Super Bowl wins / Championships by decade (table)

by Jason Pauley

The table below summarizes the total number of championships by franchise and by decade. The columns to the right list the total number of championships (pre-1966) or Super Bowl wins and the number of decades with at least one SB/Champ. Not every franchise is represented on this table, only current franchises and any franchise that has won.

A couple of takeaways:

• 11 of the Packers NFL leading SB/Champ wins came from the 1920s through the 1960s. They have won only two in the past five decades.
• The Packers won five SB/Champ in the ’60s the most any team has won in a particular decade (teams with four in a decade: Packers 1930’s; Bears 1940’s; Browns 1940’s; Steelers 1970’s; 49ers 1980’s)
• The Bears have had two SB/Champ wins in the last seven decades, but won seven of them from the 1920s-40s.
• The Giants have won a Super Bowl at least one time in seven different decades, no other team has done this. The Packers won in six different decades and the Bears have won in five different decades. The rest of the teams are four or below.
• The four consecutive decades with a Super Bowl win for the Giants is also a record. A Giants fan (me) around my age (48) has never gone long enough without enjoying a Super Bowl championship to get sad about our fandom. I fully expect another one in the 2020s and 2030s. Now…if only my Mets and Knicks could keep me from being baseball-sad and basketball-sad.
• The Browns have a great history despite five consecutive decades without a SB/Champ. They won seven times in the ’40s and ’50s and no other team was even close in those years.
• The Patriots back-to-back decades with at least three SB/Champ wins in each decade in the 2000s and ’10s is matched only by the Browns of the 1940s-’50s
• The Rams win this year, which puts them at four total SB/Champ wins which ties them for 10th all time. However, they spread those wins out across four separate decades which ties them for the 4th most decades with a win.
• Shout out to all the folks in Frankford, Akron, Providence, and Canton. You don’t get talked about enough. Y’all are champions…let’s all act like it.
• Cardinals….sigh. 1920, they came into the league. The last time they won was 75 years ago, and one of their two championships was controversial; it can be argued that it belongs to the Pottsville Maroons.
• Teams with the most evenly distributed championships per decade with championships are the Rams (four wins in 4 different decades, for a ratio of 1.00), the Giants (8/7 for 1.14), and the Commanders (5/4 for 1.25)
• Teams with the least evenly distributed championships per decade with a championship are the Patriots (six wins in two different decades, for a ratio of 3.00), the Steelers (6/3 for 3.00), and the Browns (8/3 for 2.67)

You may notice that the 1940s and 1960s have more than 10 championships. This is because from 1960–65 the NFL and AFL held separate championships, and from 1946–49 the NFL and the AAFC held separate championships.

I think this view adds some findings that you might not get by just listing team total championship/Super Bowl wins, or years and championships.

Something to keep in mind when looking at this is that there were far fewer teams in the league early in its history. The 1930s averaged only 10 teams in the league per year, the ’40s averaged nine teams, and the ’50s averaged 12 teams, whereas today, 32 teams are competing for the Super Bowl. I’m working on an analysis that will show each team's total championships vs expected championships using the data points of the total seasons played and the number of teams in the league each season. An example of this using one team can be seen in my post here.