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I think one of the reasons not too many people comment on my Pythagorean NFL thread is because the points of departure are buried under game stories and confusing standings. (There's also the matter of my chronology being blown to hell soon after the thread started, but that was due to issues not entirely in my control.) So what I'm going to do is lay out some of the major PODs and give people a place to discuss them if they wish without having to read the game stories or sift through the standings. I'm going to start with the Super Bowl era, since that's the timeframe most of us are familiar with. If there's interest, and I can find any from 1920-65 that might have an impact on today's league, I'll post them later.

Here we go with POD #1:

It's 1976. The Oakland Raiders, who of course won the Super Bowl in real life, miss the playoffs altogether with a record of 10-4. This means that the two-time defending world champion Pittsburgh Steelers roll through the AFC like a cement mixer through putty finishing 13-1, winning the AFC championship over the Baltimore Colts, and moving on to their fourth consecutive Super Bowl appearance. (They lost Super Bowl VIII to the Minnesota Vikings.)Their opponents are the upstart San Francisco 49ers, who finish 10-4 and upset both the Vikings and the Los Angeles Rams to get to Pasadena.

The game is a hard-fought defensive struggle, with the Niners pulling their third consecutive major upset 10-7 thanks to quarterback Jim Plunkett's last-second touchdown pass to wide receiver Willie McGee.

Questions:

1) Is that win enough to establish Plunkett as the long-term starter in San Francisco?

2) How does this affect the job security of head coach Monte Clark, who quit in real life after this season because of philosophical differences with general manager Joe Thomas?

3) Assuming that Clark stays in Frisco well into the eighties, where does Bill Walsh end up? Does he finally get the job in Cincinnati at some point? Does he stay in college, either at Stanford or elsewhere? Might he end up with the Raiders job once John Madden retires in 1978?

4) Assuming that Plunkett's still effective over the next two years, what happens to Joe Montana?

5) Without the Super Bowl championship in '76, is John Madden still in as prime of a position to be a network broadcaster? What about the Raiders? What happens to their reputation without a Super Bowl in the seventies? (They also lost in the divisional round in '73 and '75, to make things even worse.)

Discuss any or all of the above.
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