First off: sorry Steeler fans for continually wishing losses on you. If it helps, this is the last slide featuring you guys.
The underdog Colts came just short of pulling off a miracle in the 95 AFC Championship. They entered the playoffs at 9-7, with a young Marshall Faulk, the comeback player of the year Jim Harbaugh, and a ragtag group of white collar yeomen.
No one expected them to go beyond the Wildcard round, but they beat the new Chargers jerseys, 35-20, then shocked the Chiefs (who were undefeated at home) 10-7.
You can take your pick in the AFC Championship. Take away Kordell Stewart's phantom TD, or have Aaron Bailey catch the Hail Mary pass that Harbaugh heaved at the end of the game, and you'd have a Colts victory and one of the most shocking playoff runs of all time, especially had the Colts managed to beat the 90s Cowboys at the peak of their power in the Super Bowl.
Three years later, the Colts would draft Peyton Manning, and the rest as they say is history.
The 2003 Chiefs were another team packed with talent that deserved to win it all, but despite their mighty offense, fell short against the Colts in the Divisional round.
The first puntless game in NFL playoff history ended in a new Colts jerseys win, 38-31.
Had the Chiefs won the game, and gone on to win the Super Bowl, guys like Trent Green, Priest Holmes, Tony Gonzalez, and Dante Hall would have received a ring, and Dick Vermeil would have become the first coach in NFL history to lead three different teams to a Super Bowl.
I'm aware that Holmes and Green were backups on Super Bowl winning teams, but they both had spectacular seasons in 2003. Holmes set the NFL single season TD record with 27 (since been broken twice), and Green passed for over 4,000 yards with 25 TDs in his first Pro Bowl year. A Super Bowl win would have been a great ending for both guys.
In a more recent, already classic, matchup the upstart Cardinals couldn't finish the job after mounting an amazing comeback in the 4th quarter.
A Cardinals win would have given not only deserving guys like Larry Fitzgerald jersey, Anquan Boldin, and Edgerrin James get a ring, but Kurt Warner (like the afore mentioned Joe Montana) would have been the first quarterback in NFL history to lead two different teams to a Super Bowl win.
It would have also been the perfect conclusion for Warner's career, an amazing up and down story in itself.
Any notable Steelers players had already won a Super Bowl three years before, and it's not like the Cardinals are going to get to the big game that often. With all due respect to the Steelers and their franchise, the Cardinals simply needed it more.
A surprising amount of people seem to forget that the Lions were fairly competitive in the 90s. They made the playoffs consistently, and in 1991, they went 12-4 and made the NFC Championship game.
Most people aren't even aware the Lions have ever made an NFC Championship. Probably for a good reason, as the Redskins walked all over them, 41-10.
But the game still proved to be the closest Barry Sanders ever came to getting a ring, an accomplishment that seems like a pipe dream for most Lions fans.
A Detroit new Lions jerseys Super Bowl would be even more shocking than an Arizona Cardinals Super Bowl, and perhaps Sanders would have found a Super Bowl win inspiring enough to play his entire career, and break Walter Payton's then rushing record.
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