New England Patriots and 8 Most Dominant Teams in Pro Sports

The New England Patriots have been one of the most decorated teams in recent NFL history. They are just one of several dominant professional sports teams.

New England might not have had much success in the franchise’s earlier seasons, but over the past 10 years, not many teams have been better.

Many professional franchises have won their respective championship, but only a handful are deemed “dominant.” I’m defining “dominant” as a team that has won at least two championships recently or is one of the top two teams in the sport all-time.

Including the Patriots, here are eight teams that can be deemed one of the dominant teams in professional sports.

*Please put teams that you feel are more dominant than those listed in the comments section.*

Green Bay Packers

Total Championships: 13 (2 Super Bowl Championships)

The Green Bay Packers have been good for a long, long time. The Packers won six NFL Championships before the Vince Lombardi years even started. With Lombardi at the helm of Green Bay, the Packers won five NFL Championships over the span of nine seasons.

After going 31 years without another title, Brett Favre led the Packers to a Super Bowl victory in 1996. In 2010, Green Bay found themselves atop the football world yet again, with a 31-25 Super Bowl win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Aaron Rodgers has made the Packers one of the most feared teams in the NFC as well as the NFL. Over the last three seasons, Green Bay has a record of 36-12 and has had decent success in the playoffs. As long as Rodgers is under center, the Packers should be Super Bowl contenders for several seasons to come.

Boston Celtics

Total Championships: 17

The Boston Celtics are arguably the best basketball franchise of all time. They’ve won 17 NBA championships over the course of their history as well as 21 conference and division titles. Boston has had great runs by two sets of “The Big Three,” and is still one of the best teams in the NBA.

During the late 1950s and all of the 1960s, the Boston Celtics were easily the best team in basketball. Over the course of 13 seasons, they won 11 NBA titles. Winning 11 out of 13 is a tough number to match, even if you’re talking games and not championships.

Over the past five seasons, the Celtics have returned to glory through the play of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Boston has won the Atlantic Division in each of those seasons, the Eastern Conference twice and the NBA title once.

Ray Allen has recently decided to leave Boston for the NBA champion Miami Heat, but Boston should still be a force in the East for at least the next couple of seasons.

New York Yankees

Total Championships: 27

Even though I’m a featured columnist for the Boston Red Sox and am a die-hard Red Sox fan, I have no issues saying that the New York Yankees are the best professional franchise in all of sports history.

The Bronx Bombers has won the AL East 17 times and the American League pennant 40 times, and their 27 World Series titles speak for themselves. It’s tough to find a time period over the course of their history where they weren’t a great team. They’ve won at least one World Series in all but one decade since 1920.

If anyone can make a case for another team being more dominant than the Yankees, I’d love to hear. I’m sorry to say, though, you’re wrong. There has never been a more successful team than the Bronx Bombers, and there probably never will be.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Total Championships: 6

The Pittsburgh Steelers have more Super Bowl wins than any other team in football, ever. During the Chuck Noll era, the Steelers won four Super Bowls in six seasons. Following those four massive victories, Pittsburgh also won Super Bowls under former coach Bill Cowher and current coach Mike Tomlin.

Pittsburgh has been the playoffs in four of the last five seasons and has reached the Super Bowl twice, winning once. Much of the Steelers’ recent success has to do with the performance of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the powerful defense.

The Steelers have been rather consistent over the last ten seasons but have had trouble with the surging Baltimore Ravens. Until the Ravens, or any team for that matter, win six Super Bowls, the Steelers will still hold the top spot among football franchises.

Los Angeles Lakers

Total Championships: 17

The Los Angeles Lakers are the only competition that the Boston Celtics have for being known as the best basketball team ever. The Lakers, just like the Celtics, have won 17 championships since the start of the franchise.

Los Angeles has had 24 Hall of Famers in their history and will have at least one more in Kobe Bryant once he retires. Bryant has arguably been the best Laker ever, winning five NBA championships, and two NBA Finals MVPs. He’s been the main reason why the Lakers have been so good over the past decade and a half.

Bryant might only have a few more seasons left in him, but with the addition of Steve Nash and the help of Andrew Bynum, the Lakers still have the ability to be title contenders. If they can win a title before the Celtics do, they’ll be able to say they’re the best for the time being.

St. Louis Cardinals

Total Championships: 11

You may not realize it, but the St. Louis Cardinals are tied for the second-most World Series appearances and stand alone with the second-most World Series titles with 11. If you’re a younger baseball fan, you might not have known this because eight of them came before 1970.

The Cardinals have had a lot of success over the last decade, though. They were the NL Champions in 2004 but fell to the Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Two years later, St. Louis won their 10th World Series over the Detroit Tigers.

Finally, we come to last season when the Cardinals weren’t in playoff contention at the start of September and ended up making the playoffs as a wild card. They got hot at the perfect time and defeated the Texas Rangers to win their 11th World Series.

Montreal Canadiens

Total Championships: 24

The Montreal Canadiens are the New York Yankees of the National Hockey League. They stand alone as the top franchise in hockey and really don’t have much competition as they have 11 more Stanley Cups than the second-place Toronto Maple Leafs.

Montreal hasn’t been that great as of late, but they were amazing back in the day. They had appeared in and won at least one Stanley Cup in every decade from 1910 through 2000. From 1955 through 1980, the Canadiens won 15 Stanley Cups in 17 appearances. That’s dominance.

There have been over 60 players, coaches and executives linked to the Canadiens inducted into the National Hockey Hall of Fame. Notable names from that list include Guy Lafleur, Patrick Roy and Wayne Gretzky.

No other team will ever be able to match what Montreal accomplished during that 25-year stretch. That’s why they’re the most dominant hockey team in sports history.

New England Patriots

Total Championships: 3

Finally, we reach the New England Patriots. As mentioned in the introduction slide, the Patriots haven’t been very relevant until the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick era. That’s OK, though, because they’ve been so good that they make up for all of those bad previous seasons.

Since 2001, the Patriots have won the AFC East nine times and won the AFC five times. In those five Super Bowl appearances, they’ve come out on top three times. Even though they haven’t won the Super Bowl since 2004, they’ve come as close as you can come in 2007 and this past season, both against the New York Giants.

In the last five seasons, New England has an incredible record of 64-16 and has only missed the postseason once. Brady and Belichick are also one of the game’s best player-coach duos in NFL history and could be the best ever once one of them retires from the game.

In recent history, has a football team really been more dominant in the regular and postseason than the New England Patriots?

Can't wait to hear from all of your Giants fans in the comments sections!