to win three consecutive Super Bowls. Already, the Chiefs head coach/quarterback combination of Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes has won three Super Bowls. If they win this year, they will equal the four that the Pittsburgh Steelers won under Coach Chuck Noll and quarterback Terry Bradshaw, as the Chiefs tandem chases the record of six Super Bowl wins amassed by the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady-led New England Patriots.
Indeed, a Lions-Chiefs matchup in the Super Bowl would be all that a scriptwriter could want to hype the game.
It would be historic, with either the long-suffering Lions winning their first-ever Super Bowl or the Chiefs winning their third in a row. But hold on, folks, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There are 12 other teams in the playoffs that will be doing their utmost to keep the Lions and Chiefs from reaching the Super Bowl. As past playoff history has proven, even the lowest-seeded team can get hot and win a championship.
To advance to the Super Bowl, the Lions and Chiefs will both have to defeat two good teams. In the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Rams, Washington Commanders, or Green Bay Packers could knock off the Lions and end their dream season (a franchise-best 15-2 record). And in the AFC, superstar quarterbacks Josh Allen and his Buffalo Bills and Lamar Jackson and his Baltimore Ravens both want to prove themselves to be the league’s Most Valuable Player by winning a championship. And, the Houston Texans, Los Angeles Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Denver Broncos are all hoping to be the team that gets hot and pulls off an upset.
Buckle up, folks. It will be a fascinating, dramatic, and possibly wild ride in this year’s NFL playoffs. Prepare to be surprised, impressed, crushed, or elated. May the best team win. And may that team be the Detroit Lions!
READ MORE from Mark W. Hendrickson:
Pete Rose: A Baseball Icon With Feet of Clay
Shohei Ohtani: Major League Baseball’s Supernova
The post Will This Year’s NFL Playoffs Be Historic? appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.