NFL: SUPER BOWL I THROUGH XLVIII--"LOOKING BACK" // NBA: NO TEAM UNBEATABLE, NONE WITHOUT COMEBACK CAPACITY

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner... // NFL: SUPER BOWL I THROUGH XLVIII--“LOOKING BACK.” NBA: NO TEAM UNBEATABLE, NONE WITHOUT COMEBACK CAPACITY... // NFL---WE are approaching another Super Bowl, the 48th since 1967, when the Green Bay Packers defeated Kansas City, 35-10, and each winning player received $7,500. The Packers won in 1968, too, becoming the first NFL team to achieve a Super Bowl victory two years straight. Since then, six other NFL franchises have purchased that distinction, the Miami Dolphins (1973/74), Pittsburgh Steelers (1975/76), San Francisco 49ers (1989/90), Dallas Cowboys (1993/94), Denver Broncos (1998/99) and the New England Patriots (2004/5). The Steelers won back-to-back again (1979/80). But the team with the most consecutive appearances at the Super Bowl, that’s the Buffalo Bills, arriving as conference champion four years in a row, 1991 through 1994, losing to the New York Giants, Washington Redskins and twice to the Cowboys (the Bills have never won the Super Bowl trophy)... Of the teams that have won two Super Bowl victories in a row, the Broncos have obtained six Super Bowl appearances, winning twice, 31-24 vs. the Packers and 34-19 against the Atlanta Falcons. Next week will be the Broncos seventh Super Bowl showing. The opposing Super Bowl XLVIII team on February 2, 2014, at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, will be the Seattle Seahawks, a team that’s been to the big event only once, losing to the Steelers, 21-10 (2006). The Steelers have won the Super Bowl more times than any other NFL franchise, six, with the team’s win vs. the Seahawks being the last of seven Super Bowl berths obtained by the Steelers, which lost to the Packers at Super Bowl XLV (2011). The second most Super Bowl wins belong to two franchises, the Cowboys and the 49ers, five wins each. Except for seven of the 47 Super Bowl winners since 1967 (N.Y. Jets, Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis Rams, New Orleans Saints, Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears), all other winners have taken home the championship trophy more than once, though, on average, just twice. Noteworthy, then, is “Diversity” within the NFL; there are no NFL dynasty runs such as that seen in baseball, e.g., the N.Y. Yankees dominating the World Series year after year in the last century, the Super Bowl fairness being substantiated by the fact that since year 2000 eight different teams have been Super Bowl victors, with four of their opposing teams never having been to the Super Bowl before, the Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Indianapolis Colts, the Arizona Cardinals. Too, nearness to “competition equality” has been a strong Super Bowl feature, no Super Bowl competing team ever losing from not having scored a point, the lowest score among all Super Bowl losing teams being three points, the Dolphins falling to the Cowboys, 24-3 (1972). In only eight of the 47 Super Bowl events held since 1967 have losing teams failed to score 10 or more points, and since year 2000 only one losing team scored under 10---the N.Y. Giants, losing to the Baltimore Ravens, 23-7. In that same time frame, five losing franchises scored 20 and more points each, four of which lost by fewer than 10. Also, of all Super Bowl victories to date, just two have been with more than 40 points, the highest being the 49ers defeat of the Broncos, 55-10 (1990). . . That $7,500 for each Super Bowl winning player in 1967, it’s now more than $70,000 per. . . // NBA: IT’s never ordained, not a pre-set venture, never programmed---a basketball game is won or lost from how a team reacts in the moment to existing situations, and the best among the 30 NBA teams can drop a game to a team that’s been barely above .500 because that winning team played brilliantly while the losing higher ranked franchise also fought smart and skillfully. On the night of January 25, the Western Conference Northwest Division’s third place franchise, the Denver Nuggets, they defeated NBA high-ranked Eastern Conference and EC Central Division leading team, the Indiana Pacers, 109-96, from an exceptionally wide array of basketball tactics. The Nuggets were superb at shooting in the paint and outside, at free throws, assists, blocks, rebounds, passing, at the defense variants, which led to prevention of the Pacers remaining the NBA’s top team in current standings, now the domain of the West’s Northwest Division lading franchise, the 36-10 Oklahoma City Thunder, this team having lifted in the standings from wins hefted by the high scoring Kevin Durant (He put up 41 points last night versus the East’s Southeast 23-21 Atlanta Hawks. The Pacers are second best in the league today at 34-9, but with a 12 game lead over its division second place team, the 22-22 Chicago Bulls, though league wide the West’s Southwest Division leading team, the San Antonio Spurs, are at the Pacers heels, 33-11. On January 9, the Nuggets defeated the league’s now number one team and its division leader, the Thunder, 101-88, and in a pre-season match the Nuggets beat the Spurs, 98-94. Of seven straight Nuggets wins during the current season, the Nuggets defeated five franchises that were then and now above .500 and in second or third positions within their respective divisions. But---the Nuggets had to endure an eight game losing streak during December, forcing them to seek comeback mode, and from subsequent losses they have attained a sort of Yo-Yo demeanor. They could be back on a roll now, having beaten the Sacramento Kings on Sunday and they have a better than slight chance of defeating the East’s Southeast 19-27 Charlotte Bobcats this Wednesday. Elsewhere in the league, the 17-27 New York Knicks are rising, they’ve gone from last place within the East’s Atlantic Division to third position and six games behind first place team, the 23-21 Toronto Raptors, and three back of second place team, the 20-23 Brooklyn Nets, with Knicks forward, Carmelo Anthony, recently scoring more than 60 points in a single game. More comebacks before the All Star break are possible, in that only two of the NBA’s six division leading franchises have leads substantial enough to hold their top positions, the Pacers and the East’s Southeast 32-12 Miami Heat being nine games ahead of the Hawks. League leading franchise, the West’s Northwest Thunder, they have only a three game lead over their division’s second place team, the 33-12 Portland Trail Blazers. Still worst within the entire NBA, and the only team without double-digit wins, that’s the East’s Central Division 8-36 Milwaukee Bucks, 26 games behind the Pacers (Ugh!). END/ml