The pre-York 49ers, the Bears, the Giants,the Buffalo Bills, the Tampa Bay Bucs, the Saints, Skins, Cowboys, Vikings and the grand daddy of em' all the Packers, the only city owned franchise, that still competes at a high level and is one of the smallest markets anywhere. A long with a whole host of others.
The Cardinals for years were a franchise without a direction, even when they were competitive in the Neil Lomax years, they had the hard luck of playing against the Bill Parcells Giants, the Dick Vermeil Eagles,the Landry Cowboys, and the Joe Gibbs Redskins.
However, they have been making a change over the last couple of years, slowly witness the draft of Anquan Boldin and then the year after of Larry Fitxgerald. both of those receivers will be in the league a long time. Not to mention Breaston or any of their other up and comers.
The Steelers have been blessed with longevity and and patience among the owners who are not looking for a quick fix. This is more a reflection of the Rooney and is indicative of the Steelers. unlike, Al Davis, or Daniel Snyder, or anybody else who wnats results over two years, thanks to the Sean Payton, Mike Fox and Mike Smith in the league.
Hey, this was a game that I didn't pick at the beginning of the Year, I thought that the Cowboys and the Chargers would be making it to the superbowl. There is no way that I would have picked the Cards, even though I love, Anquan and Larry, hey I got them in my fantasy leagues. And the Steelers, I thought would have to go through Nashville, but alas that was not the case. I hope they draft well, and fix some holes on their line, do I expect them to be back next year? nope. That AFC south is just one big bruise, and let's face it the Afc Central, heh, you me and two other guys could beat up the Browns and the Bengals, or course you could say that about the Rams and the Seahawks this year in the NFC West, you cant say that about the niners though, they played hard throughout the year and did not quit on their coach. Mike Singletary {Samurai!} will be doing some good things really soon.