There are 6 playoff teams in each conference. Since the NFL-AFL merger, 7 teams appear in American Football Conference (AFC) championships consistently, leaving the Bengals vs Chargers match in 1982 and Titans vs Jaguars conference championship in 2000 as the only American Football Conference championships that do not have the Patriots, Steelers, Colts, Raiders, Broncos, Bills and Dolphins.
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| One of the best football teams - ever? |
I even may go on further and say, given the current playoff structure of having 4 division winners and 2 wildcard teams getting to the playoffs, given the trend in the past 10 seasons, the playoffs are up to the Steelers, Patriots, Broncos and the Colts to lose.
I would like to think the successes the Steelers, Patriots, Broncos and Colts achieved are due to the commitment to long-term stability, as evident in the strong support of their respective owners. If the Bills, Dolphins and Raiders re-orient their teams to organisational excellence, through either sale of their teams to a richer, more committed owner (such as the Patriots), or the succession planning as seen in the Colts or the Steelers, or maybe even full involvement with ex-players and coaches as what the Dolphins and Raiders did in their heyday; then we shall see long-term successes.
Who knows, a improved version of the Dolphins may match the Patriots can give them a run of its football pedigree, just as what the Ravens are doing currently to a rebuilding Steelers team in the past 3 seasons.
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