Article:Pro football's greatest franchises

I'll be the first to admit this is a semi-crude way of ranking all franchises in pro history, but I think it's not too bad.

Here's how it works, and keep in mind I'm only doing the current 32 franchises. So a franchise that went away for a few years, then came back (Buffalo, the Baltimore Colts, etc) don't get the earlier accomplishments unless it was legitimately a suspended franchise. Franchise histories are what they are recognized as by the NFL; the Indianapolis Colts get credit for the Baltimore years and the Tennessee Titans for the Houston years, but the Baltimore Ravens do not get credit for the Cleveland Browns. That's how the NFL recognizes it, that's how I recognize it.

Anyway, here's the method. A franchise gets 10 points for a league title, 8 points for a runner-up, 6 points for a semifinal loss, and 4 points for a quarterfinal loss. For Hall of Famers, a franchise gets 2 points. However, this only goes for primary HOFers, defined as "more than half of a player's career". If he played for multiple teams but not a majority with a given one, the primary teams get credit. For someone like Jim Finks, who went in as an executive/coach with 10 years with the Vikings, 9 years with the Bears, and 7 with the Saints, all three teams could get credit.

Then to make things slightly more interesting, there's also a total points/season average. Since it's 2 AM and I really started this about an hour ago, I only have a couple of franchises done.

Arizona (previously Chicago and St. Louis) -- Two league titles (1925 and 1947), one runner-up (1948), three quarterfinal losses (1974, 1975, 1998), 12 primary HOFers (Conzelman, Driscoll, Kiesling*, Nevers, Chamberlin, Matson, Trippi, Lane, Wilson, Wehrli, Dierdorf, Jackie Smith) plus Charles Bidwill


 * Kiesling went in for both his playing career and his coaching; his primary playing team was the Chicago Cardinals.  He was the one responsible, as a coach, for cutting Johnny Unitas and starting Ted Marchibroda, which should be grounds for expulsion from Canton

Total -- 66 points in 88 seasons (0.75 points/season)

Cleveland -- Eight league titles (1946-50, 1954-55, 1964), seven runners-up (1951-53, 1957, 1965, 1968, 1969), four semifinal losses (1967, 1986-87, 1989), five quarterfinal losses (1971-72, 1980, 1985, 1994), 13 primary HOFers (Graham, Motley, Jim Brown, Groza, Lavelli, Ford, Willis, Warfield, McCormack, Gatski, Kelly, Newsome, Hickerson) plus Paul Brown

Total -- 208 points in 59 seasons (3.525 points/season)

Houston -- Nothing

Total -- 0 points in 6 seasons (0.00 points/season)

I'll update this as I finish each franchise, then rank them all.