Best ever? Is New England the best dynasty in the NFL? Former Q-C players don't have answer down Pat

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By Craig DeVrieze | Monday, February 04, 2008 |

Roger Craig could stake a claim for his 1980’s era San Francisco 49ers as the foremost dynasty in NFL history. Instead, he reluctantly will hand that distinction to the New England Patriots should they win their fourth Vince Lombardi Trophy in seven years today in Glendale, Ariz.

“I would say they would have to go down as the best team ever,’’ said the Davenport native who was part of three of the Niners’ four Super Bowl championships from 1982-1990. “In these times of parity, you never know who is going to win each year. We never had to deal with salary caps and free-agency.”

Neither, of course, did the 1972 Miami Dolphins, so far the only team in NFL history to complete a season with a perfect record.

So, if the Patriots defy history and join the 17-0 Dolphins at 19-0, will Karl Noonan — a former Davenport Assumption star who spent that ‘72 season on injured reserve with the Dolphins — tip his cap to the greatest single season in NFL history?

In a word, no.

“I think it was tougher when we did it,” said Noonan, who played six active seasons with the Dolphins from 1966 through 1971 and then retired a year after practicing daily with the unbeaten Super Bowl VII champs. “There were fewer teams (then) and the quality of players on each team was better.”

Better or worse?

While few would argue with Craig’s assessment that building a perennial champion in this salary-capped NFL era is a gargantuan task, standing this potentially historic Patriots team against those ‘72 Dolphins and pro football dynasties of the past is kind of a Tastes Great/Less Filling proposition.

On opposite sides, certainly, are Ron Hallstrom, a Moline native who spent 12 seasons on NFL offensive lines, and Sage Rosenfels, a former Maquoketa (Iowa) High School quarterback and the only Q-C area player currently in the NFL.

“I don’t think it is quite the accomplishment today as it was when Miami did it,’’ Hallstrom said. “The game has gotten easier.’’

How?

Through free agency, parity and, particularly, rosters watered-down by the salary cap, he said.

“Today, you can buy a team and win for a few years,” said Hallstrom, the longtime Green Bay Packers player who left for a season in Philadelphia at the dawn of true free agency in 1993. “Back in the day, when I played, before I played, if you were drafted you weren’t going to play right away. Today, there are a lot of inexperienced players.

“And you don’t have the dominant, dominant teams. Now, if you are 8-8, 9-7, that’s a good year.

“To be where they are, it’s phenomenal, a great accomplishment,” Hallstrom said of the Pats. “But the game was a little stronger back then.’’

Said Rosenfels: Say what?

“I lived in Miami and got to know a lot of those ’72 Dolphins,” said the former Miami backup quarterback who now is a Houston Texan. “No offense to those guys, but I think the game is a lot harder now.

“Guys are bigger, faster and stronger. ... And you have 20 to 25 practices in the offseason. It makes the game more complex, almost confusing. It’s a real feat to make it in the league right now.

“Then, you had to be an athlete, a hitter. The game has gotten more complex just in the seven years I have been in the league.

“It has always been a game of strong, hard men. Now, you have to be a really smart man to make it.”

Harder or easier?

Noboby would argue that game has changed greatly from 1972 through today.

What Q-C-bred gridders cannot seem to agree on is whether it was harder to win year-to-year, game-to-game then or now.

“Any Given Sunday’’ always has been the operative phrase in professional football, but isn’t 19-0 even more unthinkable in an era when every team is supposed to go 8-8?

“In an era of free agency, it makes it that much more amazing,’’ said Rock Island native Adam Lingner, who played 13 NFL seasons as an offensive lineman and long snap specialist and lost four straight Super Bowls with Buffalo in the 1990s. “They are spending the same amount of money as everybody else and getting better results.”

James Jones, an 10-year NFL defensive lineman from Davenport, said winning any game in the NFL is an accomplishment.

Winning 19 without loss?

“There’s no doubt it is impressive,’’ said Jones, who started his career in Cleveland under current Pats coach Bill Belichick. “It is very impressive in any sport to win that many games in a row.’’

It is more impressive in the modern NFL, Rosenfels would argue, because of the challenge of bigger, stronger, faster athletes.

“That creates more injuries,’’ he said. “In Texas (this year), we had 17 or 18 guys on the IR.’’

Even Noonan would concede the Patriots have had to clear hurdles this year that his Dolphin mates did not face in ‘72.

