Joint Contrast

By – J.C.

Today the Arizona Cardinals become the ninth NFL team all-time to play in their first and only Super Bowl. That appearance concludes a recent 10-year run in which six other first-timers have also qualified for the greatest spectacle in American sports. It’s just another reminder though of the misery that five forgotten franchises must feel this time of year. January is not so much a festive start to the New Year for football fanatics in places such as Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville and New Orleans as it is for the rest of the National Football League faithful.

Not even the eight teams who have just one Super Bowl appearance under their belts feel as low as the Forgettable Five, who each have yet to advance to The Big Game themselves. Heading into the game tonight those first-timers have combined for just three wins among them. Still, that’s better than the four habitual Super Bowl flunkies in Buffalo (0-4), Minnesota (0-4), Cincinnati (0-2) and Philadelphia (0-2). Yet those are all still somehow impressive efforts compared to what Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville and New Orleans have managed to screw up along the way,

Feels like the first time – The parity that the salary cap era created in the late 1990s paid off for many teams, such as the Atlanta Falcons, who following the ’98 season had no business being in Super Bowl XXXIII but found Lady Luck in their huddle against Minnesota in the NFC Championship Game. (They would then get bullied by Denver during their lone five minutes of fame). At least the Tennessee Titans got a little closer to the hardware in their first Super Bowl visit following the ’99 season. And by close, I mean that the start of their celebration fell short by just a yard in Super Bowl XXXIV, against an air-assault once known as the St. Louis Rams (with current Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner).

Then for the third straight year another new face would crash the Super Bowl party. It didn’t take long for the Ravens to do just that after moving to Baltimore from Cleveland in ’96 and following up the 2000 season with an all out whooping of the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV. Can’t imagine that ratings were very high up in Ohio for this matchup. The only other first-time winner (in their first visit) over the past 10 years was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who two years later smacked around the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.

The Carolina Panthers would then go on to lose by a field goal to the Patriots following the ’03 season in Super Bowl XXXVIII before the Seattle Seahawks settled as the final first-timer to advance, and then lose, in a 21-10 setback to Pittsburgh following the ’05 season. That means the Steelers (who are 5-1 in the Super Bowl already) get another crack at a franchise green behind the ears in the Cardinals, a team that entered the postseason this time around with just two playoff wins all-time to their credit.

What will become of this year’s Cardinals? We’ll soon see whether they’re destined to be remembered as another lucky one-hit wonder that advanced to The Big Game, such as the San Diego Chargers (who lost to San Francisco 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX following the ’94 season), or one that shocked the world in much the same way the New York Jets did against the Colts in Super Bowl III (following the ’68 season, some 40 years ago). Both the Chargers and Jets have barely sniffed the Super Bowl since.

Close, but no Super Bowl parade – In the modern era the Super Bowl is the only measuring stick that matters when it comes to pro football. Honestly, who really cares about what was once referred to as separate NFL and AFL champions that never even played each other? That’s an idea more for fans of the college football system than for crowning an undisputed winner at season’s end. As of now there are three franchises that carry the torch in terms of most Super Bowl wins and they happen to be the Steelers, San Francisco 49ers (5-0 in Super Bowls) and Dallas Cowboys (5-3). But back to those who have yet to even get there. Here’s hoping Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” one day applies to them.

– Cleveland – By far the most storied franchise to never reach the NFL’s promised land is the Cleveland Browns. Couple that with seeing the Ravens go on to win the title game and the painful reminder of what could have been is damn near inescapable.

for what it’s worth though, had the Super Bowl been born two years earlier the Browns would already have a spot in Super Bowl history thanks to a win over Baltimore in the 1964 NFL Championship Game. That effort would have led to a Super Bowl matchup against Buffalo of the AFL. Then sadly, before the leagues merged years later and the Browns moved to the American Football Conference, they lost two more opportunities to advance to the title game (Super Bowl III and IV) following lopsided losses to the Colts and Vikings. It gets worse though. Any fan old enough to remember the 1980s can attest to that.

They’ve been dubbed “The Fumble” and “The Drive” and are the very reasons Clevelanders can’t stomach the names John Elway and Denver Broncos. They happened following the ’85 and ’86 seasons. And because of those two AFC Championship Games there is little need to bring up the fact that following the ’88 season, the last time the Browns got close to the Super Bowl, they were embarrassed by the Broncos once more, for the final time. To make matters worse, after Elway and those teams went on to get manhandled in each title-game trip they advanced to, the Broncos somehow rebounded a decade later and redeemed themselves by earning two Lombardi Trophies in the late ’90s while Cleveland no longer even had a team. Not sure what the television ratings near Lake Erie might have been like for those Super Bowl games but I’m sure we can only imagine.

– Houston – Like Cleveland, football fans in Houston could only watch as their former team in Tennessee went on to win the AFC just three years after the Oilers moved away. Although the newly named Titans would eventually go on to lose in the Super Bowl, likely at the great joy of those in southern Texas, it was of small consolation. Since then the newly formed Texans have moved to town (in 2002) and fans there have been subject to .500 ball ever since. When the Oilers were the big ticket in town they had three shots at the Super Bowl after advancing to the AFC Championship Games following the ’67, ’77 and ’78 seasons. They would play each game on the road though and get smashed by Oakland in the first trip and Pittsburgh in the final two. Not even highlight clips of Earl Campbell could soften such a letdown.

– Jacksonville – Much like their expansion cousins in Carolina, the Jaguars got off to a relatively good start in their NFL infancy after coming on board in ’95. At the conclusion of the following season both the Panthers in the NFC and the Jags in the AFC went on to advance to their respective championship games before those dreams were finally dragged back down to earth. Jacksonville was easily handled on the road by New England to end their season that year. Then three years later they were back and better than ever. This time as the top seed in the conference and heavy favorites on their home turf against the Titans. A 33-14 decision kept them from punching their Super Bowl ticket and not a whole lot has been worth following up on ever since.

– Detroit and New Orleans – Neither Barry Sanders with the Lions nor the reincarnated version of the Saints were able to add much of a story line when it comes to the extensive history of these two teams. They’ve combined to make two trips to the NFC Championship Game between them and they both were pasted in those forgettable affairs. The ’91 season capped off the best effort in Lions’ history but they were put to rest in Washington by a 41-10 margin. The Saints finally made the championship game in ’06 only to fall 39-14 in Chicago.

So yeah, there have been monumental pitfalls for the Unfortunate Five who have not yet tasted the love affair Super Bowl qualifiers are bestowed with each visit. Though maybe Arizona can continue to carry the torch for the lovable losers of the league in Super Bowl XLIII against the mighty Steelers, seeing as how they are not-so-far removed from being “one of the guys” in the first place. On second thought, why waste time dwelling on life in the soup line when you can fill up with a Super Bowl stein instead?