AFC Gets Richer

Scikotic · May 3, 2007

So sad yet so true...

http://www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/story/10163068

By Adam Schefter
NFL Analyst

Adam Schefter's "Around the League" reports and commentaries can be seen regularly on NFL Total Access.

(May 2, 2007) -- Lost in the debate of the draft's winners and losers, the free agent comings and goings, is an issue that has gotten considerably less attention than even Mr. Irrelevant.

Yet this topic is so relevant that it has players and coaches talking and wondering about it.

The gap between the AFC and the NFC now is as wide as the one between a varsity team and its junior varsity.

Think about it, because others around the league surely have.

The AFC includes the Indianapolis Colts, the team that won last season's Super Bowl; the New England Patriots, the team favored to win this season's Super Bowl; and the San Diego Chargers, the most talented team not to win a Super Bowl.

Any one of those powerhouses would be anointed the clear-cut favorite to win the NFC. Yet at least two, and possibly all three, will not survive in the AFC.

The AFC boasts all the biggest talent, which includes league MVP LaDainian Tomlinson.
The AFC boasts all the biggest talent, which includes league MVP LaDainian Tomlinson.
The AFC's dominance goes well beyond its teams. At its root, it belongs to its players.

The game's best quarterbacks -- Indianapolis' Peyton Manning and New England's Tom Brady -- play in the AFC. As do last season's Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year, Tennessee quarterback Vince Young and Houston linebacker DeMeco Ryans.

The top two quarterbacks from last weekend's draft both wound up surfacing in the AFC, JaMarcus Russell with the Oakland Raiders and Brady Quinn with the Cleveland Browns.

The AFC boasts the game's best running backs with San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson and Kansas City's Larry Johnson; the best tight ends with San Diego's Antonio Gates and Kansas City's Tony Gonzalez; the best pass rushers with Indianapolis' Dwight Freeney, Miami's Jason Taylor and San Diego's Shawne Merriman; the best cornerbacks with Denver's Champ Bailey and Jacksonville's Rashean Mathis.

And the AFC has won the past four Super Bowls, and six of the past seven. It has become almost as lopsided as the stretch from 1985-1997, when the NFC won 13 straight Super Bowls and the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers stood out the way the Patriots, Colts and Chargers do today.

But as soon as John Elway whirly birded through the air of Super Bowl XXXII, snapping the NFC's Super Bowl win streak, it was as if the fate of the two conferences also spun with him.

Three months later, the Colts used the draft's first overall pick on Manning. Two years later, the Patriots used the draft's 199th pick on unheralded quarterback Tom Brady, helping Bill Belichick morph from the Mistake by the Lake in Cleveland to the mastermind of Massachusetts. The next year, the Chargers essentially traded the rights to Michael Vick for the hopes of drafting Tomlinson. And then, as if to rub it in, in February 2006 Bill Cowher stuck out his chin.

Now, in a league known for its competitive balance, there is a tremendous imbalance. The NFC is staring up at the AFC the way the AFL used to with the NFL. There appears to be no end in sight. The best teams, players and matchups all are in the AFC.

And the world's loudest and longest conference call shows no signs of letting up or ending soon.
Click to expand...

Namath2Kolber · May 3, 2007

The NFC will catch up in time. New Orleans, Dallas, and Chicago have shown signs of bringing the NFC back to respectability.

Double Zero · May 3, 2007

We didn't help things by taking a talented RB (Jones) away from the NFC.

Not that I'm complaining about the disparity. :grin:

supersonic · May 3, 2007

Belichick, Mr. "mistake by the lake". I love it.

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