Namely, a more intense media spotlight.

“The difference now, in my opinion, is the media is so vast,’’ he said. “It was nothing like it is now, with ESPN and the Internet. A perfect season is another burden.’’

Dolphins were roaddogs

Noonan, though, might prefer to take on the modern media ahead of a ’70s era Pittsburgh Steelers team on the brink of its own dynastic NFL run.

Little remembered is the fact the ’72 Dolphins had to travel to Pittsburgh for the AFC Championship game because the team with the best record did not necessarily host in those days.

“We were 15-0 and had to go to Pittsburgh when they had all their good guys,” Noonan said of a game the Dolphins won 21-17.

And whereas the Patriots will be favored by double-digits vs. the New York Giants today, those 16-0 Dolphins actually were a two-touchdown underdog to the Washington Redskins when they took the field for Super Bowl VII at the Coliseum in Los Angeles on Jan. 14, 1973.

Behind Bob Griese, Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and MVP Jake Scott, the Dolphins prevailed 14-7.

“In my opinion, what we did was against better competition,” Noonan said. “Teams that were good were really good.”

The dynasty dilemma

Craig could say as much for his 1984 49ers, whose only loss was a 20-17 heartbreaker at home to Pittsburgh.

Then in the postseason, en route to the second of their four Super Bowl titles, Craig, Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott and friends defeated Lawrence Taylor and the Giants and then a Chicago Bears team one year away from its own epic, once-beaten Super Bowl season.

Finally, in a virtual home game in Super Bowl XIX at Stanford Stadium, Craig scored three touchdowns as the Niners routed Dan Marino’s Dolphins 38-16.

That’s the quality of competition the 49ers faced throughout the 80s, while the 70s era Steelers won four out of six Super Bowls outbattling loaded teams from Miami, Oakland, Minnesota and Dallas.

And still, the Pats are the all-time dynasty?

“We were great in our era,’’ Craig said, waffling a bit. “They are great in the new millenium. It’s totally different eras.’’

Jamie Williams, Craig’s teammate in junior high, high school college and with the 1989 Super Bowl champion Niners, agrees.

But the 12-year NFL tight end said, he’d readily pit those 49ers against these Patriots.

“They’ve got a couple of Hall of Famers out there,’’ he said. “We had more than a couple.’’

The Patriot way

Craig points to the constant rise and fall of teams these days as proof of the Patriots’ organizational greatness.

Exhibit A: The Chicago Bears, Super Bowl participants last year, fourth in the NFC North this season.

“We couldn’t keep our team together in this era,’’ Craig said.

Neither have the Pats. If they win today, they will do it with only five players from the 2001 team that upended the favored St. Louis Rams 20-17 in New Orleans.

“I know (Tom) Brady is getting a lot of credit and Belichick is a great coach,’’ Craig said of two key common Patriots denominators. “Management deserves credit as well. ... Games are not won by players anymore. Games are won by smart management.’’

That means vice president of player management Scott Pioli definitely will have earned his Super Bowl rings, but Marv Cook, an old Patriot from West Branch, Iowa, looks higher up the chain of command.

“I know Mr. Kraft,’’ Cook said of team owner Robert Kraft. “He has brought stability to that organization. He deserves a lot of credit.’’

After five seasons, Cook, a tight end, left a struggling Patriots organization as a free agent in 1993.

Now, he noted, veteran free agents like Junior Seau come to New England at a discount because winning breeds winning.

“Their careers are winding down and they want to win a championship,” he said. “They’ll go to the Pats for that reason.’’

Then, of course, there are the two B’s.

“They have a great concept,’’ Cook said. “But it all starts at quarterback.”

Does it? Lingner wonders.

“It would be interesting to be a fly on a wall to see what Belichick is doing to keep those guys focused and playing at a high level,’’ he said.

Bud on ice

Noonan, who has made his home in Charlotte, N.C., the past three decades, certainly will be interested in today’s outcome.

Like most of his fellow Q-C NFL alumni, he expects a good game but believes the Patriots will win.

“Of course, I’m hoping they don’t,’’ he said. “But if they do, they’ll just equal our record. If we had had to play 19 games, we’d have won 19.’’

If the Patriots fall, he won’t pop a bottle of champagne like his old Dolphins teammates do.

“I’ll have my Budweiser ready,’’ he said. “I don’t drink champagne.’’

Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 3332610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com.