NFL: The 1990s All-Decade Team
By Phil Watson
The 1990s. It was that time of Pretty Woman and Goodfellas. Rico Suave and that wonderful time when everyone annoyingly declared themselves too sexy for everything. The George Foreman Grill and the explosion of the Internet. Monica Lewinsky and the introduction of Viagra. Chants of “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry” and finding out if anyone could be a millionaire and the rise of shows about nothing.
It was also a decade of change in the National Football League. The playoffs expanded and so did the league, twice, adding the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995 and returning a team to Cleveland in 1999.
It was the decade the NFL had two teams abandon the Los Angeles area in the same year—the Raiders and Rams moving to Oakland and St. Louis, respectively, after the 1994 season. The Oilers left Houston and became Titans in Tennessee. Baltimore returned to the NFL with the transplanted Browns.
The playoffs expanded to 12 teams.
And the game-changer—the implementation of a salary cap in 1994 and with it, true free agency for players for the first time.
The Buffalo Bills had their near misses to start the decade. The Dallas Cowboys ruled the middle of it. Brett Favre rose to fame and John Elway and Dan Marino stepped off the stage. And by the end of the decade, a former grocery-store stocker led the Rams to their first Super Bowl title.
But who were the best of the best in the 1990s? Take a trip in the wayback machine, where you won’t find the Taco Bell chihuahua, but you will find the NFL’s 1990s All-Decade Team.