The NFL in the 21st Century

Between 2001 and 2022, the NFL played 22 different seasons of football -- as many as it played, say, from 1971 to 1992.  What are the best games of the 21st century?  Pro Football Reference picked the NFL's top 100 games in history last year, and here are their picks for the top 10 games in this century, along with where they ranked in the overall top 100:

5.  Super Bowl XLII:  New York Giants 17, New England 14 (Feb. 3, 2008)

8.  Super Bowl XLIX:  New England 28, Seattle 24 (Feb. 1, 2015)

9.  Super Bowl LI:  New England 34, Atlanta 28 (OT) (Feb. 5, 2017)

12.  Super Bowl XLIII:  Pittsburgh 27, Arizona 23 (Feb. 1, 2009)

14.  Super Bowl LII:  Philadelphia 41, New England 33 (Feb. 4, 2018)

15.  2001 AFC Divisional Playoffs:  New England 16, Oakland 13 (Jan. 19, 2002)

20.  Super Bowl XXXVI:  New England 20, St. Louis Rams 17 (Feb. 3, 2002)

21.  2006 AFC Championship:  Indianapolis 38, New England 34 (Jan. 21, 2007)

24.  2017 NFC Divisional Playoffs:  Minnesota 29, New Orleans 24 (Jan. 14, 2018)

30.  Super Bowl XLVII:  Baltimore 34, San Francisco 31 (Feb. 3, 2013)

This list came out last year, so it didn't include the 2021-22 playoffs.  I would certainly put last year's Kansas City/Buffalo game on the list -- I thought it was the best game I'd seen since the Chargers/Dolphins playoff game back on January 2, 1982.  They had that Chargers/Dolphins game as number 4, on their list, but above the Super Bowl where the Giants ended New England's perfect season.  I would fit the Kansas City/Buffalo game in between those two.  In other words, for me it was the best game of the 21st Century.  There were a lot of good playoff games last year, but I think that's the only one that would make the top ten.

I think that from now on, I'm going to try to think of sports more in 21st century terms.  There's so much nostalgia in the sports world now that we aren't giving enough credit to what's happening in front of us.

NFL16: It Was a Good Season

The Miami Dolphins lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the playoffs today, 30-12, and that ended my favorite team's 2016 season. It was a good season. 

The Dolphins and I are about the same age. They've played 51 seasons, and I've been around for 49 of them. There are probably more loyal or avid Dolphins fans in the world, but, whatever, I've been a pretty big fan (these pictures are from my family's utility room) for pretty much the whole time they've been around. And I'm here to tell you that this was a good Dolphins season.

Miami won 10 games this season. That's a lot, I've come to learn. It really is. From the time I was 2 until I was 17, the Dolphins won at least 10 games in a season all but three times, and that was amazing. I was thankful while that was going on, but, in retrospect, I should've been even more thankful. It has happened only nine times since. There was even one season where they won only one game the whole season. So winning 10 or more times in the same season is quite good. 

I didn't get to watch all 10 of the wins this season, but I did get to pay attention to all but one of those wins while they were going on, at least for part of the time they were going on. It's really fun to win, so that's nine definitively fun experiences this season. And Dolphin wins always have an afterglow effect on me for at least three or four days following. So that's somewhere in the range of 30 to 50 days since August in which my mood and general outlook on life were lifted by a Miami victory. That's a lot. That's a good season right there.

Additionally, the Dolphins made the playoffs. Again, that's a great and not terribly common thing to have happen. Miami has failed to make the playoffs more often than it hasn't in our history together. This was only the 23rd time the Dolphins have ever made the playoffs. It feels like that number should be higher, but that's because they've had three five-year strings where they never missed the playoffs:

-- NFL70-NFL74 (my ages 2 through 6),
-- NFL81-NFL85 (my ages 13 through 17) and
-- NFL97-NFL01 (my ages 29 through 33).

Fortunate strings like that will start to trick a human into thinking he or she deserves fortunate things happening to him or her. It's a treat to get to go to the playoffs, and I'm thankful to have gotten to experience it again. You better bet that's a good season.

Now, of course, it would've been fun to win a game in the playoffs. Of course, it would've. That's happened only 12 times, where the Dolphins both advanced to the playoffs and actually won a game once they got there. It's really, really rare. The last time it happened was Dec. 30, 2000, and that took pretty much the greatest individual effort by any football player in any game ever.

