Best of the best, worst of the rest.

Can we officially place a moratorium on the term “NFL parity”?

Apparently, the implementation of a salary cap can only keep a league balanced for so long. These days, in view of the perennial ineptitude of the Lions and Raiders, the farcical shenanigans that are always going on in Cleveland, and the demolition job that the Patriots just completed on the Tennessee Titans, one’s gotta wonder where all that parity has gone.

A scant few years ago, it seemed the Super Bowl was in almost any team’s grasp from year to year. Sure, the Patriots found a way to create a dynasty there, and the Steelers were always good, but the salary cap made things much more balanced, right?

Not really, because the biggest deficit for most hapless franchises is in the hats of the people running those terrible teams, not their pocketbooks. Do you really think the Lions would lift a Lombardi if they were able to spend twice as much as the Pats? Three times as much?

Me neither.

I think it’s time to face facts: the football teams at the bottom of each of the NFL’s eight divisions have combined to win seven games. Only one of those teams had a legitimate chance of winning anything last year — the Titans. This year, they’re the worst team in football. Yet, the Patriots, Colts, Giants and Steelers are doing what we expect them to do — driving toward the playoffs as usual.

Is there any chance that maybe, just maybe, it’s brains, not cash, that builds a franchise?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 4:19 am and is filed under Football, NFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.