Green Bay's 12 NFL Titles or Pittsburgh's 6 Super Bowl Titles?
Most of the hype leading up to this Super Bowl is talking about how the Pittsburgh Steelers have the most Super Bowl championships at 6 and they are looking for their record 7th Vincent T. Lombardi trophy. Why won't anyone acknowledge the fact that the Green Bay Packers have the most overall NFL Championships at 12 and they are looking for their record 13th? The Super Bowl has only been around since the 1966 season, the NFL has been around since 1920. The Pack has twice as many championships and people will only bring up the 3 Super Bowl titles. In my opinion, that's an insult to the NFL's history from 1920-1965. Another example is my favorite team, the Chicago Bears. They are the 2nd most successful team in the league with 9 NFL championships. However, if the Bears would've made it to the Super Bowl, only the 1985 Super Bowl championship season would've been acknowledged. That doesn't sound very successful to young fans who don't know of the league's history.
I guess the real question is: Who do you consider the most decorated team in the NFL? Packers or Steelers?
BQ: Why do you think no one acknowledges the overall NFL championships instead of just Super Bowl victories?
Colonel Reb2011-02-02T12:20:54Z
Favorite Answer
The biggest reason is quite honestly most people don't pay attention to any championships before the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl and the merger was a huge change in the NFL, so to some extent this is understandable. I do think people should acknowledge championships in the pre-Super Bowl era more often. The way it is now it's almost as if the league didn't exist before 1966.
As for which team is better, I'd say the Packers overall. The Steelers have been around long enough I think they can be legitimately compared, as the Steelers didn't come along with the merger (it's a bit unfair to compare, say, the Dolphins or Colts to the Packers when they didn't come along until later). Because of that, I think the pre-Super Bowl championships are fair game in this comparison.
Three of the Packers' championships came before the Steelers were founded. That still leaves the score 9-6.
I do think the fact the Steelers are going for their 7th Super Bowl win is a big and legitimate news story though. Super Bowl championships are significantly different from NFL championships in the days before the Super Bowl, and that is impossible to ignore.
NFL championships and the Super Bowl are seperate entities. NFL championships are rarely if ever acknowledged because very few people in the current generation are familar with them, so only Super Bowl victories are accounted for. The Packers winning 9 NFL championships from 1920-1965 is quite impressive and beats the Steelers 6 Super Bowls in 44 years, but remember that the NFL during that time had a lot less teams and it was a completely seperate thing from what was known as the AFL. The NFL as we know it today did not begin until 1970 when these two leagues merged.
As for the Bears, most would know that their Super Bowl winning team had one of, if not, the greatest defense of any team in the history of the NFL. Because of that and their fandom and lore being one of the most loyal in football, they are considered a successful franchise.
People do call the Packers the greatest franchise in the NFL history so I don't know why are you complaining?
Plus they won most of them before the modern era of football. And its 10 times harder to win a superbowl than a championship. There was only like 10 team back then in the NFL now there is 32. You do the math.
And there was the NFL and AFL so yeah two different leagues.