Choose My Second Team…

Thursday, April 2, 2009 6:26 PM Posted in Life, Sports

AFC Bracket, Round 1

Because I was raised along the Gulf Coast, my favorite NFL team is the New Orleans Saints.  I’ll be a fan of the Saints until Tom Benson relocates them to San Antonio or Los Angeles, at which point I will lump them into the same category with the Raiders and Rams as “a team I will never, ever root for, and perhaps wish nothing less than financial disaster.”

That said, as a lifelong Saints fan, I’ve grown to accept that it’s a good idea to have another favorite team.  While this team is of lesser importance than the Saints, it is a strong second.  And it must be in the AFC.  For years I’ve rooted for the Denver Broncos.  After the firing of Mike Shanahan, the hiring of New England clone Josh McDaniels, and the “Cutler-Coach Debacle,” I’ve renounced my support for the team.  I am now in search of a new AFC team to call my own.  I considered the Bills because they play outdoors in wicked weather, then they signed Terrell Owens.  That was the end of that.  I narrowed the field to eight teams.  It wasn’t easy.  The Colts missed the cut because I don’t like their uniforms.

So here we are.  I’ve ruled out west coast teams because I have an east coast bias.  For the most part I considered team tradition, location, uniforms, and proximity to me (soon to be my hometown of Mobile, Alabama).  Since you, the seven people who read this blog, are spread around the country, I’m asking for your input.  Leave your final four in the comments and next week, we’ll select the next round.  You have until Tuesday, April 7, 2009 to make your choices.  Help me out!

by Joe Kennedy

20 comments

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April 2, 2009 - 6:43 PM

Micah Fries - Ok Joe, here you go…

Jaguars
Titans
Steelers
Chiefs

April 2, 2009 - 6:55 PM

casey zachary - Miami, Baltimore, Houston, Cleveland

April 2, 2009 - 7:01 PM

amy - 1. tennessee titans
2. jacksonville jaguars
2. texans

i don’t like a 4th. the closet would probably be the baltimore ravens, but i like the titans better.

April 2, 2009 - 7:41 PM

Gibby Espinoza - Final Four: Jags, Titans, Steelers, and Chiefs.

Some how I get the feeling these four were intended to be the final four. Hmmmm…

April 2, 2009 - 8:04 PM

John Stickley - Here’s my four:

1. Kansas City Chiefs
2. Kansas City Chiefs
3. Kansas City Chiefs
4. Kansas City Chiefs

(What can I say, I’m a Chiefs fan!)

April 2, 2009 - 8:07 PM

Joe Kennedy - Aww, John. Come on. Play along. =)

April 2, 2009 - 9:20 PM

Wes Kenney - Well, I’m a guy who has great respect for tradition in sports. I’m still not on board for interleague play in baseball, and think that the team with the best record in each league at the end of the season should be in the World Series, right then. So that’s the approach I’ll take here.

Tradition is easy on the top of both sides of your bracket. The Dolphins have it easily over the expansion Jaguars, and it’s the same for Pittsburgh over the USFLish-logo-wearing Texans.

It’s a little tougher in the bottom halves. Baltimore and Tennessee are both new-looking logos to my traditional brain. And though the Ravens are playing in a place with a solid claim to NFL history (Johnny U., anyone?), Tennessee gets the nod from me because their tradition is true AFC/AFL, dating back to the days when Bum Phillips patrolled the Oiler sideline. And in a tie-breaker, Tennessee has the advantage of being quite a bit closer to Mobile than Baltimore.

But the most difficult of all is that final matchup between Cleveland and Kansas City. Hard to beat northeast Ohio for football tradition, and the Browns play their home games within an hour’s drive of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, in the cradle of professional football itself. But for AFC/AFL history, it’s hard to beat Hank Stram’s Chiefs, so to placate John, I’m going with them in this one.

So here you go:

Miami
Tennessee
Pittsburgh
Kansas City

Thanks for this, Joe. It was fun, and a nice break for my tired brain.

April 2, 2009 - 9:21 PM

John Stickley - I’m trying, Joe… but I think your decision is a no-brainer… :)

But here’s my shot at some unbiased reasoning.

