The ultimate goal of any professional sports team is to win the championship. In the NFL, that means the Super Bowl to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Anything else, especially in the modern era with fans and media, is considered an abject failure. Retroactively, talented players like Dan Marino and Charles Barkley have had their greatest minimized because they don’t have a championship.
The road to a title is rarely the same for every team. Sometimes teams are cut off because of injuries, bad luck or just running into the greatest on the other side. The Mark Price-led Cleveland Cavaliers had the latter with Michael Jordan keeping them from reaching the highest peak.