Humbled by a goose egg

There may be only four NFL teams that have never been to the Super Bowl, but 10 others have been there and felt the heartache of "losing the big one."

The Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars get a bit of a pass in my book for having never appeared in the Super Bowl because their existences are less than 20 years old.

I also give a pass to the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns because many analysts, experts and fans seem to forget about the pre-Super Bowl era. Each of these franchises won four NFL championships prior to the creation of the Super Bowl.

Isn't a championship by any name still a championship anymore? I believe so.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona (formerly Chicago) Cardinals also won championships in the NFL prior to 1966, so they have still tasted the ultimate victory.

The Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers and Houston Oilers (now Tennessee Titans) each won at least one championship in the American Football League (AFL) prior to joining the NFL, so a "big game" victory is not foreign to those franchises either.

So out of 14 teams to have never won a Super Bowl, two are essentially still in the "expansion phase," and seven others have won a championship either before the 1966 season or in another league, leaving five unfortunate teams.

Those five teams are the Seattle Seahawks, Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Cincinnati Bengals and Minnesota Vikings.

The Panthers came into the league in 1995 with the Jacksonville Jaguars, giving them the fewest disappointing seasons of the bunch.

It took the Seahawks nearly 30 years before reaching the Super Bowl, and 32 for the Falcons, which finally had their first back-to-back winning seasons the past two years.

Each of those teams have been to the "ultimate game" once, while the Bengals -- which were established in 1968 -- made it twice in the 1980s, only to lose to the Joe Montana-led San Francisco 49ers by a combined nine points.

However, the most "successful losers" in the NFL would have to fall on the Minnesota Vikings.

Established in 1961, the Vikings played in four of the first 11 Super Bowls, but they lost all four by a combined score of 95-34.

Overall the team has been quite successful with a 426-352-9 record, and out of 49 years of existence, they have had 36 seasons with a .500 record or better. They have also appeared in eight NFC Championship games since 1970. In total, the Vikings have made 26 playoff appearances, only to go home empty handed each time. With an 18-26 playoff record, they have the dubious distinction of having the most playoff losses of all time.

While many celebrate a person's 50th birthday with "Over the Hill" balloons and black decorations, the 50th year of existence may be the best one for Vikings fans, as they have the right personnel to return to the NFC Championship Game -- Favre or no Favre -- and maybe, just maybe bring home their first Super Bowl title.

In the past few days and weeks, I have heard numerous Colts fans say their favorite team either wasted a chance to go undefeated to threw away a championship. But look at it this way, it could be worse because there is still a Vince Lombardi trophy in the case.