Also, today wasn't even a particularly heartbreaking one-and-done loss (like the NFL74 "Sea of Hands" loss at Oakland, the NFL82 Kellen Winslow loss to the Chargers or the NFL83 Steve Largent loss at Seattle). The NFL17 Dolphins aren't as good as the NFL17 Steelers, and this game was in Pittsburgh, and we were missing our starting quarterback and a bunch of guys on the offensive line and in the defensive backfield. I mean, really, I'm not even sad that they lost, and it feels great to not be sad. I would've preferred that they won, but I would've preferred that they lost today to Pittsburgh today than potentially next week at the New England Patriots (who are allowed to cheat to win). And you might think that makes me a loser. That's fine. Go ahead; believe that if you want. Who cares? I'm 48 years old, and I know that this is nothing to be sad about, and I'm thrilled that it turns out I'm actually not sad. 

So, in conclusion, I just want to say, hooray for football! It was a good Dolphins season, and now I'll be rooting for the Texans (they play the Patriots next week); the Chiefs (for Go Heath); the Steelers (I've got a lot of friends who are Pittsburgh fans, and I think they actually could really beat the Patriots in New England, even with the Patriots getting to cheat in all sorts of ways); the Seahawks (for my favorite former college-basketball player, George Fant); the Giants (for beating New England); the Cowboys (my sister's a fan), and the Packers (they're adorable, and Matthew and I once went to Lambeau Field).

NFL15: Week 1

The NFL 2015 regular season kicks off today! I'm very excited to see which of 31 NFL teams end up winning the league championship. I'll be rooting for the Miami Dolphins, the NFL72 and NFL73 champions and NFL85* co-champions.

Thirty of the 31 legitimate NFL teams play games today; the Pittsburgh Steelers begin their real regular season in Week 2. It's not necessary to publish these standings today, given that all of the teams are 0-0--I just wanted to have the fun of typing each of their names because, even though I am a Dolphins guy, I really do just love the whole, legitimate NFL. I've listed the teams by conference, in the order of their NFL14 finish. Teams with the little "-z" won their divisions; teams with the little "-y" earned wild-card berths to the playoffs. The Buffalo Bills, with the little "-x," had the best record in the AFC East, but their division championship was awarded to a team that I no longer recognize as a legitimate member of the league. 

AFC (five or six teams will qualify for the playoffs)

Indianapolis Colts-z (NFL70, NFL06 champ; NFL03*, NFL14* co-champ) 0-0

Baltimore Ravens-y (NFL00, NFL12 champ; NFL11* co-champ) 0-0

Denver Broncos-z (NFL97, NFL98 champs) 0-0

Pittsburgh Steelers-z (NFL74, 75, 78, 79, 05, 08 champ; 01*, 04* co-champ) 0-0

Cincinnati Bengals-y 0-0

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Houston Texans 0-0

Kansas City Chiefs (NFL69 champ) 0-0 

San Diego Chargers (NFL07* co-champ) 0-0

Buffalo Bills-x 0-0

Miami Dolphins (NFL72, NFL73 champ; NFL85* co-champ) 0-0

Cleveland Browns 0-0

New York Jets (NFL68 champ) 0-0 

Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL97* c0-champ) 0-0

Oakland Raiders (NFL76, NFL80, NFL83 champ) 0-0

Tennessee Titans 0-0

NFC (six teams will qualify for the playoffs)

Seattle Seahawks-z (NFL13 champ, NFL14* co-champ) 0-0

Green Bay Packers-z 0-0 (NFL66, NFL67, NFL10 champ; NFL97* co-champ)

Dallas Cowboys-z 0-0 (NFL71, NFL77, NFL92, NFL93, NFL95 champ)

Carolina Panthers-z (NFL03* co-champ) 0-0

Arizona Cardinals-y 0-0

Detroit Lions-y 0-0

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Philadelphia Eagles (NFL04* co-champ) 0-0

San Francisco 49ers (NFL81, NFL84, NFL88, NFL89, NFL94 champ) 0-0

New Orleans Saints (NFL09 champ) 0-0

Minnesota Vikings 0-0

New York Giants (NFL86, NFL90 champ; NFL07*, NFL11* co-champ) 0-0

Atlanta Falcons 0-0

St. Louis Rams (NFL99 champ) 0-0

Chicago Bears (NFL85* co-champ) 0-0

Washington Redskins (NFL82, NFL87, NFL91 champ) 0-0

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL02 champ) 0-0

(*In NFL85, the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl and the Miami Dolphins lost the AFC championship against a team that I no longer recognize as a legitimate member of the NFL. The Dolphins beat the Bears in the regular season, so I do now privately consider the Dolphins the NFL85 champions--but because the Bears actually did win the Super Bowl and I am a fair person, I am willing to officially declare the Dolphins and Bears as co-champions of NFL85. Anyway, there are similar problems with the NFL97, NFL01, NFL03, NFL04, NFL07, NFL11 and NFL14 seasons, and you can look up those stories. I may do so some day, but I'm not going to today. Today is the first day of the legitimate, 31-team NFL15 regular season, and I'm ready to move forward and sweep away all of that unfortunate history.)