Playoff expansion has made it less likely that the best regular season teams end the postseason as the last one standing, and the chance of a team winning a title despite having a good-but-not-great record has increased.

When the NFL and AFL finished its merger in 1970, the playoffs were set up to include eight teams. The field increased to ten in 1978, then 12 in 1990, and after more postseason expansion in 2020, there are now 14 teams that qualify for the postseason, with further expansion to 16 – half the league – seeming likely, and some would argue, inevitable.

The league also expanded each conference from three divisions to four in 2002, to accommodate the expansion Houston Texans. This not only increased the likelihood of the weaker division champions qualifying for the postseason, but it often strengthened the wild card field. Prior to this change, there were three wild card teams that won the Super Bowl. Since, there have been four.

We’ve also had a 21st-Century explosion in teams winning the Super Bowl without a dominant record. Over the first 35 years of the Super Bowl era, just two teams won championships despite losing five games or more, and one of those was the 1988 49ers, who repeated the following season after going 15-1.

Since the 2001 season, nine teams have won titles after losing five or more regular season games, including last year’s six-loss Kansas City team, and the seven-loss Giants team that upset the undefeated Patriots almost 17 years ago.

So as the NFL has evolved, continually implementing ways to sustain and foster parity while adding regular season games and expanding the playoffs, it is less likely for a winning team to dominate its competition with the gap between the best and worst teams being closer than ever.

It is less likely for a team to finish the regular season with a tiny number of defeats.

It is more difficult than ever for a team that does get through the regular season with the league’s best record to parlay that success into a Super Bowl title.

If a team is going to be considered one of the absolute all-time greats and be included in any conversation of the NFL’s most iconic single-season teams, an exemplary record is required, weekly dominance over its opponents is preferred, and as the placement of the 2007 Patriots on the Top 100 list proves, a Lombardi Trophy is mandatory.

Each of those things is hard to achieve. Combining them has never been more difficult.

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