After making the playoffs their first three seasons under Dennis Green, the Minnesota Vikings slipped to .500 in 1995. In 1996, they only modestly improved—but it was enough to get back into the playoffs and start another streak of postseason trips. The franchise was going through some tumult at quarterback. They had acquired the veteran […]
The Philadelphia Eagles came into 1996 building off a season where they won 10 games and advanced to the Divisional Round of the playoffs. That 1995 run was in the first year under head coach Ray Rhodes, who took over a team that had been around .500 the previous couple of seasons. In 1996, even […]
George Seifert enjoyed an exemplary coaching career with the San Francisco 49ers. He was an assistant in the Bill Walsh era that produced three Super Bowl titles, and the defensive coordinator for two of those championships. Upon taking over as boss in 1989, he won a Super Bowl of his own. He won another one […]
The Carolina Panthers entered the league in 1995 and promptly went a respectable 7-9, a remarkable level of success for a first-year franchise. It turned out that was no fluke—in 1996, the Panthers continued their rapid growth and made it all the way to the NFC Championship Game. Carolina’s success was built around a veteran […]
The Denver Broncos had been the AFC’s defining franchise in the late 1980s, reaching three Super Bowls. They had gone to the AFC Championship Game as recently as 1991. But they slipped into a comfortable mediocrity. They missed the playoffs in 1992 and parted ways with head coach Dan Reeves. New head coach Wade Phillips […]
The Raider franchise spent 13 successful years in the city of Los Angeles, from 1982-94, a stretch that included a Super Bowl title in 1983. But the team never stopped being identified with their original home of Oakland. They came back in 1995. After going 16-16 the final two seasons in L.A., the Raiders got […]
The Bobby Ross era in San Diego was already an unqualified success. After winning a national title at Georgia Tech in 1990, Ross made the jump to the NFL two years later. In 1992, the Chargers won the AFC West. In 1994, they reached what remains the franchise’s only Super Bowl. The 1995 San Diego […]
Don Shula had been a fixture in South Beach since 1970. Over the previous 25 seasons, he had produced 23 winning seasons, 15 trips to the playoffs, five Super Bowl appearances, two championships and his 1972 team remains the only undefeated Super Bowl winner. But the last Super Bowl trip was over a decade ago […]
This post is part of a series of sports history articles commemorating under-the-radar teams and moments in a given year. This article about the 1995 Indianapolis Colts remembers the last great ride for Jim Harbaugh when the veteran quarterback-turned-future coach led a Cinderella run to within one play of the Super Bowl.
A string of six straight playoff appearances and a historic streak of four straight AFC crowns had come to an end in 1994. The 1995 Buffalo Bills were looking to get back on track. They did. The Bills returned to the top of the AFC East, and while they were no longer one of the […]
The Dave Wannstedt era in Chicago was off to a promising start. In 1994, his second season, Wannstedt’s Bears made the playoffs and won a game. Midway through this season, it seemed like the 1995 Chicago Bears would continue the upward trend. But a late fade not only cost the Bears this ’95 season, it […]
The Lions were four years removed from their breakout NFC Championship Game appearance of 1991. They had made the postseason two times since, in 1993 and 1994, but were eliminated in the first round both times. The 1995 Detroit Lions, after a slow start, had all the markings of a team that was peaking at […]