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First time for everything NFL's final four taking different routes in Super Bowl chase
Posted: Wednesday January 19, 2000 01:30 AM
By Ryan Hunt, CNNSI.com For the first time since 1974, the NFL's final four teams have combined for zero Super Bowl wins. Super Bowl IX would turn out to be the first of Pittsburgh's run of four titles in the 1970s, handing Minnesota the third of its four Super Bowl losses. Oakland, which would later win three championships, and the Los Angeles Rams lost in the conference championship round. Twenty-five years later, the now-St. Louis Rams are back in the NFC title game. And of this season's four championship-game teams, it's St. Louis that has the most postseason experience. The Rams have advanced to nine championship games (since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970), including the lone Super Bowl of the group.
That's surprising because in the nine seasons between the Rams' last title game appearances (1989), they owned the NFL's worst winning percentage -- winning only 46 games from 1990-98 -- and failed to make the playoffs. And now the NFC Championship Game features two teams that lost a combined 195 games this decade. Coincidentally, the Rams' lone Super Bowl appearance came after beating the same Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- the NFL's longtime poster child for mediocrity -- in the '79 NFC title game. How bad has Tampa Bay been historically? The Bucs, who entered the NFL in 1976, set a franchise record with 11 wins this season. In order for the Bucs to get to the .500 mark all-time, they would have to win 11 games for the next 19 seasons. This is only Tampa Bay's fifth playoff appearance in its 24 years in the NFL. Jacksonville, on the other hand, has been to the postseason four times in its five years. The Vikings are the only other NFL team that has been to the playoffs in each of the past four seasons.
And the Jags, despite joining the league in 1995, have more playoff wins (4-3) and the same number of championship game appearances (two) as their intrastate foes. At least, The Tennessee Titans have two AFL titles -- coming while they were known as the Houston Oilers. Since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, though, the Titans/Oilers have won only seven playoff games (counting this season's two wins) in 11 postseason appearances. Like the Bucs, their last conference title game appearance was in 1979.
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