2014 NFL Tournament of Champions: Super Bowl of Super Bowls

It's been about a month in the making. I put forty-eight teams into a gauntlet of simulated battles on a virtual gridiron. Forty-six of them have fallen. Now, only two teams from the late '90s remain. Only one of them can claim the title of Greatest of All Time.

On one side, we have The Greatest Show on Turf, a team that earned a first round bye, took out a couple of old-time classic teams, then beat the top seed in the tournament to make this stage. On the other side, we have a team that fell a couple spots short of a bye, but won three of its five games on the road.

Since we're into the championship round, I'm going to step up the standard of proof. This round will be a best-of-five simulated series, with the "clinching" game being the official result. Since we're playing this game in Arlington at JerryWorld, weather isn't really a factor. All simulations are once again provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's play.

(XVIII) '97 Denver Broncos vs (XII) '99 St. Louis Rams
Game 1: '99 STL 24, '97 DEN 13
Game 2: '99 STL 30, '97 DEN 0
Game 3: '99 STL 27, '97 DEN 13

This one seemed like the Rams' game from the outset. A great opening kick return by Az Hakim got St. Louis to their own 40 to start, and from there they needed only five plays to score a touchdown. The Broncos marched down and responded fairly quickly to tie it up, but they couldn't contain the Rams on their second drive either, as St. Louis needed just eight plays to visit the end zone again. Denver would get no closer. Kurt Warner had a so-so day, completing nine of 19 passes for 140 yards and a pick. Elway managed 169 yards on 12 of 26 attempts and a touchdown, but was intercepted twice and sacked five times, including twice by Kevin Carter. On the ground, Terrell Davis had 140 yards on 27 carries, but he was outdone by Marshall Faulk, who ran 16 times for 169 yards and found the end zone thrice.

To see the final bracket, click here.

I like how this tournament turned out, even if one of my Packer teams didn't win. I respect both of these teams, and the Rams definitely deserved the title. This also matches another simulation that was run on here that actually went through something of an NFL season. Clearly, the Greatest Show on Turf is, in fact, the Greatest Show on Turf.

Like I did with the NBA Tournament of Champions, I wanted to give a little recognition to the outstanding players of the tournament. While there are fewer games to sift through, there are more players and stats to look at. Nonetheless, I'm going to try to put together a starting lineup of guys, both offense and defense, who had outstanding performances over the last month. Please note that this is not a list of the best players of all time at these positions, though in some cases these guys can be considered as such. These players were selected after looking at stats from each of the 47 games played in the tournament.

NFL Tournament of Champions All Tournament Team
Offense                                           Defense
QB: Kurt Warner ('99 STL)            DL: Simeon Rice ('02 TB)
RB: Marshall Faulk ('99 STL)        DL: Maa Tanuvasa ('97 DEN)
RB: Terrell Davis ('97 DEN)          DL: Tony Tolbert ('92 DAL)
WR: Az-Zahir Hakim ('99 STL)     DL: Charles Mann ('91 WAS)
WR: Gary Clark ('91 WAS)            LB: Roosevelt Colvin ('04 NE)
WR: Jerry Rice ('89 SF)                  LB: Jack Lambert ('78 PIT)
OL: Matt Light ('04 NE)                 LB: Lawrence Taylor ('86 NYG)
OL: Orlando Pace ('99 STL)           CB: J.T. Thomas, Jr. ('75 PIT)
OL: Tom Nalen ('97 DEN)              S: Tyrone Braxton ('97 DEN)
OL: Jesse Sapolu ('88 SF)               S: Jake Scott ('72 MIA)
OL: Jon Kolb ('75 PIT)                    CB: Brandon Browner ('13 SEA)

NFL Tournament of Champions MVP
Marshall Faulk ('99 St. Louis Rams)

5 games: 95 carries, 728 yards (7.7 ypc), 8 TD; 10 receptions, 97 yards (9.7 ypc), 1 TD
Marshall Faulk was a big part of the '99 Rams team in reality, so it's no surprise that he takes home the hardware for the tournament. He broke several big runs throughout the tournament, including three of at least 20 yards in the title game alone (two of those went for touchdowns). He was also a bit of a target in the passing game, never doing a ton of damage, but enough to keep teams honest. Kurt Warner had a good tournament as well, but he had some off games, while Faulk never faltered.

Hopefully this has been as entertaining a month and a half for you as it was for me. I get to take a break from football stuff now for a bit until the draft, then again until the season gets underway. Good luck to your teams in 2014!