The 1987 Cleveland Browns came into the season off consecutive playoff appearances, but with each one ending in heartbreak. In 1985, they lost an AFC divisional round game in Miami after leading 21-3. In 1986, they lost an AFC Championship Game at home to Denver when the Broncos drove 98 yards in the final five […]
We’ve had five days to digest the results of Championship Sunday—or if you’re a fan in Baltimore and San Francisco, to regurgitate them back up. And a question remains—was the Ravens’ 23-20 loss in New England the most gut-wrenching conference championship game loss in the Super Bowl era of NFL playoff history?
I can already hear the shouts in San Francisco, who say it wasn’t even the most gut-wrenching loss of January 22, 2012, much less the 46-year history of the Super Bowl era. But I think Baltimore fans get the nod in the agony department for these reasons
In the first part of TheSportsNotebook’s NFL Championship Sunday extravaganza, we opened up NFL championship history to look at 1978, and celebrated the greatness of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys. But the downside of that was, the games were lacking in drama. To pick a year where both championship games went down to the wire, let’s focus in on 1987, a year I would argue was the best in terms of competitive drama. Both title games went down to a final battle on the goal line