I think you have to start with history and tradition. There are only two teams on your list that can match the Chiefs in that area… Pittsburg and Miami. The remaining five are either expansion teams or relocated teams, so you’ve gotta throw them out.

If you want to talk location strictly based on climate, you’e gonna lean toward Miami (unless it’s hurricane season). However, fan base commitment surely trumps climate by far. Kansas City and Pittsburg both live for their teams. There may be several sports seasons in each city, even other professional sports teams, but these cities years revolve around the same team: there’s free agency / draft season, training camp season, the regular season, and the playoffs. So toss out Miami.

So we’re down to proximity… according to Google Maps, KC is 14 1/2 hours driving… Pittsburg is 15 1/2 (about 100 miles further). Flying (according to Expedia), KC is about a 4 hour flight with one connection. Pittsburg is a 5 hour flight with one connection. KC looks to have the advantage here.

As for game day atmosphere? Edge Kansas City… almost a no-brainer. Think about the sweet aroma of BBQ for miles around Arrowhead… the sheer noise and energy of the crowd… the history of Arrowhead (as opposed to the lack thereof in the infant Heinz field).

Uniforms? Well, on my list this is way down there, unless they’re just absolutely hideous. You can’t really go wrong with either here… both teams have classic logos and looks going back decades.

I think you see where this ends. Using your criteria, you’ve gotta go with the Chiefs.

(Yes, I’ve spent WAY too much time on this!)

April 2, 2009 - 9:30 PM

John Stickley - BTW, not to ignore Cleveland completely… but their original team is no longer is the Browns, thanks to Art Modell (even though the expansion version has adopted all the original history, records, etc., as its own).

*ducks as Cleveland fans start throwing things*

Baltimore has similar issues… with the original Colts team relocating, and Modell moving the original Browns to Baltimore, I just have to throw them out of the picture when talking tradition / history.

April 2, 2009 - 9:38 PM

Joe Kennedy - Wes- great final four. Old school all the way… especially if we count the Oilers (who I liked as a kid… or, well, I had an Oilers T-shirt as a tot). I hate that Bud Adams retired the Oilers name when they moved to Nashville. Pretty hypocritical since he then took the old NY Titans name for his own. AND then Houston took the old Dallas Texans name… sad. I miss the Oilers.

John- wow. You really did play along. Brilliantly thought out, but of course, you still never chose a final four. That’s okay. You tried, and you get an A for effort. In the meantime, I’m counting your votes this round as: Miami, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City. I bet I know who you pick in the next round coming Tuesday.

April 2, 2009 - 9:56 PM

John Stickley - Joe,

Miami, Tennessee, Pittsburg, and Kansas City will definitely work. And yes, you know who I’m going with on Tuesday… :)

This has been a fun diversion. One I’ve spent too much time thinking about… but fun nonetheless. After the week I’ve had, it’s been good to think about something like this for a while. Too many 13-14 hour days of stress-filled work!

April 2, 2009 - 9:58 PM

Wes Kenney - And, Joe, don’t forget that the Titans/Oilers have that Bum Phillips going on with your #1, the Saints…

April 2, 2009 - 10:02 PM

Joe Kennedy - John- my pleasure.

Wes- the Phillips family is not what I’d consider an asset to the tradition of any team. But that’s just me. =) Ah, but until Sean Payton, there’s never been a Saints coach I liked. Sure, Jim Mora was entertaining, though. Oh he of the diddly poo.

April 3, 2009 - 7:07 AM

Chris Walls - Joe,

Jags over Dolphins–for me it is a personal thing because I had a friend who played for the jags when they first came into the league. Plus I like defense and they play really good defense.

Titans over Ravens–this is a personal bias because I live near Baltimore and don’t really like the team. I like the Titans because of their coach. Jeff Fischer is man of character and one of the best coaches in the league.

Steelers over Texans–As a Cowboys fan who watched the loses to the Steelers in the 70′s that is hard for me to say. The fact that my wife is a Steelers fan maybe a reason. I respect their tradition and the way they run their organization.

