In some ways, including the most obvious, 2025 is the kind of wait-what, topsy-turvy season the NFL has always wanted. How many times did the league hold up its vaunted parity? Twenty-six times since the start of this century, in fact. But of those 25 champions, with another to be crowned in February, two franchises—New England and Kansas City—won 36 percent of all titles. Add in teams that triumphed twice this century—Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, Baltimore, the New York Football Giants and Pittsburgh—and 76 percent of all championships won since the 2000 season kicked off have been seized by seven franchises.
Parity, then, seems more applicable to the NFL regular season, from 2000 through 2024. Favorites won Super Bowls so often that the majority of the league hasn’t won one since the Y2K scare.
