The Comparisons - Again!

So now the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is getting into the act. Trying to determine Bill Belichick's place among the pantheon of top coaches. As they say: "The only real comparisons are Vince Lombardi, who won five titles in seven seasons with the Green Bay Packers; Chuck Noll, who won four in six seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s; and Bill Walsh, who built a San Francisco 49ers team that won four Super Bowls from 1981-89."

Let's look at this first from the accepted-as-gospel perspective...the one that the Post-Gazette is trumpeting. "But none of them operated with free agency and a salary cap that makes it nearly impossible for a successful team to keep all of its stars."

That's right - neither the 60s Packers, 70s Steelers nor the 80s Niners had to deal with free agency or a salary cap. They had to operate with the draft and with the players they acquired and/or brought through their systems.

For the Steelers, this means that other teams, like the Cowboys, Raiders, Dolphins, Oilers, Bengals, Browns, Rams, Vikings, et al also kept all of their players. It stands to reason that if your running back (Franco Harris) and your quarterback (Terry Bradshaw) retire...and you didn't draft someone to replace them...you're outta luck. As the Steelers were for many years.

On the other hand, Belichick had heard the rumbling. That his team was getting by with mediocre receivers. So what did he do? He went and got a former Dolphin receiver in Wes Welker. He went and got Randy Moss. Now really - would it have been that easy for the Steelers to make that kind of an upgrade in a non-free-agent era? Of course not.

So which is more difficult? Having and maintaining a dynasty when you have no free agency? Or doing it with free agency? The Steelers won four Super Bowls in six years. The Patriots could win their 4th in seven. Impressive. But not as impressive as doing it in six. And the Steelers were never caught cheating.

I'd argue against conventional wisdom. So the football talking heads attempt to denigrate and explain away the Packers, Steelers and 49ers successes by saying they were able to maintain their teams because there was no free agency. They also had a harder road to making any improvements.

For my money, I'll say that the teams that did it during non free agency days had a tougher time. There were no Randy Mosses waiting in the wings. If you were lucky, which the Steelers (Lynn Swann) and the Niners (Jerry Rice) were, you drafted a future Hall Of Fame receiver and got many good, Super Bowl years out of him. You developed that talent. It's no accident that Swann and Rice were great players. They had all the tools and were drafted by teams that had a plan and a need.

The Patriots? They were smart enough to see that Randy Moss was unhappy. He was available for a song and they snagged him. Not too much brainpower needed here.

Oh - and those 23 touchdowns? Pretty nice, right? But it took him 16 games to do it. Rice got 22 in 12 games. 12! Moss is an excellent receiver - but let's temper the hyperbole, shall we?

And let's not downgrade the teams of the past just because the Patriots have compiled an 18-0 record against some pretty cream puff competition. Their division ain't exactly boasting other 10 game winners. What they've done is most impressive. But let's not get carried away.