Three years ago, Jon Gruden hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy in San Diego after beating the Oakland Raiders handily for Tampa Bay’s first Super Bowl victory.

The championship validated many people’s careers -- not the least of which was Gruden's -- and also seemed to validate a new era of salary cap induced parity in the NFL. The Buccaneers’ win marked the fourth time in six years that the league’s champion was a first time Super Bowl winner (and I’m not even counting Baltimore in 2000 because the city had witnessed titles before the Colts moved away).

Why was this statistic so important? Before the Denver Broncos broke through against the Green Bay Packers to finally win a Super Bowl following the 1996 season, you had to go all the way back to 1981 when the 49ers -- on the strength of a certain catch -- won it all to find a first time NFL champion.

From 1971 to 1996, the Lombardi Trophy was dominated largely (and that may be an understatement) by five teams: Dallas, Pittsburgh, Washington, San Francisco and the Oakland/L.A. Raiders. Talk about hogging all the glory.

Yes, New England is a current dynasty and that franchise has had a great run, but they are truly the exception to the rule in today’s NFL. Sometimes the stars align just right and sometimes you get lucky along with the stars aligning.

This is what happened in the Patriots’ case when they stumbled upon a sixth round draft choice named Tom Brady in 2000. (If the Pats were so smart, why didn’t they draft him in an earlier round, but that's another story?)

Sadly for the good folks of New England, this year the Patriots have finally met their match in the Indianapolis Colts -- that is if the champs get past Denver -- and the NFL may have seen the last of its great dynasties.

Yes, this year is shaping up to be another season that an NFL city will be celebrating after winning it all for the very first time. Where will that parade be taking place? My guess is it will be Charlotte, Indianapolis or Seattle.

Everybody really does have a chance from year-to-year in the "new NFL" and make no mistake, it’s good for the league to have football so popular right now in NASCAR country, basketball country and, well, Starbucks country.

Could things shake out differently than I predict as we go deeper into the playoffs? Of course, but I for one wouldn’t mind seeing one of those three cities take the cake. Carolina and Indy are both relatively new to pro sports teams and have never seen a championship and Seattle, a much bigger market, has just the Supersonics’ NBA title in 1979 to show for several decades of major sports seasons.

NFL pioneering commissioner Pete Rozelle would be smiling if he were alive today and for good reason -- his league got it right. When every team (except maybe the Arizona Cardinals and Cleveland Browns) thinks it has a legitimate shot at the playoffs, it’s a good thing because it creates excitement and interest.

Now if we can just do something about that replay thing.

Questions/comments? Email me at bryan_horwath@yahoo.com