Power rankings are a fixture at many sports media outlets because they tend to stir up debate and discussion. This week’s Pro Football Talk AFC power rankings, as posted by NBC’s Sunday Night Football (NBC bought PFT in 2009, and PFT’s Mike Florio has been an on-air contributor to their pregame/halftime/postgame shows since 2010) Twitter/X account Wednesday afternoon, particularly did that. But not for serious debate over how the teams were ranked, but for the inclusion of the NFC’s Chicago Bears amidst the 10 best AFC teams. That post was quickly deleted, but here’s a screenshot of the full tweet:
Those rankings were not reposted, so it’s not 100 percent clear what team was meant to be No. 10. But, interestingly enough, this came a day after the SNF account posted the full (without regard for conference) PFT rankings, and the Bears were 21st there. And there were 11 AFC teams above them, in the order from the above graphic. So the 10th slot should have gone to the Denver Broncos. And yes, their logo is also orange. But it does look quite different.
Power rankings going into the final week of the regular season! pic.twitter.com/zqmCw7dUnr
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 2, 2024
At any rate, the “Top 10 Teams” graphic posted Wednesday was correct (and was the same top 10 as the full rankings):
Top ten teams going into the final week of the regular season. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/x9Z92o2fAT
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 3, 2024
Mistakes certainly happen. But moving the Bears to the AFC is a pretty funny one, given their since-1920 NFL history and their inclusion in the NFC since its 1970 formation after the AFL-NFL merger.
[SNF on Twitter]
