Trent Williams | Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Everyone wants a Super Bowl title, but who really deserves it?
As we enter the NFL Divisional Playoff round and there are just eight teams remaining in the hunt for the championship, here is a look at six figures around the league who deserve to win their first Super Bowl title.
Here they are, presented in alphabetical order:
Bills Mafia:
The Buffalo Bills are one of three teams remaining in the postseason that have never won a Super Bowl, joining the Detroit Lions and the Houston Texans as franchises searching for their first title. Even more deserving than the team itself, the Bills Mafia of fans have earned a championship due to their thankless dedication through highs, lows and brutal blizzards in Buffalo. Bills fans are one of a kind. They showed that while sitting in mounds of snow in a Super Wild Card win in frigid weather over Pittsburgh on Monday. It was a miserably cold scene and those folks were having the time of their lives, loving every second of it. This fan base suffered four straight Super Bowl losses 30 years ago and they deserve to finally the hoist the Lombardi Trophy. A Buffalo Super Bowl parade would be like nothing the world has ever witnessed before.
The city of Detroit:
We’re sticking with the fan bases. Like Bills’ supports, Lions fans are a long suffering crew. Finally, the Lions are giving them something to be excited about. The Super Wild Card home win over the LA Rams on Sunday night was the team’s first playoff win in more than 30 years and it was their first first playoff game at Ford Field in its 20-plus year existence. The city of Detroit needs something to rally around and if the Lions were to win the Super Bowl, it would uplift the entire city.
Jared Goff:
Lions quarterback Jared Goff owns Detroit right now. He is the perfect representative of the city’s grit and determination after he was cast aside by the Rams in the Matthew Stafford trade. In his first season after the trade, Goff — who lost a Super Bowl with the Rams three years earlier — witnessed Stafford lead the Rams to the Super Bowl championship in 2022, while the Lions were embarrassed with a losing season. It was a rough time for Goff but he persevered and now is leading one of the best stories in the NFL.
Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports
Baker Mayfield
Baker Mayfield:
Baker Mayfield has only been in the NFL for six seasons, but he’s dealt with a lot. The former No. 1 overall draft pick is on his third team in two seasons since being dumped by the Cleveland Browns. Not much was expected from Mayfield when he was signed to a one-year deal to replace Tom Brady in Tampa Bay but he’s been a spunky leader of the NFC South champion, and he played great against the Eagles in the Super Wild Card game. He’s having a blast and the Buccaneers will likely give him a nice pay day soon.
Kyle Shanahan:
Twenty-seven years ago as a senior in high school, Kyle Shanahan worked the sideline when his father, Mike Shanahan, won his first Super Bowl as the head coach of the Denver Broncos. In the 22nd year of his own NFL coaching journey, Shanahan, 44, has another legitimate chance to secure his own first Super Bowl ring as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Shanahan has had a great career, but he has suffered heartache when it counts — he has come close twice to winning the Super Bowl, losing both in bitter blown-lead defeats. The first was as the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive coordinator (in his final game before taking the head coaching role in San Francisco) in the infamous 28-3 game to the New England Patriots, and then losing to Kansas City in 2020 as the Chiefs outscored the 49ers 21-0 in the fourth quarter to win 31-20. Last year, the 49ers’ season ended when quarterback Brock Purdy was hurt in the NFC title game. Shanahan has been so close so many times … perhaps this is his year.
Trent Williams:
Trent Williams is the best tackle in the game, he is a leader of the 49ers and deeply deserves to win a Super Bowl after being part of the 49ers’ 2020 Super Bowl disappointment. The 14-year veteran has also dealt with a lot of turmoil as part of the Washington Commanders organization that drafted him at No. 4 overall in 2010. He went on to have a bitter, difficult parting with the Commanders that included having a cancerous growth removed from his head that he said was originally downplayed by the team’s medical staff. Williams, who will turn 36 in July, is nearing the end of Pro Football Hall of Fame career and his chances of winning a ring are getting smaller. Could this finally be his time?
