Steelers -- not Pats -- best franchise. Don't agree? Go to the video - NFL - CBSSports.com Football
TAMPA, Fla. -- We're not really asking if the Pittsburgh Steelers are the No. 1 franchise in NFL history, are we? They just won their sixth Super Bowl title, more than any team has won. We measure this sport by championships, and nobody has won more Super Bowls than the Steelers. Case closed.
So I'm going to take this whole thing a step further.
The Steelers aren't just the best franchise in league history -- they're the best franchise in the league right now. As in, during the past decade. The Patriots' decade. That one.
This one.
The Steelers are the dominant current franchise, not the Patriots. There can only be one. Pittsburgh is the one.
Why? Two reasons. One, the Patriots cheated during (at least) one of their Super Bowl runs. You can argue that everyone does what the Patriots did -- but you can't prove it. You can't argue that any of the Steelers' six Super Bowl champions, or any team under any circumstances for that matter, has been caught breaking the no-filming rule as brazenly and punished as severely as the Patriots. So there's that.
But there's also this:
The Steelers' title run of recent years has transcended personnel. It has transcended coaches. The Patriots are a creation of Bill Belichick, whereas the Steelers have won two of the past four Super Bowl titles with different coaches -- Bill Cowher in 2005, Mike Tomlin this year.
Bottom line, the Steelers -- not this coach or that coach, but the Steelers -- win Super Bowl titles. This is a franchise that knows only one way, and that is the winning way. Minutes after his team beat Arizona 27-23 on Sunday night to win Super Bowl XLIII, Tomlin was asked if he had seen the Lombardi Trophy his team had just won.
No, Tomlin said. No need.
"I see five every day at work," he said. "I know what it looks like."
Other teams have known great runs. The Dolphins of the early 1970s. The 49ers of the '80s. The Cowboys of the '90s. New England in recent years.
But nobody wins like the Steelers. Not year after year, decade after decade. Not now, and not ever.
To argue anything else would be a waste of my time.
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TAMPA, Fla. -- We're not really asking if the Pittsburgh Steelers are the No. 1 franchise in NFL history, are we? They just won their sixth Super Bowl title, more than any team has won. We measure this sport by championships, and nobody has won more Super Bowls than the Steelers. Case closed.
So I'm going to take this whole thing a step further.
The Steelers aren't just the best franchise in league history -- they're the best franchise in the league right now. As in, during the past decade. The Patriots' decade. That one.
This one.
The Steelers are the dominant current franchise, not the Patriots. There can only be one. Pittsburgh is the one.
Why? Two reasons. One, the Patriots cheated during (at least) one of their Super Bowl runs. You can argue that everyone does what the Patriots did -- but you can't prove it. You can't argue that any of the Steelers' six Super Bowl champions, or any team under any circumstances for that matter, has been caught breaking the no-filming rule as brazenly and punished as severely as the Patriots. So there's that.
But there's also this:
The Steelers' title run of recent years has transcended personnel. It has transcended coaches. The Patriots are a creation of Bill Belichick, whereas the Steelers have won two of the past four Super Bowl titles with different coaches -- Bill Cowher in 2005, Mike Tomlin this year.
Bottom line, the Steelers -- not this coach or that coach, but the Steelers -- win Super Bowl titles. This is a franchise that knows only one way, and that is the winning way. Minutes after his team beat Arizona 27-23 on Sunday night to win Super Bowl XLIII, Tomlin was asked if he had seen the Lombardi Trophy his team had just won.
No, Tomlin said. No need.
"I see five every day at work," he said. "I know what it looks like."
Other teams have known great runs. The Dolphins of the early 1970s. The 49ers of the '80s. The Cowboys of the '90s. New England in recent years.
But nobody wins like the Steelers. Not year after year, decade after decade. Not now, and not ever.
To argue anything else would be a waste of my time.
Video