Futility.

Few would have thought that when the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins 38-9 in Super Bowl XVIII on 22 January 1984 the game would signal the end of the era of American Football Conference (AFC) dominance. The mighty Pittsburgh Steeler dynasty last won the title in the 1980 Super Bowl and the nucleus of players that made up their championship teams had retired by 1984, but the future was apparently bright for the AFC. Marcus Allen, the Raiders' catalyst that January evening, had run wild, including a breathtaking change-of-direction touchdown gallop of 74 yards that seemed like a bit of playground mischief. Meanwhile, the pretenders to the Raiders' AFC crown had armed themselves with a cluster of strong-armed and strong-willed quarterbacks in the 1983 National Football League (NFL) draft. Yet the rest of the 1980s and half of the 1990s would pass without an AFC victory in...