Berglund 1

Wyatt Berglund

Professor Fields

English comp. I, sec 0010

3/4/2018

The Calm Before the Score

NFL dynasties have been a topic of debate on the possibility that are affecting NFL viewership’s and attendance. The first question that needs to be answered is what is a NFL dynasty? A NFL dynasty can be defined as a team dominating over a period of a time. For the sake of my review paper I am only going to be mainly focusing on dynasties that have won 4 or more super bowls. The reason behind this is because there are teams that are considered dynasties due to moderate success. An example of that would be the 90s Buffalo bills losing four super bowls in a row. Also, there are also teams that were dominate before super bowls like the

Green Bay Packers (1960-1967) or the Browns (1950-1955). I will be focusing on the

Pittsburg Steeler’s dynasty (1972-79), San Francisco 49er’s dynasty (1981-1994) and New

England Patriot’s dynasty (2001-2018) (DaSilva, Cameron). I will be looking at how these teams formed, what trades/draft picks they made and what affect did they have on NFL and in the public Eye.

With a one and thirteen record the Steelers drafted with the first overall pick in 1969. Bradshaw would the first player drafted by Coach that would help turn the Steelers into a dominate dynasty. “In all, Coach Chuck Noll drafted 10 players who are now enshrined in the Hall of Fame including three in his first 20 picks and four of his first 38 (“Steelers by the Decade”).” The Steelers improved each year until 1972 when Berglund 2

they won their first division title. Winning a title that season wasn’t the only important thing, it was also the season with the “immaculate reception”. Which was a win against the Oakland

Raiders where in the last seconds of the game quarterback Terry Bradshaw of the Pittsburg

Steelers passed to a wide receiver who was hit by a Raiders defensive back. The ball bounced off both men and fell into the hands of Steelers running back , who ran it in for a . The Steelers won that game 13 to 7 (Immaculate Reception original broadcast). The

Steelers didn’t reach the that year, but the “immaculate reception” was an important clutch play for the dynasty. It is a defining moment for the dynasty and is considered the true start to this dynasty, as the Steelers won a super bowl in 1974 with the team that they built in the draft in the years before. They Steelers dynasty were able to win four super bowls with a team that they built through the draft and the “immaculate reception” showed what was to come.

Additional detail was needed for the Steelers dynasty because it is almost the same story for the San Francisco 49er’s dynasty. Both teams built their dynasties through the draft and achieved success through an unlikely play. After a bad season in 1979 the 49ers drafted future hall of famer quarterback Joe Montana and pro bowler wider receiver Dwight Clark (Gutierrez,

Paul). Like the Steelers these two draft picks create a moment like the “immaculate reception” known as the “catch”. The beat the Dallas Cowboys during a NFC championship game in the last seconds of the game. The “catch” is considered the start of the

49ers dynasty just like the “immaculate reception”. Not only that the 49ers continued their dynasties by drafting Pro-Bowlers and Hall of Famers, just as the Steelers did. Most dynasties tend to go with the drafting process and build a team over time, but some dynasties find other ways to build. Berglund 3

The New England Patriots came out nowhere with a pro bowler quarterback drafted in the 6th round 199th in 2000 (Gaines, Cork). Tom Brady became arguably one of the best in the NFL. Yet they relied more on free agency and drafting more players in the low rounds of the draft, unlike the 49ers and Steelers. Though the Patriots started like the 49ers and Steelers dynasty with the Patriots winning a Super Bowl in 2002 against the Rams who were heavily favored (New England Patriots Win First Super Bowl.). The Patriots “immaculate

Reception” was when Adam Vinatieri secured the win by a field goal kick in the last seconds of the game. Like the Steelers and 49ers dynasties, they had this play that defined them as a team, except the Patriots won their divisional round that season over a controversial rule, called the

Tuck Rule. It was the last two minutes of the game and Tom Brady was tackled by Charles

Woodson who caused Brady to fumble and the raiders were able to recover the ball. All of that was over turned and the ruling was under the rule that

“When a Team A player is holding the ball to pass it forward, any intentional forward

movement of his hand starts a , even if the player loses possession of the ball

as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body.” (Gutierrez, Paul).

The Patriots ended up winning the game and the super bowl that year. Starting a dynasty on a controversy which sometimes overshadows the Vinatieri kick. The Patriots continued to enter the negative lime light with controversy’s like watching other teams training camps and deflate gate: Which Tom Brady was suspended for deflating footballs in a playoff game against the

Colts. It also didn’t help Tom Brady situation, when Donald Trump became a more controversial figure and he and Brady were known to be friends. Which did not make Brady a more likeable Berglund 4

figure in the public eye. The Patriots dynasty started as a controversy and continues to be one even after they have won five super bowls and continue to make the playoffs year after year.

Another question that can be asked is what effect do NFL dynasties have on attendance and viewership? The answer to that is none, or at least they don’t have an effect on Super bowl ratings, viewership or fan attendance. The Patriots have become one of the most hated teams in the NFL and have been connected with tv ratings going down due to their dominance or there many appearances super bowls. Yet we see the Super bowl ratings fluctuate without any correlation to the Patriots dynasty. The 2018 super bowl who involved the Patriots where at a

43.1% (“Super Bowl Ratings Chart, All-Time.”). Which was the same percentage in 2008 season where the undefeated Patriots lost to the New York Giants. Which was down to one play where a giant’s player caught a ball against his helmet. The giants shortly won after that play and winning a super bowl as extreme under dogs. It is considering to be one of the best super bowls of all time, even though the Patriots were in that game.

