PickSix 1.27.09

Era of the Upstart
By Vince Darcangelo

Happy Super Bowl Media Day, every one!

What, not that jazzed? Come on. It’s another chance for broadcasters to stare into the camera with an incredulous look, refer to a cue card and dust off some tired joke about how there’s nothing wrong with your television, do not adjust your set, but the Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl.

Enough, folks. We got our fill on Championship Sunday, when the joke was actually funny . . . for about a minute. It then became obligatory for every commentator, journalist, sideline reporter and Starbucks barista to announce the results with a stutter, feigned shock and finally incredulity: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a misprint. The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl.”

First of all, as mentioned above, this joke ran out of legs as soon as it left the gate, and it should have been sent out to pasture just as quickly. Second, the repetition of this shock and awe is disrespectful to the Cardinals, an organization of professional athletes that worked pretty damn hard to make it to the greatest stage in its sport. Ridicule should not be the reward.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, to feign shock at a first-time Super Bowl participant is just brainless. When we hear an announcer react incredulously to the Arizona Cardinals’ victory, we have to ask, “Did they just start watching football this season?”

Anyone who has paid even the slightest attention to professional sports knows that this is the era of the upstart, where expansion teams have been elevated and old doormats have become dominant. Forget the Yankees. In successive years, the Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays have competed in the World Series. Speaking of Tampa (host of Super Bowl XLIII), the city has two championships to its credit this decade: one from the Bucs and one from its hockey team, the Lightning (a title reign that lasted two years due to the cancelled 2004-2005 NHL season).

And who supplanted Tampa Bay when hockey eventually resumed? Carolina. In fact, it was Carolina’s second straight year competing for a pro title, as the Panthers had played in the previous year’s Super Bowl.

Sure, the Red Sox still dominate baseball, the Red Wings still rule hockey and each of the past four Super Bowls has featured at least one old-school NFL squad (Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants). But in a decade in which the Rays have won the AL East, multiple hockey championships have been hoisted south of the Mason-Dixon and the Panthers were a late field goal away from thwarting the Patriots dynasty in its infancy, don’t be surprised when the Arizona Cardinals become Super.

Toward that end, here are some relevant Super Bowl statistics the P-6 has compiled proving that we are living in the Era of the Upstart.

Front Seven

1. At the end of the 1993 season, 9 NFL teams had never made it to the Super Bowl. In the 15 seasons since, that number has decreased to 5 while the number of teams in the league has increased.

2. Put another way, at the end of the 1993 season, there were only 28 teams in the league and nearly a third of them (32 percent) had never made it to the Bowl. The league now has 32 teams, and only 15.6 percent have never made it to the Bowl.

3. The past 15 Super Bowls have given us 8 first-time competitors: San Diego, Atlanta, Tennessee, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Seattle and Arizona.

4. Seven of the past 11 Super Bowls have featured a first-time franchise.

5. You want diversity? Following the 1993 season, there had been 28 Super Bowls which fielded 56 teams. A mere 6 franchises accounted for exactly half of those 56 slots (Dallas with 7 Super Bowl appearances, Miami with 5 and Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Minnesota and Oakland with 4 apiece).

6. This actually increased in the two ensuing years. Following the 1995 season, with the league then increased to 30 franchises, those same 6 teams had accounted for 31 of the 60 Super Bowl slots, more than half. That has decreased significantly since then. Only Pittsburgh (twice) and Oakland have made it back to the Big Game.

7. The 5 teams that remain absent from NFL Films Super Bowl Highlights? Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville and New Orleans. All of these cities, except for Cleveland, have at least hosted a Super Bowl. As for the near future, Houston, Jacksonville and New Orleans are at least in the Super Bowl discussion next season. Barring some miraculous turnaround, Cleveland and Detroit are still a few Roman numerals away.

That said, it would not surprise us in the least to see Cleveland and Detroit throwing down for the title in next year's Super Bowl. We wouldn't bet the family dog on that matchup, but we also wouldn't view it as a sign of the Apocalypse.

Here's one thing we will guarantee. Should that improbable matchup come to light, despite what we've just learned, every article, broadcast, blog and sideline report will begin the same way: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a misprint. The Detroit Lions are going to the Super Bowl.”

Enough, already.