NFL Tournament of Champions: Who's the Best of the Best?

No Flyers Fly-By this week as the weekly series takes a break with the Olympics, it will return next week. Instead, today will be the beginning of a new series called NFL Tournament of Champions. This is a 64 team head to head tournament featuring every NFL champion since 1946, from the 46' Chicago Bears to the latest champion, the '09 Saints. I will be using What If Sports for the game results and will post the results, along with a sentence or two, on the blog. This series will mostly run on days where I don't have a normal post, namely Sundays and Mondays for now (an exception will be this Sunday, when I will finish my ranking the fanbases series).

Today, there will be no game results, they will begin this weekend. Instead, I will post the 64 team bracket that I made. The bracket is divided into four "groups" of 16 teams each, similar to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Unlike the NCAA, however, there is no seeding process, the teams are placed randomly in the draw using random.org.

Here are some basic rules for the tournament below:

1. Each team will use its default lineup and playbook on whatifsports.com, I will not manipulate these factors. Since whatif doesn't include injuries, they will not be included (this isn't reality, it is a simulation, so no complaints!)

2. Teams will play home games at the stadium they played in during their championship year, for example, the 1946 Bears will play home games at Wrigley Field, while the 1985 Bears will play at home at Soldier Field.

3. Home teams for the first round will be determined randomly, home games for future rounds are determined by the point differential of all of the previous rounds. Whichever team has won by more points in previous rounds plays at home.


That's about it, now the bracket, as I stated previously, was drawn randomly. Here it is below:


NFL Tournament of Champions

Group 1
1946 Chicago Bears at 1988 San Francisco 49ers
1989 San Francisco 49ers at 1952 Detroit Lions
1993 Dallas Cowboys at 1959 Baltimore Colts
1972 Miami Dolphins at 1987 Washington Redskins
2005 Pittsburgh Steelers at 1986 New York Giants
2008 Pittsburgh Steelers at 1963 Chicago Bears
2004 New England Patriots at 1977 Dallas Cowboys
1974 Pittsburgh Steelers at 1999 St. Louis Rams

Group 2
1970 Baltimore Colts at 1948 Philadelphia Eagles
1960 Philadelphia Eagles at 1964 Cleveland Browns
1961 Green Bay Packers at 1955 Cleveland Browns
1953 Detroit Lions at 2001 New England Patriots
2003 New England Patriots at 1990 New York Giants
2009 New Orleans Saints at 1998 Denver Broncos
1966 Green Bay Packers at 1971 Dallas Cowboys
1954 Cleveland Browns at 1947 Chicago Cardinals

Group 3
1979 Pittsburgh Steelers at 2000 Baltimore Ravens
1968 New York Jets at 1994 San Francisco 49ers
1957 Detroit Lions at 1991 Washington Redskins
1983 Los Angeles Raiders at 1962 Green Bay Packers
1949 Philadelphia Eagles at 1965 Green Bay Packers
1992 Dallas Cowboys at 1958 Baltimore Colts
1985 Chicago Bears at 1995 Dallas Cowboys
1996 Green Bay Packers at 1984 San Francisco 49ers

Group 4
1976 Oakland Raiders at 1950 Cleveland Browns
1973 Miami Dolphins at 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
1997 Denver Broncos at 1969 Kansas City Chiefs
1967 Green Bay Packers at 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers
1951 Los Angeles Rams at 1982 Washington Redskins
1978 Pittsburgh  Steelers at 2006 Indianapolis Colts
1980 Oakland Raiders at 1981 San Francisco 49ers
1956 New York Giants at 2007 New York Giants

Games will being on Monday, as I will post Group 1's first round game results.