Can’t vote on the last two teams because they have been an embarrassment to football. But if you have to make me choose I would go with the Chiefs because of their owner who died this last year, Lamar Hunt. He owned the original Pro football team in Dallas that moved to KC

There is my illogical reasons for the teams I chose.

April 3, 2009 - 8:02 AM

Howie Luvzus - Two words…
Peyton Manning

April 3, 2009 - 12:15 PM

mo - Florida bracket:
Jackonsville has done a great job since joining the league. I think they may be the most successful expansion franchise ever. In spite of that their fan base rarely fills the stadium.

Miami on the other hand has a much richer history, good fan base, and good future. How can you go wrong with the tradition of Marino and Schula and the future in the hands of Parcells?

Advantage: MIami Dolphins

The wong choice either way bracket:

The steelers have all the tradition, and a great team now. They play the game the right way: Defense and running first. However, their fan base is rabid. They are like the Duke basketball fans or New York Yankee fans: Their team is good, they know it, and feel their team is God’s gift to football. I’d hate to see you join that group.

The Texans stink, they always have. Plain and simple. They also turned their back on the Houston tradition by changing the name.

Advantage: push

The lovable looser bracket:
Both K.C. and Cleveland have decent traditions, but neither team is great right now. Mismanagement in Cleveland makes KC a better bet to win sooner. Personally, I like the city of Cleveland a little better than KC, and the Browns have slightly better history.

Advantage Cleveland Browns

Would-be Steelers bracket:
Both these teams since moving to their respected cities have adopted the Steelers philosophy of football, and I love that kind of football. I like the Titans a lot, and would not be offended at all if you chose them. However, as a Baltimore native, let me make my pitch for the Ravens.

Tradition: In a short period of time the Ravens have build a strong winning tradition. When you add that to the winning tradition of past Baltimore teams you’ve got a history as rich as almost any in the league. For those saying Baltimore doesn’t have the tradition think about this: Indianapolis may technically own the history of the Baltimore colts, but when you listen to a game on the radio, or go to games in person the old colts Art Donavan, Ray Berry, and formerly John Mackey don’t go to Indianapolis games, they go to Baltimore games. Also, last season to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1958 championship “The Greatest Game Ever Played” the NFL only allowed one franchise to hold an on-fleld halftime celebration, and I’ll give you a hint: it wasn’t indianapolis. Same went for an on-field memorial tribute following the death of Unitas

Present: Ray Lewis may be getting up there in age, but the defense is still great. Plus, this past season the team went to the AFC championship game with a rookie head coach and QB. The future looks bright.

Fans: This city has some of the best fans in football. Period. Think about this: the old Baltimore Colts marching band continued to play every sesason after the Colts left, and now continue on as the Marching Ravens. How many fans would continue to carry on year after year without a team?

Advantage: Baltimore Ravens

So that’s my picks. You can probably guess from this who my final two and champion teams would be. Have fun making your picks!

April 3, 2009 - 1:33 PM

Joe Kennedy - Thanks Howie, Chris, and MO.

Howie- final four. Go.

Chris- I like Jeff Fisher, and I tend to like teams if I like their coach. (Thus my renunciation of the Broncos.) As for the Chiefs… I can dig the stadium and the weather… but more importantly, I have two words: Derrick Thomas. Nuff said.

MO- nice job. You can’t push, so I’m giving you a vote for the Texans simply because of your animosity toward the Steelers. Also, Houston was legally required to buck tradition and choose a new name. Bud Adams, owner of the Titans, retired the name after the move, rather than allow another Houston franchise to keep the name. I still hold a grudge over that. The Texans did, however, find some tradition by going with the Texans, since the Kansas City Chiefs used to be the Dallas Texans.

April 3, 2009 - 3:26 PM

Chris - Final Four:

Miami
Tennessee
Pittsburgh
Kansas City

April 3, 2009 - 5:42 PM

mo - I didn’t know that about the Houston franchise. Ok, my vote goes to Houston then for sure…maybe I should have named that bracket “the winningest vs. the not so much”

April 4, 2009 - 9:57 AM

Kevin Bussey - Chiefs
I’m with John on this one

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