The Best of All Time?

A certain friend of mine, who shall go unnamed here because he might sue me otherwise, has recently been asserting that this year's New England Patriots are the Greatest Team of All TimeTM. I suggested to him that perhaps it was a touch early to be dolling out such dramatic accolades (or perhaps I said "Are you fucking nuts? It's only week 11, you Belichick-loving freak" or something along that line).

Not that they aren't damn good. Even I will admit that the Pats are crazy good. 40 or 50 points a week good. But I feel compelled to point out that that me, you and my grandma could score 56 points against Buffalo. Seriously now. The Pats have had only 2 real tests this season:

1) Dallas, week 6. Final score was 48-27. Fair enough, they looked like contenders for that greatest team crown against one of the NFC's best teams. But the game was closer than the score suggests, I swear.
2) Indy, week 9. Final was 24-20. Without Marvin Harrison in the line-up and with Peyton Manning spazzing it up. It was a great game, but New England didn't dominate as they should have unless Indianapolis is the Second Greatest Team Ever TM.

We'll see. We'll see if they go undefeated (my bet is still no - the playoffs matter a lot more to Belichick than the regular season and Pittsburgh and the Giants may just need wins in the next few weeks more than the Pats do. I'm just saying.)

In the meantime, who really is the Greatest Team of All Time?

Conventional wisdom says the 1972 Dolphins: Winners of 14 straight regular season games plus 3 playoff games including the Superbowl. The mythical perfect season. But now name me one player from that team? OK, other than Larry Czonka.

You could make an argument for the 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers: The steel curtain. Terry Bradshaw before he became a Sunday afternoon stand-up comedian. Mean Joe Greene before he became a Coca Cola commercial. Over 19 games, their defence gave up just 195 points. Plus, they had awesome sideburns.

Then there are the 1985 Chicago Bears. Bonus points for the sweetness that was Walter Payton and for William 'best nickname ever' Perry. Serious deductions for the Superbowl Shuffle.

I'm partial to the 1989 San Francisco 49ers. Montana, Craig, Rice, Lott. Hell, the back-up QB was some guy named Steve Young. Half the team are either pro announcers or NFL coaches. These guys knew the game. Plus, they kicked the stuffing out of Elway in the Superbowl.

Finally, much as I love football, and am so over baseball, let's not forget those 1927 New York Yankees. I hear they were pretty damn good, too.