Just who was/is the best team since the merger? Was it the Steelers of the 70's, the 49ers of the 80's, the Cowboys of the 90's or is it the Pats of the 00's? I say none of the above; it was the Dolphins of the 70's.

Now just how can I say that? Everyone knows that it has to be the (insert name) .......... And no one ever says anything about the Dolphins of the 70's because they only won 2 Super Bowls, right? With so much talk about this I took the time to check the best 4 year span of all 5 teams using their won/loss record. As Bill Parcells says "You are what your record says you are", would you agree with that? If that is the case then the Miami Dolphins have the best 4 year (71-74) of any team in the league up until today percentage wise.

The Dolphins 71-74 team record is 56-10  .849% *1 (3 SB appearances in a row)
The Steelers   76-79 team record is 52-16  .765% **5 (late side note)
The 49ers       81-84 team record is 48-17  .738% **2
The Cowboys 92-95 team record is 60-15  .800% **3
And
The Pats         01-04 team record is 57-16  .780%  *4

As you can see the Dolphins have the best overall winning record during each team's BEST 4 year run and no one beats the Dolphins up to this point. I know the national media will never agree that this is the case but I just wanted to set the record straight. Plus I was very curious as to just how this would turn out. Five notes to clarify a couple of things that I'm sure will come up to question my figures or my methods. All records came from NFL.com.

**1. According to the Cold Hard Football Facts, there are in fact, three different ways ties get calculated into a head coaches winning percentage. If your man was coaching before the 1972 season, they're completely disregarded; If your man started coaching NFL ball in the 1972 season or later, they're counted in the same way ties are in the teams record - half win/half loss. HOWEVER, if your man coached through the 1971 season and into 1972 or beyond, there's a third calculation - ties before 1971 are disregarded, ties in 1972 and later are counted using the 50/50 split. In 1971 the Dolphins played  KC in their first game that year and it was a 10-10 tie. As per the 71 rule I threw the game out but if I had counted it the percentage would be .842%. As you see it really doesn't make much of a difference.

**2. The 82 season was a strike year and only 9 games counted. Don't worry as the 49ers were not good that year but the span does include their 3 SB wins..

**3. This is the span that the Cowboys won 3 SB's.

**4. This is the span that the Pats won their 3 SB's

**5. With all the talk about John Beck and his age I just thought about the fact that Roger Staubach was with the Cowboys in the 70's. That got me to thinking what about the Boy's record in the 70's also. Guess what, you got it, they also beat the Steelers win record but only by .003% with a 75-78 span record of 53-16 for a percentage of .768%. Roger won 2 and lost 2 Super Bowls in his 11 years with the Cowboys.

This brings me to my last point that the 70's era produced three teams that dominated that span more than any other three teams of any 10 year period since. It truly was a great time for NFL football.