The NFL: Anyone can win it all

There is no argument that the National Football League is full of parity. It's been that way ever since 1998, when the Atlanta Falcons came from nowhere to run off a 13-3 season and a trip to the Super Bowl. The following season, the St. Louis Rams and Indianapolis Colts went from cellar dwellers to powerhouses. Every team now knows it has a shot at the Super Bowl every year.\nCritics have been having a field day. This parity, they claim, has taken away one of sports' greatest phenomena -- the dynasty.\nGone, they say, are the days of the Cowboys and 49ers. The conference champion was guaranteed by many to be, for all intents and purposes, the Super Bowl champion before the final game was even played.\nNo longer is it possible, they say, for teams to run off three or four consecutive strong seasons, leaving a mark in the history books for all fans to remember as the "team of the decade."\nMeanwhile, the St. Louis Rams are battling for their second Super Bowl title in three years.\nThree years that have seen St. Louis go 37-11, win two division titles (the Rams lost a tiebreaker to New Orleans in 2000, preventing a third), and collect three league Most Valuable Player awards.\nNow while the definition of a dynasty can always be argued, the Rams are dangerously close to achieving the title. After a 14-2 regular season record, they are the favorites to go on to take Super Bowl XXXVI. There is certainly no reason to believe they will tail off before making another run or two for a title.\n I happen to feel that parity is better for a sport than dynasty domination -- I find it wonderful that fans of every team can look optimistically to the season. Unlike Major League Baseball, where half of the league's teams are hopeless in a title quest, the NFL can promise fans that it will not have the same half-dozen teams always playing in the postseason.\nStill, those who embrace dynasties are not forgotten by the NFL. Should St. Louis continue its domination of the league, it will certainly have its dynasty.\nThe National Football League has been able to set up a system that incorporates both parity and dynasties. This allowance for all kinds of possibilities is why the league is the best-run and most successful in American sports today. While it has its weaknesses, such as player loyalty, it remains far less flawed than any other system.\nIt's time for cynics to realize that the system works. Teams of today and the future can and will be remembered just like we remember the 49ers and Cowboys of the early 1990s. Or the Steelers of the 1970s. Or the Packers of the 1960s.\nAnd given the current state of the league, achieving the title is that much more impressive.