Examples of Butterfly Effect in football?

[Steelersfan43]

1 hour ago, game3525 said:

Maybe. But he wouldn't have had Sean Payton, who probably stays in Dallas to succeed Parcells in a year. 

It was far from a guarantee that Brees would sign with the Saints when Payton accepted the job of the saints....It was even considered a long shot since the Dolphins were the favorite and they probably would have gotten Brees if they wanted him over Culpepper

[7DnBrnc53]

19 hours ago, game3525 said:

The team that gets screwed over the most in this scenario would be the Saints (Maybe the Steelers if Rivers doesn't fall past the Browns). 

Maybe, especially if Brees gets a little momentum going, and the Chargers do decent enough that they don't look QB in round 1.

Let's say they finish 7-9, and get the 14th pick in this world. Then, you have the Raiders, Cardinals, Giants, and Redskins with the top 4 picks.

I see the Raiders taking Eli, the Cards taking Fitz, and the Giants taking Big Ben.

As for Rivers, he doesn't fall past the Browns with the sixth pick. They liked him more than Ben at the time.

So, the Steelers and Saints would be out in the cold, although I still think Brees struggles enough that they put some pressure on him by drafting a Matt Schaub early in Round 3 (instead of K Nate Kaeding).

[Apparition]

42 minutes ago, 7DnBrnc53 said:

Maybe, especially if Brees gets a little momentum going, and the Chargers do decent enough that they don't look QB in round 1.

Let's say they finish 7-9, and get the 14th pick in this world. Then, you have the Raiders, Cardinals, Giants, and Redskins with the top 4 picks.

I see the Raiders taking Eli, the Cards taking Fitz, and the Giants taking Big Ben.

As for Rivers, he doesn't fall past the Browns with the sixth pick. They liked him more than Ben at the time.

So, the Steelers and Saints would be out in the cold, although I still think Brees struggles enough that they put some pressure on him by drafting a Matt Schaub early in Round 3 (instead of K Nate Kaeding).

Brees had an excellent season in 2004 (followed up by another strong one in '05) with Rivers pushing him, so good chance that the Chargers extend him before he ever reaches free agency in this timeline. 

[Ray Reed]

On 6/25/2021 at 1:46 PM, Trentwannabe said:

The Bills drafting OJ Simpson is the reason we have to deal with the Kardashians. 

This isn't quite true.

Nicole Brown never lived or met OJ in Buffalo. She was from LA and they met there...playing for the Bills had nothing to do with this. Maybe OJ being from California does because he never would have been in LA during his offseasons and met her, but the team who drafted him had no outcome in this. Whoever drafted him he still would have gone back home to LA during the offseasons and met Nicole

[Hunter2_1]

What if Sean Payton traded up to draft Mahomes…

Edited May 5 by Hunter2_1

[7DnBrnc53]

I got this one from here: https://podcastaddict.com/pittsburgh-sports-memories/episode/171170886

In Week 13 of the 1988 season, the 2-10 Steelers faced off against the 3-9-1 Kansas City Chiefs. The game came down to the last play, where Steve DeBerg overthrew a wide open Kittrick Taylor in the end zone to give the Steelers a 16-10 win.

The Steelers ended up winning two of their last three games after that to finish 5-11, building some momentum for the next season.

However, what if DeBerg hits that pass? The Steelers would have been 2-11 with three games to go (@Hou, @SD, Mia). Maybe they start Todd Blackledge and Steve Bono in those games and write off the rest of the season.

Also, not only was this a close call for the Steelers that year, but this was as well:

 

Edited May 9 by 7DnBrnc53

[7DnBrnc53]

On 6/27/2021 at 12:37 PM, Apparition said:

The Patriots hosted the Seahawks in week 3 of the 1992 season. The Pats gave up a conversion on 3rd and long to Tommy Kane on a Seahawks 1st quarter drive, which set Seattle up at the New England 2-yard line. On the next play, Chris Warren would score the game's only touchdown.

Seattle won 10-6. At the end of the season, this gave New England the tiebreaker for the first overall pick in the 1993 draft. 

The Patriots would go on to select Drew Bledsoe with the pick. But more importantly, having the #1 overall pick was thought to be what enticed Bill Parcells to become the team's head coach (it sure as hell wasn't the ownership, the facility, or anything else about the organization at the time). 

In 1996, Parcells hired his former defensive coordinator with the Giants, Bill Belichick, to be his assistant head coach/DBs coach. Belichick would only spend a year with the team, before following Parcells to the Jets. But in that one year, he established a relationship with owner Bob Kraft, which would eventually prompt him to abandon his job as head coach of the Jets to join the Patriots as HC in 2000. 

If the Pats don't blow a coverage against the Kelly Stouffer/Tommy Kane combination, who knows where the organization would be now? Maybe in St. Louis?

This was the same day (9/20/1992) that Favre came off the bench to hit Kittrick Taylor with a game-winning TD.

Since that day, the fortunes of the Pats and Pack would change. Favre would become the franchise QB, and the Pats would be put on a whole new path (that resulted in Belichick, Brady, etc...).

Also, since that time, NE and GB have been the two winningest teams in the NFL, and they have been to a combined 13 Super Bowls.

