Last year, as many of you will recall, I wrote an article for PSH mid-way through the season entitled ‘Parity is Dead’.  The ‘Terrible Ten’ was introduced to the world.  For those who did not get a chance to read my brilliant analysis, it precisely and accurately pinpointed the fact that there were several teams in the league that were SO far below the rest of the league, that they did not stand a reasonable chance of competing with the other 22 teams in the NFL. 

It was possibly the most-discussed article I have ever written for PSH and is still catch-phrased from time to time by some of the old-timers.  The conversation in the thread quickly transformed into defining ‘Parity’ since it became obvious that there could not be a consensus whether parity was actually dead or not if we did not agree on what parity meant.  When the dust settled, it was obvious that there were 2 different opinions about the definition of the word:

The first group defined Parity as “On any given Sunday, each team has a REASONABLE chance to beat any other team in the league.”

The 2^nd group defined it as “In any given YEAR, each team has a reasonable chance to change their fortunes through good management, personnel decisions, and coaching, etc.”

This background, as you will see in a moment, is important for everyone to understand, for I now give to you the counterparts to the T.T. ………………..

Introducing ………………..

THE FAB 4 ! ………………….. for those still in diapers, the ‘original’ FAB 4 were ‘The Beatles’, a 60’s rock band, who were nicknamed the Fab 4 (short for ‘fabulous 4’), since there were 4 band members.  If you haven’t heard of them, you might want to listen to some of it.  Even if you don't care for the sound, they were very culturally relevant. 

Regardless, THIS YEAR there are 4 teams that are absolutely steamrolling the rest of the league and your amazingly talented PSH staff writer is here to show you the staggering dominance of Green Bay, Dallas, New England, and Indianapolis this season.  These 4 teams, if your definition of parity puts you into the first group above, put an exclamation point on the statement ‘Parity is STILL dead’! 

When NOT playing each other, these teams are a combined 37-2.   Let me wait a moment while that sinks in ……………….

Ok, ready to continue? 

What’s the big story in the NFL this year ?  Of course, it’s New England possibly going 16-0.  Let’s put this into perspective.  Going 37-2 would be require New England to finish 16-0 in BACK-TO-BACK SEASONS and then start out the 3^rd season 5-2.  THAT, in a nutshell, is 37-2.

The winning percentage of the FAB 4 is .949.  The winning percentage of a 15-1 season?  It’s only .938.  Pitiful, eh?

Think it’s a fluke?  These 4 teams aren’t just winning by a lucky bounce.  Again, in the 39 games they have played against the ‘lower 28’, the FAB 4 are scoring an average of 32.2 points a game while only giving up 15.8.  And if you think the Patriots dominance is simply skewing the numbers, look again.  The ‘other’ 3 teams by themselves are 29-2, a winning percentage of .935, and are defeating their opponents by an average score of 29.5 to 16.4, an average win of over 13 points a game.

3 of the FAB 4 teams played on Turkey day.  It's not a shock what happened.  They all won by double digits and none of the 3 games were very competitive in retrospect.   The Lions scored a couple of late TD’s to make the score respectable and the Falcons came out fired up and played ‘with’ the Colts in the first half before reality set in and they remembered who they were (part of the lower 28).

In fact, as I was watching the action unfold in each game on Thursday, I began to wonder where the competitive balance was in this league.  I suppose there’s competitive balance among the top 4.  The Colts played ‘with’ the Patriots, right?  I suppose there’s balance among the ‘lower 28’, right?  The 49ers beat the Cardinals.  The Jets beat the Steelers.  Heck, the Bengals can even beat the Ravens, right?

And what about the 2 losses by the FAB 4, you ask?  (I knew that you would).  Anyone who watched both of those games can agree that the better teams were obvious on the field.  They simply gave the games away with turnovers.  In the 2 losses, Green Bay and Indy combined for 11 turnovers yet dominated their opponents at the line of scrimmage.  The Bears and Chargers, respectively, couldn’t stop their opponents on offense and struggled to move the ball at all themselves.  In the 2 losses, the FAB 4 teams still outgained their opponents 724-462 yards and it didn’t even seem that close.  Based on watching those contests, I would guess that Indy and Green Bay would beat those teams 19 out of 20 times. That’s odd ....... 19 out of 20 is a .950 winning % ……….. which is almost exactly what the FAB 4’s winning % is ……… strange ............