Dome Theory
Dallas in an open air stadium: 5 Super Bowl rings. Dallas after moving to a dome: whatever this era will be remembered as.
Teams that play in domes are built in perfect conditions. They’re not designed to handle situations that require grit, resiliency, “suck it up” mentality. It’s a huge barrier to succeeding outside of the regular season. We can go down the list of all the dome teams and it’s always the same story:
Indianapolis: maybe the worst NFL legacy over the last 60 years outside of that stretch with a top 3 alltime QB. Peyton saved them(momentarily) from being viewed as the Cardinals and the Lions are in the SB era. And even during the Manning era they were synonymous with not getting it done in the playoffs.
New Orleans: Just like Indy, they were a legendary QB’s era away from being viewed as maybe the worst franchise in the NFL. They were horrid before Drew, and don’t look like anything’s fixed after. And also like Indy, they had little to show for their wonder years. 1 single ring and a lot of playoff disappointments against inferior opponents.
Atlanta: A couple big Matt Ryan years away from being, yet again, one of the worst franchises in football. Still, like Manning and Brees, a lot more playoff failures for Ryan than successes.
Detroit: One of the worst franchises in football. When they do make the playoffs they quickly exit.
Arizona: See Detroit
Minnesota: Basically Dallas’ 28 year drought personified as an entire 70 year existence. Lots of great regular seasons, crumble the moment they play outdoors in the playoffs against a good team.
Houston: See Arizona
LA Rams: Not too dissimilar to Indy/NO. Complete scorched Earth for a number of years, a few great years with a HoF QB in 99-01, then completely bottoming out for 16 years, then the current Mcvay era bucking the trend… but they may already be over as well. This is the “resounding success” of dome teams. More than one era of SB relevancy, even though both were incredibly short and far between.
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Who are the outdoor teams that have to battle the temperature variables, the irregular stadium lighting, bugs, mud, the inclimate weather?
NYG, GB, NE, PHI, SEA, BAL, PIT, TB, DEN, KC, WAS, SF… teams that have built reputations on going into the playoffs and beating the snot out of dome teams. Think about the true “contenders” today. They’re either on this list or Buffalo, Cincinnati, NYJ, Jax. All open air stadiums. Dallas is the only dome team with reasonable odds to make the SB. That’s not an aberration, it’s the norm.
And yeah, there are open air teams that suck, it’s not a sure fire way to be relevant. But it is one of the major ingredients. Chicago is making a terrible football mistake with their new stadium plans.
TL;DR Find a once-ever QB or you’re probably not going far in January if you’re a dome team.
