Based on their overall record during the past decade, the Green Bay Packers have been an overwhelming success. Based on their inability to reach the Super Bowl during that time, they have been a resounding failure.
The Packers 95-65 record spanning the last 10 seasons (2000-09) is second-best in the 16-team NFC. trailing only Philadelphia (103-56-1).
It is fifth-best in the 32-team NFL behind Indianapolis (115-45), New England (112-48) and Pittsburgh (103-56-1).
When it comes to regular-season prosperity since the turn of the century, the Packers rank right up there with the best of them.
Only three NFL teams have appeared in the playoffs more often than the Packers over the last 10 years, and Green Bays four division titles are one better than NFC North rivals Minnesota and Chicago.
And remember, this covers a period beginning one year after coach Mike Holmgren left Green Bay and includes just one season when Ron Wolf was general manager.
There truly have been good times since Holmgren and Wolf departed, at least until the Packers have reached the playoffs. Once there, the teams fortunes have taken a dive.
The Packers went 9-5 in the playoffs during the 1990s, including two Super Bowl appearances and one championship. But in the just completed decade, the Packers postseason record is 3-6 with no Super Bowl berths.
Its sobering to think the Packers won as many playoff games (three) during a 21-day stretch in January 1997 as they did in the last 12 years combined.
The New Orleans Saints, who face the Colts in Sundays Super Bowl, became the 10th NFC team to reach the championship game since the Packers last Super Bowl appearance in January 1998.
To put it another way, only five NFC teams have a longer Super Bowl dry spell than the Packers: Detroit, Minnesota, Washington, San Francisco and Dallas.
The Packers have been good enough to remain competitive in the regular season during the past decade, but never great enough to advance to the big game.
Five NFC teams with losing records over the past 10 years Arizona (62-98), St. Louis (71-89), Atlanta (75-84), Carolina (79-81) and Tampa Bay (79-81) have basked in the Super Bowl spotlight more recently than the Packers. Three other recent NFC Super Bowl qualifiers are barely above .500 for the decade: New Orleans (83-77), Seattle (82-78) and Chicago (81-79).
Four years ago, the Packers descended to their low point (4-12) of the decade, yet the Saints (3-13) were even worse and suffered an embarrassing 52-3 defeat in Green Bay that season. Who would have guessed the same hapless team that lost by seven touchdowns that day would be playing today in the Super Bowl?
The Saints have proven good things come to those who wait. It took the Saints 43 years to make their Super Bowl debut today. Even the Packers went 29 years between Super Bowl appearances before they claimed their last title following the 1996 season.
The Packers 12-year drought seems small by comparison. Nevertheless, their regular-season success over the last decade leaves a largely unsatisfied feeling for the Packers, who must watch yet another flash-in-the-pan NFC team like the Saints play in the Super Bowl while they sit home.