Are the 1999 Rams the greatest champ ever? One simulator says so
It is the dream of every NFL fan to see the greatest teams of all time pitted against each other to see who is the greatest team of all time. It is “Field of Dreams” type of stuff, played out on the gridiron.
Are the 1985 Chicago Bears the greatest team ever? The 1972 undefeated Miami Dolphins? Or one of those Dallas Cowboys teams from the 1990s? This very conversation is currently going on around water coolers and barber shops throughout the country.
Wonder no more football fan, because the people at PredictionMachine.com have done all the legwork for you to determine the greatest Super Bowl winner in history. The site simulated matchups between the 49 teams that have lifted the Lombardi Trophy – only winners of the Super Bowl need apply – to see who is the best Super Bowl champion of all-time. The site’s analytics used “strength of schedule adjusted statistics” to rank the teams, then simulated the games.
The results are a surprise and site’s winner isn’t one of the teams usually mentioned in the greatest ever argument.
According to Prediction Machine, the 1999 St. Louis Rams are the best Super Bowl champion of all-time. The Rams were a surprise champion that year, an offensive juggernaut spearheaded by quarterback Kurt Warner and running back Marshall Faulk. It is a surprise to see the Rams atop the list, especially since those aforementioned Bears and Dolphins squads usually take the top spots in most polls.
The site uses a technology it calls the Predictalator, which they say is the “most advanced sports forecasting software available today because it has the ability to account for all of the relevant statistical interactions of the players, coaches, officials, home-field advantage and weather in each game.”
The rest of the results provide plenty of conversation fodder as well.
The ’85 Bears did place second on the Prediction Machine list, followed by the 1989 San Francisco 49ers. The 1996 Green Bay Packers and the 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers round out the top five greatest teams according to their simulations.
The ’72 Dolphins, the only perfect team in NFL history, came in No. 9 on the list.
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Kristian R. Dyer writes for Metro New York and is a contributor to Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KristianRDyer. Email him at [email protected]
