What would you rather have? In a 10 year period, would you rather the Jets win 1 Super Bowl or be a perenial power house, but never win the big one?
Get me a Championship. Losing in the playoffs every year would feel no better than the last 40 years. Coming in second place or last place is more or less the same thing. Being the last man standing is what its all about.
Perenial powerhouses that don't win the big one are quickly forgotten. Easy choice. Anyways, getting to the AFC Championship 7 out of 10 years and never winning it would spiral me into a deeper jets induced depression that I can possibly imagine. Again, EASY choice.
Yes, I seriously cannot comprehend how people would prefer to not win a superbowl. It boggles my mind.
I guess I've been there, and it's preferable IMO to be able to feel you have something to root and play for every year, instead of a decade of depression interrupted by one fluke. For example the Packers may have only one Superbowl win in the last 18 years, but they also are the winningest team in football during that stretch and only had two losing seasons, 2005 and 2008. The feeling each Christmas that you really do have the tools to get it done, you just need to get hot and keep it all together for 3-4 games is a lot better than year after year of your season ending in November and everyone sniping at each other over who's to blame. Not even one year of hitting the jackpot makes up for nine years of nonstop hell like that. Seriously, if you want that go be a Raiders fan. :breakdance:
Making the AFC championship game repeatedly and never winning the Super Bowl makes you a team like Buffalo, or Philly*. Give me a title. After that, I'll start dreaming of the next one. *Who is in the NFC, don't be a jackass.
It's kind of harsh but teams that win a lot but not the SB are seen as losers or choke-artists. Look at how people view the Bills in the 90's or the Vikings of the 70's. Those were powerhouse teams with lots of HOF players. But all anyone can remember is how many times they lost the SB. I think I'd rather go all the way at least once and a while. Everybody loves the 1985 Bears but that's the only SB Chicago ever won.
Maybe it's the size of the market that is the difference in my example. As everyone kept pointing out this year here (as explanation of why the stands at the Meadowlands were almost empty at the start of the 4th quarter of almost every home game, even when we were 8-3), there's just a lot of other things to do and pay attention to in NYC, if a team stinks for a decade you have 3,4,5.6 other pro teams you can root for, and it's easy to be a bandwagon fan and just shut out the years of uninterrupted crap because you have other teams to distract you. In Green Bay Wisconsin -- as people here like to mock it for -- the team is an intricate part of the community's identity, you and interact with players and FO people around town, and every year & every game matters, the stands are still full even when the final knee is taken on a meaningless wk17 game in freezing temperatures. The team is not some abstract concept on a tv screen with people you never seen in real life, it's more like real life. In real life you can be content and proud that you are the second highest performer in your company year in and year out, you don't have to be manic depressive that, because you are not THE best, you are a failure. And you don't have the luxury of thinking you are doing well because you were #1 guy one year, and that gives you excuse to do a lousy job the next nine. I know abyzmul was mocking me for being here. He thinks me being here is some kind of measure of not being a real fan of any team. What I don't think he'll ever understand -- what maybe no one living in NYC could ever understand -- is me following Favre here is exactly the opposite. I am so much a fan of the Packers that it's gone beyond the "brand," just because a player I've followed so long changes "brand packaging" (uniform) that doesn't mean he becomes nobody to me. Not a guy who I've seen in person outside the stadium many times, and once, many years ago, he even bought me a beer. I am a fan way beyond "brand" Packers, or "brand" Jets. If that's what you are, then really all you are is just a consumer for owners to suck money out of and stuff their brand down your throats with PSLs and merchandising. I'm not sure I can ever get you to understand what that means, but I've done my best.
Give me a break. You follow a player to this team and then proceed to tell the existing fans how to be a fan of that team. Your post is simply a bad spin on that.
Losing the AFC Championship every time? No. But I would rather be an early-90s Bills dynasty than a one shot wonder that doesn't sniff the playoffs for 10 years after. The Bills were the best team in football those years and just had the worst luck. If the Jets could go to the superbowl four times in four years, that would be amazing, even if they lost each time. A hell of a lot better than one win, with no playoffs for ten years. As it stands, though, with losing the AFC championship seven years out of ten, I'd rather go with the one superbowl.
Super Bowl. I would take 9 (0-16) seasons for one title. Just let me know which year the title will be in and I will find something else to do the other 9 years.
With all due respect, I am inclined to disagree with this statement as there are few, if any, measures by which they can be even remotely considered the "winningest" team over the past 18 years. While I agree they have had more winning seasons than the majority of NFL teams over that period of time, they have not had the most and I certainly would choose the Jets to have the overall record of many other teams rather than the Packers over the past 18 years. I just picked 4 teams for comparison purposes that I thought might look better than the Packers: the Steelers, the Cowboys, the Patriots and the Broncos. From every relevant perspective, I believe all these 4 teams have a better and more successful record where it counts. I did not look at other teams like the Giants, for example, whose 18 year record I would easily prefer to the Pack's. Here's is how the numbers stack up from 1990-2008: Regular season games won: 1. Steelers 187 2 Broncos 179 3. Packers 177 4. Cowboys 172 5. Patriots 170 Winning Seasons (Better than .500 winning %): 1. Steelers 14 2. Cowboys + Packers tied w/12 4. Pats 11 5. Broncos 9 Years Made into the Playoffs: 1. Steelers 12 2. Cowboys 12 3. Packers 11 4. Pats 10 5. Broncos 9 Playoff record/Winning percentage 1. Pats 17-7 (.708) 2. Cowboys 12-8 (.600) 3. Steelers 14-10 (.583) 4. Broncos 9-7 (.562) 5. Packers 12-10 (.545) SB Appearances 1. Pats 5 2. Cowboys 3 3. Broncos and Pack tied w/2 5. Steelers 1 SB WINS 1. Cowboys & Pats tied w/3 3. Denver 2 4. Steelers and Pack tied w/1 The point behind the above is to try and answer the question, which should we value more: SB wins or regular season wins together with frequent playoff success without SB victory. The Patriots have won fewer regular season games than the Packers and have made the playoffs less times than GB. Yet there are few, if any, who would choose the Packer's record over the Pats'. Hell, I'd easily rather the Jets had the Broncos' 18 year record than Green Bay's because despite Denver making the playoffs two less times over the last 18 years and compiling 3 less winning seasons, they've won two SBs (back to back) during that time and I would guess that 99% of all honest Packers fans would trade the past 18 year record with the Broncos in a heartbeat.
Personally, I'll take 10 winning seasons over a Super Bowl any day of the week. Yeah, it'd be awesome to know that the Jets were the best team in the NFL, but in reality what does it matter? One team is going to win the Super Bowl each year, so does that mean 31 teams are failures and had unsuccessful seasons? Does that mean last years Patriots finished the season 18-1 and as failures? (God I hate using them as an example) I think the Steelers and the Colts are two of the best teams in the past 10 years, and each of them only has 1 SB. I'd rather look forward to every season knowing that the Jets are capable of beating anybody and everybody, rather then have them win one and spiral into there regular routine. Here's all I'm saying....over the past 10-15 years, who would you rather be a fan of....Steelers or Rams?