The Patriots in the recent years have been getting more and more hate do to the fact that they have been intertwined with controversies and gives that puts them in the negative limelight.

Whereas the 49ers and Steelers dynasties were these tough opponents and where hated by division rivals and teams they beat in the playoffs each year, yet they are remembered with positivity. Yet there is no positive or negative correlation with dynasties and super bowls, there is positive growth for a select amount of years then the ratings will dip back down without any connection with any of these three dynasties (“Super Bowl Ratings Chart, All-Time.”). An article written by Pivovarnik, Lamb, Zuber, and Gandar talks about how free agency can actually put more interest on a team with fans wondering what impact that player could have on the team (1). Berglund 5

An article by Pak says, “At the team-level, I find that intra-seasonal balance has a much larger effect on attendance than either dynasty persistence or inter-seasonal balance” (Gina, L Pak)). So even if a dynasties team is going to the playoffs every year its attendance could go down, but the team who rarely ever goes to the playoffs could see attendance growth. Which means there is no correlation with dynasties and attendance or tv rating.

After researching dynasties, I come to the conclusion that dynasties in the NFL don’t have as big as effect on viewership for super bowls or attendance of other teams as much as they should. Dynasties like the 49ers and Steelers had an effect on the NFL, but soon after they died out they were remembered fondly, due to the lack of controversy. The New England Patriots dynasty on the other had will be remembered for more of its controversies then their super bowl wins and dominance over other teams. The Patriots dragged the word dynasty through the mud, as most people will think of a team that cheated to get to the top by getting calls in their favor and getting caught in scandals after scandals. I believe dynasties are just another excuse to for

NFL ratings being down and that football dynasties create rivalries, competition, underdog stories and new excitement. As when one dynasty falls another will surely rise.

Just because I was able to come to a conclusion with my paper doesn’t mean there aren’t gaps in my paper. There is a major gap in my paper that would help solidify my main research topic. That would be a simple graph/table with the average viewership from each year. That information would provide me with data to see if there is a drastic change from years before.

Whereas most articles only compared the rating drop a couple years before. Another gap that was in my paper is stronger and larger varieties of scholarly sources. I was able to find peer reviewed sources, but I was only able to find 3 or 4 and they weren’t as broad as I would have liked them Berglund 6

to be. Another problemed that I faced was that when I look for other view points on why viewership could be down beside it being dynasties. I found mostly political articles with little to no facts on why they had their reasoning. I found sources saying that attendance and viewership were low in the NFL because of protest or the 2016 election and President Trump. The two that only made sense to me was that “there are to many broadcasting windows” or that all tv ratings are down due to people cutting out tv packages and going to things like Netflix (Traina, Jimmy).

Yet that still doesn’t explain the fluctuations in attendance for teams that due make it to the playoffs and essentially do well in the NFL.

Researching NFL dynasties and how they form was an easy task as the information didn’t take long to find as it was abundant. There are books, articles, blogs, fan pages, and may peer- reviewed articles. Though the gaps in the paper are easily found as there weren’t many studies for the question “What effect do NFL dynasties have on attendance and viewership?”. There were no peer reviewed articles that could even come close to answering that question. Most studies gave info of viewship of the last 10 years. Which could not prove what the question.

Other studies only showed viewership for superbowls, which showed no trend whatsoever besides a growth of viewership over the decades. Even looking at statistics of viewership during some dynasty super bowl wins of dynasties that were commonly liked. Yet looking at the research you can come to the conclusion that the Steelers dynasty and 49ers dynasty were not hated as much as the Patriots dynasty as the Patriots had more controversy around them. Yet there are no studies or research on what effect on viewership or attendance. There was an abundance of articles about kneeling and that effect on viewership. Berglund 7

The problem with any article that states they have the reason for the low viewership in

NFL ratings is that they haven’t actually done any research. Many articles try to convince the reader that it is kneeling during the national anthem, stricture rules in the game, or even dominate teams like the Patriots reaching the super bowl every year. Yet they back up these claims with no research. An article by Kathryn Casteel goes through on the racial divide with Whites and

African Americans on Kneeling during the national anthem in the NFL (Casteel, Kathryn). The info couldn’t work as it didn’t prove that kneeling was the reason the viewership was down.

There needs to be a study and research done to figure out what dynasties had an effect on viewership, fan attendance, the public eye or if they had any effect at all.

If a study were to be conducted there would be many factors and ideas that would need to be looked at. The study would first need to look at all the social issues that are affecting the NFL and see if they affect the fans in not watching or going to the games. They would not only need to look at social issues, but anything that could effect viewership. Some of those things would be people not paying for TV subscriptions and streaming on websites, stricter rules, and dominate dynasties. Once those areas are researched and effects are known then the study can find what really drives viewership and attendance.

Not only do they need to find the permdators that may drive the the viewership and attendance during the recent drop in viewership. The study would need to cover viewership and attendance over the years to see if any trends would show up. It would help see if dynasties have an overall effect on viewership and attendance. Not only that it could help see if both viewership and attendance have natural drops during elections like the 2016 or other events like tragedies.

Also the research will show the growth in TV viewership over the decades, which may cause Berglund 8

some false increases that could be attributed to events or dynasties, were it could just be higher viewership for TV and sports in general. The problem researchers will make when conducting this research will be the factor that causation does not mean correlation. With many factors that could attribute to the question “What effect do NFL dynasties have on attendance and viewership?”.