Edited May 9 by 7DnBrnc53

[BeaReylo]

On 8/10/2021 at 1:18 AM, MossyMoss said:

Not sure if anyone mentioned it just went through two pages, but Tuck Rule was what came to mind when I read the title.

It's crazy how it was some obscure rule that the ref happened to know, that practically no else knew about, and now even folks who don't watch football to this day know about? That one ref played a massive hand changing the NFL landscape for twenty years that lead to The Patriots' dynasty.

[PossibleCabbage]

If the Falcons did not trade for Eric Metcalf, Ray Lewis would have been a Packer and we'd have no idea what the identity of the Baltimore Ravens would be.

The trade between the Falcons and (then) Browns involved swapping the 10th and 26th picks.  The 10th pick was offloaded to the 49ers who moved up to take JJ Stokes in a deal that involved the 49ers 1996 first round pick.  Between the 95 and 96 seasons the Browns moved from Cleveland to Baltimore and became the Ravens leaving the team name, logo, and records behind them for an expansion team in 1999.  If the 49ers were on the clock at 26 in 1996 they likely would not have taken Lewis, as their MLB spot was filled by Ken Norton Jr. at the time, and the Packers were literally on the phone with Ray Lewis to take him at 27 when the Ravens put the pick in.

Edited May 12 by PossibleCabbage

[Nabbs4u]

On 5/5/2024 at 2:14 PM, Hunter2_1 said:

What if Sean Payton traded up to draft Mahomes…

Very good chance Pat Mahomes doesn't have 3 SB rings already.

[PossibleCabbage]

19 hours ago, PossibleCabbage said:

If the Falcons did not trade for Eric Metcalf, Ray Lewis would have been a Packer and we'd have no idea what the identity of the Baltimore Ravens would be.

The trade between the Falcons and (then) Browns involved swapping the 10th and 26th picks.  The 10th pick was offloaded to the 49ers who moved up to take JJ Stokes in a deal that involved the 49ers 1996 first round pick.  Between the 95 and 96 seasons the Browns moved from Cleveland to Baltimore and became the Ravens leaving the team name, logo, and records behind them for an expansion team in 1999.  If the 49ers were on the clock at 26 in 1996 they likely would not have taken Lewis, as their MLB spot was filled by Ken Norton Jr. at the time, and the Packers were literally on the phone with Ray Lewis to take him at 27 when the Ravens put the pick in.

An addendum, had the Falcons not traded for Metcalf, but consummated the same trade with the 49ers, they also likely would not have taken Ray Lewis at 26 as their MLB, Jessie Tuggle, was coming off a pro bowl season in 1995.

[ronjon1990]

The Jim Harbaugh 49ers win the Haurbowl instead of the Ravens.

My personal favorite is the 2009 Panthers and Matt Moore. 

Jake Delhomme was dreadful in 09 and a big reason the team went 4-7 with him before he got hurt. In comes Matt Moore playing like his hair is on fire and finishing the year 4-1 with 3 straight wins against playoff-bkund competition. Clearly, the Panthers weren't that bad. 

What if the Panthers decided to bench Delhomme during his poor week 7 performance against a pretty mediocre Buffalo team? 

Does Moore pull off an early win? It was a winnable game. 

From there, the remaining losses were New Orleans, Miami, NYJ, Patriots. 

The Panthers finished 8-8. They would've needed 11 wins to make the playoffs. The Bills could be win 9. 2-2 in the remaining losses would put them at 11. 

Say Moore comes in and salvages the Bills game, the Panthers still split with the Saimts, but the winnable Miami and NYJ games get flipped, and Moore finishes his year 9-2. If he plays all of the games the way he finished the season, he probably finishes with something like 2000 yds 20 TDs and <5 INTs. 

Point being, if Moore comes in and replaces Delhomme earlier than he did, while playing the way he did, does Carolina tank the 2010 season? When Moote gets injured, does he get another crack at the Panthers gig? Where does Cam wind up? Does Fox lose his job? Where does Ron Rivera wind up? 

Of course, it's possible that not much changes at all. It's not like Moore was a known commodity stud QB. But as far as what-if's go, it's one I've often thought about given the difference between his play and Delhomme's and how that Panthers team really got held back. It always felt like the writing was on the wall by the time the 2010 season rolled around, but a playoff run and good statistical 09 season for Carolina could have dramatically altered the course of NFL history. And looking back, it seems like a very high probability. 

Edited May 13 by ronjon1990

[7DnBrnc53]

On 5/11/2024 at 9:43 PM, PossibleCabbage said:

Packers were literally on the phone with Ray Lewis to take him at 27 when the Ravens put the pick in.

Ray Lewis on the Packers is an interesting dynamic. For one, I think that SB 32 is different. If the Packers have Lewis, the Broncos probably have a totally different game plan, and maybe TD doesn't go out with a migraine in the first half (who wins is anyone's guess).

Also, what type of influence does Reggie White have over him? Is it so positive that the murder situation in Atlanta four years later is butterflied away, and Lewis is a Packers legend?

Green and Gold Forever (a Packer podcast) talked about this in 2017 (at 1:06:06):

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2017-preseason-wk-1-packers-24-eagles-9-feat-what-if/id794173834?i=1000391092311