Where's the Weak Division Talk This Year?

Last year the NFC representatives to the Super Bowl were the 13-3 Seahawks, who were constantly qualified as playing in the "weakest division in football" and having a cake schedule. As a matter of fact, most fans would still consider the NFC W as the weakest division in the NFL.

This year the NFC Representative is the 13-3 Bears, and I have yet to hear a peep from nary a media talking head about their division or schedule.

But taking a closer look at things, you may find something interesting.

The four NFC divisional winners were the Bears (North), Saints (South), Eagles (East) and Seahawks (West). However, if you look at the combined win total of the other three teams within each division, you'll see that the NFC North also-rans racked up 17 wins between them, the NFC South runners-up 19, NFC East wannabes 22, and the NFC West step-children 20. So while the Bears conference leading record of 13-3 looks impressive, it was built at the hands of the 3-13 Lions, 6-10 Vikings and lucky-to-be-8-and-8 Packers.

In fact, the West could even be touted as the second strongest division in the NFC, behind the East, even though they were the seeded 3rd and 4the within the conference. Both divisions put up similar W-L records, and the East managed to snag the two wild card playoff spots.

There's no doubt that the Bears beat the Seahawks twice this season, fair and square, so I'm not complaining about them getting to the Super Bowl. What I am complaining about is the media writing off the success of small market teams to schedule or divisional weaknesses, but when a large market team enjoys the same success, there's nothing mentioned about the JV-teams they pummeled along the way.

You can't fault any club for beating the teams they're supposed to, and taking advantage of weakened competition. They can only play the teams on the NFL puts on their schedule. And unless the NFL wants true parity, where every club finishes 8-8 and the playoff seeding is decided by coin-flips, every year you're going to have a handful of double-digit winners, which means that there will be just as many double-digit losers.

I'd just like to see small market clubs get the same recognition and accolades, instead of constantly having to to justify and defend their own accomplishments.