Pats-Falcons trophy disparity not uncommon

The New England Patriots are in the Super Bowl for the ninth time in the last 31 years, chasing their fifth championship next weekend in Houston.

No coach or player in the current NFL could have a more palpable been-here-before feeling than Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. All four of their Super Bowl victories have come since the 2001 season with that venerable coach-quarterback pair, with this their seventh appearance together.

Then there are the Atlanta Falcons, still seeking their first Vince Lombardi Trophy after 51 years.

Though this pairing of teams with such disparate title-game histories is striking, it’s not exactly uncommon. Here’s a look at some other memorable championship matchups involving trophy-case inequity in major sports:

YANKEES PROWESS: In the 2001 World Series, having won 26 of what’s now 27 titles, the New York Yankees faced an Arizona Diamondbacks team in its fourth season of existence, let alone lacking a championship. Arizona’s purple and teal uniforms clashed with the navy pinstripes donned by the Yankees for decades. The games in Phoenix were played under a retractable roof in an airplane-hangar-like ballpark with a swimming pool behind center field instead of the hallowed monuments looming there at Yankee Stadium.

The Diamondbacks proved they belonged, though, with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling comprising a dominant duo of starting pitchers that kept Yankees stars Derek Jeter, Tino Martinez and Bernie Williams quiet at the plate. In a Game 7 for the ages, Luis Gonzalez drove in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning with a single off often-unhittable closer Mariano Rivera.

SO CLOSE: Duke basketball, every bit the villain the Yankees have usually been, had no such national support in the 2010 NCAA championship game. Not only were coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils approaching their fourth of five titles, but they were playing lovable underdog Butler.

The Final Four was in Indianapolis, too, a few miles from where the Bulldogs’ famed Hinkle Fieldhouse. One of the all-time upsets nearly happened when Gordon Hayward’s halfcourt heave hit the backboard and the front rim before bouncing out at the buzzer to give the Blue Devils a 61-59 victory.

STEELY RESOLVE: No team has won more Super Bowls than the Pittsburgh Steelers, with six titles in the 50-year history of the event. Few franchises have been around for so long with so little glory than the Arizona Cardinals, who date back to St. Louis and Chicago.

On Feb. 1, 2009, the Cardinals nearly pulled off a Super Bowl stunner following a season during which their 9-7 record was good enough to win a weak division. The Steelers led 20-7 midway through the fourth quarter in Tampa, Florida, before a pair of touchdown passes from Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald sandwiched around a safety put the Cardinals in front. But Ben Roethlisberger deftly drove the Steelers for the go-ahead score on a throw to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds left.

FOREVER YOUNG: Sometimes the result on the field mirrors the imbalance in historical success. The San Francisco 49ers became the first team to win a fifth Super Bowl, when they blew out the San Diego Chargers 49-26 to close the 1994-95 season in superior fashion. Steve Young threw six touchdown passes, still a Super Bowl record, to sour the Chargers’ only championship appearance.