Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

A nice, "nothing to do this morning" off-season exercise. I strictly went by NFL League Championship Game winners and nothing else. I didn't include the '32 playoff game nor any AAFC/AFL champs.

Here are mine...(forgive errors)...

33) '34 Giants, 8-5-0
32) '35 Lions, 7-3-2
31) '44 Packers, 8-2-0

30) '56 Giants, 8-3-1
29) '40 Bears, 8-3-0
28) '37 Redskins, 8-3-0
27) '38 Giants, 8-2-1
26) '46 Bears, 8-2-1
25) '33 Bears, 10-2-1
24) '42 Redskins, 10-1-0
23) '43 Bears, 8-1-1
22) '60 Eagles, 10-2-0
21) '57 Lions, 8-4-0

20) '51 Rams, 8-4-0
19) '64 Browns, 10-3-1
18) '47 Cardinals, 9-3-0
17) '39 Packers, 9-2-0
16) '36 Packers, 10-1-1
15) '59 Colts, 9-3-0
14) '45 Rams, 9-1-0
13) '53 Lions, 10-2-0
12) '52 Lions, 9-3-0
11) '54 Browns, 9-3-0

10) '55 Browns, 9-2-1
9) '58 Colts, 9-3-0
7 - tie) '48 Eagles, 9-2-1 & '50 Browns, 10-2-0
5 - tie) '61 Packers, 11-3-0 & '65 Packers, 10-3-1
4) '63 Bears, 11-1-2
3) '49 Eagles, 11-1-0
2) '62 Packers, 13-1-0
1) '41 Bears, 10-1-0

Thoughts? Agreements? Disagreements? Corrections, etc?

Happy St Patty's!!

Not a bad list.

The top two in particular are probably the two of the very best teams in the history of the league before the Super Bowl.

The only one that feels a bit off in my opinion is the 1936 Packers; they could be higher.

If the AAFC champions are included, then the 1946 and 48 Browns would also be very high for me. The former had one of the great statistical separations there is, and the latter went undefeated.

I think the '65 Packers are rated too high.
the good
The pass defense is what makes their team successful imo. 27 ints with 4 pick sixes. +24 in turnovers. 19 less penalties than their opponents and 148 less penalty yards

the bad
Out gained by 368 yards.
Returned 22 punts of 60 punts for a 3.0 avg while their opponents returned 36 of 74 punts for 290 yards for a 8.0 avg.
3rd worst offensive sack %, 2nd most sack yards given up

Weak run game 3.4/carry

1959 Colts are ranked too low ... Unitas and the offense were on fire that year, while going back to back ...

My "ranked too low" team is the 1942 Redskins. They went 10-1 and then beat an undefeated team to win the championship! I think that entitles them to a little more respect.

All responses are good points! Not perfect rankings the more I look at it. In addition to being more-knowledgeable than I, you are all are even better in the pre-SB era. I made a nice enough effort. Simply looked at one NFL Champ at a time starting with those '33 Bears, then '34 Giants, ’35 Lions, and shuffled them up as I went.

The last response by you, Bob, may be the best example of this lack of perfection. I don't know. Maybe it was that the War was already depleting things in '42 though not quite as bad as, say, a couple years later. You think of some classic Battle-of-Unbeatens. Yale/Harvard '68, MIami/Penn State '86. In each case, despite both being undefeated, one (Yale/the U) seemed more superior/dominant. Well, in this case, the 11-0 squad was very dominant as the 10-1 team was still great, but hardly seeming to match. But a 10-1 team beating an 11-0 team is just that and, yes, more respect should be applied. It was just one year removed from the War as opposed to several, and this IS a Flaherty/Baugh team so, yes, perhaps the biggest critique of my rankings.

Perhaps catapult them all the way up above the '45 Rams? And though I've opined previously (and still agree) that those 9-1 Rams for their time (era-for-era/"pound-for-pound"/adjusting all for "inflation") are the best Rams team ever, maybe (just maybe) I still may have them ranked on this list a tad too high. Many returned, but '45 was still just 'Year One' after (or maybe a half-year so). And if not for You-Know-What in that very 14-13, I mean, 15-14, League Championship Game...

74_75_78_79_ wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 5:57 pm Maybe it was that the War was already depleting things in '42 though not quite as bad as, say, a couple years later. You think of some classic Battle-of-Unbeatens. Yale/Harvard '68, MIami/Penn State '86. In each case, despite both being undefeated, one (Yale/the U) seemed more superior/dominant. Well, in this case, the 11-0 squad was very dominant as the 10-1 team was still great, but hardly seeming to match. But a 10-1 team beating an 11-0 team is just that and, yes, more respect should be applied. It was just one year removed from the War as opposed to several, and this IS a Flaherty/Baugh team so, yes, perhaps the biggest critique of my rankings.

Perhaps catapult them all the way up above the '45 Rams? And though I've opined previously (and still agree) that those 9-1 Rams for their time (era-for-era/"pound-for-pound"/adjusting all for "inflation") are the best Rams team ever, maybe (just maybe) I still may have them ranked on this list a tad too high. Many returned, but '45 was still just 'Year One' after (or maybe a half-year so). And if not for You-Know-What in that very 14-13, I mean, 15-14, League Championship Game...

Of course this is just opinion, but it seems to me that talent in the NFL wasn't terribly depleted in 1942. Sure, some major players were gone; but I think most of the all-pro candidates were still around at that point. And even though the 1945 football season came after the war had ended, I've always thought the league suffered more of a shortage in that season than in '42. So I think both teams from the earlier season can be evaluated pretty much as if things were more or less normal. But I wouldn't say that about 1945.

Neft-Cohen's Pro Football: The Early Years lists all NFL players and their years of military service (pp. 160-161).

Here are the totals by year:
1941--44 (we tend to forget that the draft started in late 1940)
1942--202
1943--376
1944--418
1945--358

rhickok1109 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 4:18 pm Neft-Cohen's Pro Football: The Early Years lists all NFL players and their years of military service (pp. 160-161).

Here are the totals by year:
1941--44 (we tend to forget that the draft started in late 1940)
1942--202
1943--376
1944--418
1945--358

Ah, I had forgotten about that feature in the Neft book. But I used to go through it just about daily and no doubt saw those numbers many times; maybe that's where I first got the idea that the league didn't feel the effects of the war as much in 1942.

rhickok1109 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 4:18 pm Neft-Cohen's Pro Football: The Early Years lists all NFL players and their years of military service (pp. 160-161).

Here are the totals by year:
1941--44 (we tend to forget that the draft started in late 1940)
1942--202
1943--376
1944--418
1945--358

How many of those were stateside and still played?