By now you should know that we at Fantasy Alarm aren’t just about fantasy sports. Well, we are but we are sports fans first and foremost and we have no problem talking movies, music and anything pop culture. Last year you may recall that we put together the “Greatest Sports Movies Of All Time” tournament both on the website and also on The Fantasy Alarm Show on SiriusXM radio. That tournament was a resounding success and went down to the wire before Rocky defeated Field Of Dreams to become the ultimate champion.
This year we poured over dozens of ideas for our March Madness tournament. But in the end we decided to reach for the stars and finally solve one of the most debated sports topics ever. What is the greatest sports team ever?
After weeks of sorting through every possible contender, we have settled on the final 64 teams that get to compete for the crown. Keep in mind this is not your typical “best team ever” conversation. No, we are doing this Fantasy Alarm style. That means you will not see the 1927 Yankees or any other ancient team of fabled greatness in our tournament. We are not going to pretend that we know all about teams or eras that happened before any of us were alive. So, we went back only to 1970 to focus on teams that the majority of sports fans today have seen play or are at the very least familiar with.
We also didn’t want to clog up precious spots in this tournament with great teams that won back to back or even three peat titles. Instead we settled on one team to represent that time period for a team’s greatness. This is why you will only see one of the early 2000’s Detroit Red Wings or 1970’s Pittsburgh Steelers. We also limited each franchise to just one representative in all sports but the NBA. This was due to the incredible lack of NBA franchises that have actually won titles. Do you realize that in the past 35 years, only nine NBA teams have won the title? During that same timeframe, 17 NFL teams have won a Super Bowl and 20 have MLB teams have won the World Series. Thus, you’ll find two Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics & Los Angeles Lakers teams represented but just one New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers.
We already know that no matter which teams we included or excluded that there will be complaints and that is just fine. We actually urge you to hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, on the phones during our SiriusXM Show or by posting your comments at the bottom of this page. There will be plenty of debate but when all is said and done there will only be ONE greatest sports team of all time.
Please help us decide which of these contenders should be hoisting the title come April 6th by voting often and spreading the word however you can about our Greatest Sports Teams Of All Time Tournament.
The 1st Round is open for voting so go ahead and VOTE NOW!!
Let’s take a closer look at each bracket and how they setup:
NFL BRACKET
The thing that will jump out most here is which team we chose to represent the five time champion 49ers. Of all the great teams it was most difficult to leave off the Bill Walsh & Joe Montana led 49ers in favor of the George Siefert & Steve Young club. But when you compare the rosters, the competition and the domination I really believe that we made the right choice.
Also, we felt it was appropriate to have the four time AFC champion Buffalo Bills team represented since they truly were dominant during that era. The 1990 Bills that came within a Scott Norwood missed field goal of winning the Super Bowl got the nod over the 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the 2009 New Orleans Saints.
Team That Should Win: 1985 Chicago Bears
Team That Will Win: 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers
Sleeper: 2007 New England Patriots
MLB BRACKET
It will be interesting to see how two of the oldest teams in this tournament in the 1970 Baltimore Orioles & 1975 Cincinnati Reds fare in the voting. The ’75 Reds are widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball teams ever even when the ’27 Yankees are included. Speaking of the Yankees, I wonder how much support they will receive since just one of their billion championship teams are represented here.
The teams that should get more love but probably won’t are the 1995 Braves and the 1993 Blue Jays. Those are some world-class teams but never seem to get the respect on an all time level as some of the others in this bracket.
Team That Should Win: 1975 Cincinnati Reds
Team That Will Win: 1998 New York Yankees
Sleeper: 1989 Oakland Athletics
NBA BRACKET
This will probably be the most fun bracket of them all because it will stir up a lot of discussion about different eras in the NBA. Can the Shaq/Kobe Lakers compete with the Magic/Kareem Lakers? Do enough people remember those old Bucks teams with Lew Alcindor & Oscar Robertson?
The NBA bracket is the only one in which all teams that have won a championship are represented. We debated whether to have a couple of the real good teams that did not win a championship in there. Teams like the late 90’s Utah Jazz and even the 2011-12 Oklahoma City Thunder that featured Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook & James Harden barely missed the cut.
Team That Should Win: 1995-96 Chicago Bulls
Team That Will Win: 1995-96 Chicago Bulls
Sleeper: 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks
OTHER SPORTS BRACKET
This was the hardest bracket to put together because we wanted to factor in as many of the greatest “other” teams as possible. In the end we decided to break this bracket into four parts. We started with the four best NHL teams of the modern era, then put in the four best college football & basketball teams as well. Finally, we let in the two best World Cup Soccer teams in recent memory leaving just two more spots in our field of 64. When thinking of the greatest teams of all time, it would be next to impossible for anybody to not eventually mention either the 1980 USA Men’s Hockey Team (Miracle On Ice) and/or the 1992 USA Men’s Basketball Team (The Dream Team). So, we figured why not pit these two against one another in quite possibly the best first round matchup on the board.
Although both the Dream Team & Miracle On Ice are fan favorites it should be remembered that the 1980 Men’s Hockey team were a bunch of amateurs while the Dream Team consisted of a broken down Larry Bird and post HIV Magic Johnson. I am interested in seeing how the college teams play out. The 1995 Nebraska team was absolutely loaded as was the 2001 Miami Hurricanes. Meanwhile Christian Laettner appears on both the ’91-92 Duke team and the 1992 USA Men’s Basketball team.
Team That Should Win: 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers
Team That Will Win: 1992 USA Men’s Basketball
Sleeper: 2001 Miami Hurricanes