AFC North is the best division (and it's not even close) (1 Viewer)

[BobbyLayne]

I DO NOT mean "oh this is the best division bc look at all the great teams."

What I mean is that this division exemplifies what football and the NFL is all about.

There is real animosity in the AFC North, and a lot of it is because there are historic reasons for rivalry between all teams.

• For one, Art Modell knew how to make enemies.
  
• The Bengals were formed by Paul Brown as a giant middle finger to the team that bore his name screwing him over, so that's Bengals/Browns.
  
• And Modell took that team to Baltimore 50 years, so Bengals/Ravens has had the same animosity. And that move to Baltimore explains the Browns/Ravens hatred.
  
• Cleveland and Pittsburgh are incredibly close together, second or third closest division rival cities in the league, and since the 70s Cleveland has had to endure watching Pitt make Super Bowl after Super Bowl while never making the game themselves. So that's made Steelers/Browns natural historic and geographic rivals, and Art Modell carried that to Baltimore, giving Ravens/Steelers a base rivalry that years of contemporaneous dominance has exacerbated.
  
• And as for Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, the two cities have been rivals since the 1800s. Both are industrial/shipping cities on the Ohio River whose booms and busts have mirrored each other, plus Cincinnati literally gets Pittsburgh's #### downstream (that is the most polluted river in the US). This is the absolutely most-violent of the AFC North rivlaries and has taken a concerted effort to de-escalate recently (which is ridiculous when you remember that a Brown has literally clubbed a Steeler QB with his own helmet). Scrambled brains, paralysis, and purposeful soft-tissue damage has defined the last decade of these two teams.
  

So it isn't just a division rivalry for ANY of these teams. Uniquely, each and every team has very real personal, economic, sanitary, or geographic for disliking ALL the other organizations in the division.

From the viewpoint of an NFL fan with no ties to any of their franchises, I absolutely love to watch AFC North matchups. The intensity to these games is unlike anything else in the league. Every single game is a rivalry of epic proportions. The passion for their own teams and intense hatred of their division rivals is unmatched.

I love AFC North football.

 

[Bracie Smathers]

Rolling prediction

 

[TripItUp]

Meh, the NFC East has a lot of tradition and better fanbases(as a whole).   

Bengals screw up the AFC North.

 

[Insein]

Meh, the NFC East has a lot of tradition and better fanbases(as a whole).   

Bengals screw up the AFC North.

Meh NFC East is a lot of bluster last decade or so.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Meh NFC East is a lot of bluster last decade or so.

Nothing says dominance like a 7-9 division winner.

 

[Tanner9919]

Meh NFC East is a lot of bluster last decade or so.

um, the NFC east has won 3 SBs since 2007 afc north has won how many since 2007, exactly? zero? I thought so.

Afc north is great football. LOL nothing makes me hit the remote channel p/down button than a game from the afc north. bengals/browns?  ha. ravens/steelers? fairly decent.any division that holds two of the most incompetent franchises in the history of the league, Cle and Cincy, can never and will never be thought of as a 'great' division browns have done squat since Otto Graham's 1950s teams. Bengals? I'm still waiting. my calendar doesn't have more than 100 years in it, so....

one of the worst divisions in football is the afc north. the amount of thime the Browns have been a pathetic bottom scraping team  is embarrassing to the entire NFL. the fecklessness of the Bengals is the stuff of legend. terrible teams that haven't contributed anything meaningful to the NFL since WW2.

 

[dutch]

Top to bottom based on your own chosen time frame. Based on mine the following without detail:

Pittsburgh>NYG

Baltimore=Philadelphia

Cincinnati<Dallas

Cleveland > Washington 

 

[Insein]

um, the NFC east has won 3 SBs since 2007 afc north has won how many since 2007, exactly? zero? I thought so.

Afc north is great football. LOL nothing makes me hit the remote channel p/down button than a game from the afc north. bengals/browns?  ha. ravens/steelers? fairly decent.any division that holds two of the most incompetent franchises in the history of the league, Cle and Cincy, can never and will never be thought of as a 'great' division browns have done squat since Otto Graham's 1950s teams. Bengals? I'm still waiting. my calendar doesn't have more than 100 years in it, so....

one of the worst divisions in football is the afc north. the amount of thime the Browns have been a pathetic bottom scraping team  is embarrassing to the entire NFL. the fecklessness of the Bengals is the stuff of legend. terrible teams that haven't contributed anything meaningful to the NFL since WW2.

Not to be defending the AFC north but the Ravens won it in 2012 and the Steelers won it 2008. Plus the Steelers went back again in 2010.

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

Yeah, I remember my first beer. 

 

[Grigs Allmoon]

AFC East is easily the best division in the NFL. I don't think I even need to look it up, but I'm pretty confident we have the most championships in the last 20 years.

Go Bills!

 

[Grigs Allmoon]

Yeah, I remember my first beer. 

And then all the crap about the kids...

 

[Hot Sauce Guy]

AFC East is easily the best division in the NFL. I don't think I even need to look it up, but I'm pretty confident we have the most championships in the last 20 years.

Go Bills!

Details, details.  

 

[-OZ-]

Meh, the NFC East has a lot of tradition and better fanbases(as a whole).   

Bengals screw up the AFC North.

Was about to post the same. NFC East has better rivalries, NFC west has better teams overall. But for a combination? Probably AFC north if burrow progresses  towards his potential this year and Ben stays upright. 

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Yeah, I remember my first beer. 

I can't. And for that I blame all the beers that came after that.

 

[massraider]

Meh, the NFC East has a lot of tradition and better fanbases(as a whole).   

Bengals screw up the AFC North.

I'll see your Bengals, and raise you a WFT. 

It's funny this is a thread because I will always contend that the AFC Central back in the day was the most entertaining group I ever saw. It was a division that I had no connection to, but I was always gonna sit down and watch Jerry Glanville Oilers vs Sam Wyche Bengals. I mean, they had bounties on kickers, for Pete's sake. 

That division was out of control for a while there, good times. 

 

[Ilov80s]

Meh, the NFC East has a lot of tradition and better fanbases(as a whole).   

Bengals screw up the AFC North.

Yeah, feels like the Titans and Bengals should be swapped. Ravens, Steelers, Browns, Titans would be a really fun division. Texans, Colts, Bengals, Jaguars sound like they fit well together.