Least likable Super Bowl champion of all time (crossthread thread)

It's the Saints for me, though not entirely because of them.

1) I hate that their owner, who had to be dragged kicking and screaming by the league to even come back to New Orleans rather than move the team to San Antonio, got to hold the Lombardi Trophy and be seen as a swell guy by the city.

2) The entire "Healing New Orleans" with a Super Bowl win, which was about 99 percent a horseshit fairy tale fed by a lazy media looking for the easiest feel-good story to be had. I'd love to see exactly what one football game did to help the people and parts of the city that were hit the hardest by Katrina, and from all reports this week, are still pretty close to the bad shape they were in during the storm's aftermath.

 

3) Drew Brees' birthmark.

 

It was actually a fun unique thing to watch when they did it. But now it's become so cliche because everyone does it.

Kinda like how the students at every college basketball school storm the court when they win on ESPN. It's cool if it's an actual upset, or the end of a long losing streak against a rival. It's not cool if your team has won a couple of national titles in the last couple of decades or made a few Final Fours.

 

The '85 Bears were a team of true character(s) -- from the coach on down. No phoniness, no bullshit. But between the money, the ubiquity of the ESPN-driven highlight culture and the selected, shallow made-for-TV narratives, I don't think you'll ever see that kind of team again. At least that kind of team won't be allowed to organically grow on the general public. Instead, you'll be pounded over the head with the LCD Ray Lewis As Everything Raven Treatment.

On a related note, if you asked someone to come up with a collection of individuals to represent a city and what that city means to its inhabitants, there is no way they could possibly come up with a better group than the 1985 Bears.

I assume the Bears will never win another Super Bowl, but if they do, it doesn't matter who the coach is, who the QB is, who anyone is. That team would never be as beloved as the '85 Bears. That team is an impossible act to follow -- on every level.

 

That was the only real rooting interest I could muster for this one. I ended up hoping Lewis's team would lose.

 

I'm not a Bears fan on any level, but I loved the 1985 team.

I think that team might be at the top of most likable Super Bowl champion list.

 

The only people who dislike the '85 Bears fuck dead animals and masturbate with Cheez-Whiz.

 

Second that. Right down to McMahon wearing the headband with "Rozelle" on it.

 

Yeah. That was the first Super Bowl I remember watching. Everything about that game was fun. The headbands. The great players, including several Hall of Famers. Plenty of scoring to keep a 9-year-old interested. The Fridge getting into the end zone. I'm not a Bears fan either. Never have been. But that was a very likable team.

 

Every single Super Bowl winning team of the Lions and Browns. Insufferable...

 

1. Totally agree. If Benson had had his way, they'd be the San Antonio Saints. I don't think many in N.O. have entirely bought Benson's I Love NOLA act, but they tolerate him because he is The Man.

2. I can see where the Super Bowl Redemption factor would wear on someone who didn't go through the whole Katrina bit. But it was a real deal to the people in New Orleans. It was a huge shot of confidence at a time when the city really needed it, especially considering the team's history of futility up to that point. As you say, materially, it hasn't changed much for some of the worst-hit areas, but it's still a point of pride for a city that needs anything it can find to be proud about.

 

Methinks you're employing a bit of revisionist history, my friend. (Of course, we're both biased as fuck!)

By today's hype standard, it would be quaint, but by 1985 standards, the Bears were very much a hyped team. To say they grew organically on people is just off-base. They were media darlings beyond the realm of sports even before the Super Bowl Shuffle was released.

The '85 Bears escape the tag of media creation because they backed it up and won the Super Bowl. All of my joking aside, they are definitely one of the best one-year teams in the Super Bowl era. But the media darling/creation aspects of their fame cost them in 1986-88, when they should have become a dominant all-time team. I remember the run-up to the '86 season. It was all Bears, all the time. I think it went to their head.

As for no phoniness or bullshit? I guess. I guess there was nothing phony about the massive macho-on-steroids dickheadedness of Dan Hampton or Steve McMichael, among others. Great players both, but I'm not so sure I'd want to identify with them. (I HATED it when McMichael played for the Packers for a year.)

And I don't masturbate with Cheez Whiz. It's Secret Stadium Sauce. Get it right.