Greatest Franchise Ever

I've seen articles recently claiming everything from the Steelers being the best franchise in the NFL today, the best franchise of the Super Bowl era, the best franchise in NFL history, and even the best franchise in all of sports.

Well, everyone knows that I love the Steelers, but I can't say that they're the greatest sports franchise in the history of sports.

The Steelers have won six out of 43 Super Bowls, so they've won 14% of the time. The Celtics have won 17 of 61 titles, which is 27.6% of the time. The Yankees have won 26 of 104 titles, which is 25% of the time.

So, the Celtics are the best, right? Well, the Celtics pretty much won all their titles in the 50s, 60s, and 80s and took the 70s, 90s, and most the 00s off. Also, they've appeared in 20 NBA Finals, whereas the Yankees have appeared in 39 World Series. Thirty-nine out of 104 is 37.5% of the time. That means that, if someone had a gun to your head and asked you who represented the AL in the 1943 World Series, you'd be foolish to answer anything other than the Yankees unless you knew the answer for sure (I picked a year at random and it just so happens the Yankees and Cardinals played that year).

I'm actually going to throw hockey out of the equation. The early years are so sketchy, there were so few teams for so long, and it's the fourth most popular sport in the US by a pretty wide margin. If I included hockey (and the Canadiennes, most likely), then I should probably include Manchester United. And that's actually an insult to Man U, since they're far more valuable in terms of dollars and domestic and international appeal than any hockey team, new arena or no new arena.

So, the Yankees are the best franchise in all the history of all of sports. They've been at least relevant in every decade and have more championship appearances and more championships than everyone, either as a percentage or a number, over the longest period of time.

And, anyone who thinks that baseball championships don't mean anything because there's more parity in football, consider this: There have been eight different World Series champions since 2000. The Red Sox are the only repeats. There have been six different Super Bowl champions since 2000, with the Steelers and Patriots both being repeats.

Speaking of the Patriots, they're probably still the best franchise in the league right now, since Spygate appears to have gone away (and the Rooney's involvement in gambling was really downplayed, as was the sale of the shares to Dan and Art II), they've won three of the past eight Super Bowls and appeared in four of them, and have won more games than any other team this decade.

If Brady's healthy, they'll be a threat again and they know they can at least count on Matt Cassel to win some games.

Okay, so if the Steelers aren't the greatest current NFL franchise or the greatest franchise across all sports, then surely they're the greatest franchise in the history of the NFL, right?

Well, the Packers have nine titles and have been around just as long as the Steelers. The Bears hold the record for most total wins and most regular season wins and the Cowboys (even though they haven't won a postseason game in 12 years) hold the record for most playoff wins.

Now, everyone knows that the Steelers sucked big, hairy balls from 1933-1969, but not everyone knows how bad they were. They are 394-253-2 since the 1970 merger, which is best in the league, but they are 556-518-21 since 1933, which is a .511 winning percentage. Considering they've been playing .609 ball the past 39 seasons, that means they were really goddamn pathetic those first 38 seasons. Like 162-256-19 pathetic, which is a .388 winning percentage. They won four games in ten for almost four decades.

It's also true that the Packers haven't done much in the Super Bowl era -- especially considering that they won the first two Super Bowls before they were called Super Bowls. But, they have been relevant, they were always a threat to make the playoffs during the Brett Favre era, and tried their best to establish a mini-dynasty after the San Francisco and Dalls dynasties petered out.

Nine titles, all that relevancy, all that mystique, same stadium all these years, and all those wins makes them the greatest franchise in the history of the NFL. And their fans are fairly decent, too. And they travel well: The Packers fan club of Tampa is the largest sports organization in Florida.

But, given the fact that the Packers won all their titles before they were called Super Bowls... the Steelers have gotta be the best team of the Super Bowl era, right?