"Parity" in the NFL

You hear the term "parity" a lot in the NFL, meaning all teams can compete and no one is a lot better or a lot worse than anyone else.

However, I would argue that the difference between the haves and have-nots has never been starker. I don't recall ever seeing so many bad teams in the league. The Lions, Browns, Chiefs, Rams and Buccaneers are all strong contenders for worst team in the league. The Redskins lost to the Lions today. The Raiders played an awful game today against the Broncos. The Broncos and Vikings have 3-0 starts via miracle wins and letting two of those awful teams beat themselves.

It just amazes me that every week, in a league in which every team is supposed to be able to compete, there are some teams that quite clearly cannot compete at all. The Lions, Rams, Chiefs and Browns are on awful streaks stretching back into previous seasons. The Raiders are on a 6-season streak of 10+ losses, and judging by today's results will be going for a seventh season. In the past two seasons we've seen an undefeated regular season, and a winless regular season. How is this possible in league with a salary cap?

I actually think college has talent more spread out than the NFL. Ten top-10 teams have gone down already in the first four weeks of the college season. #5 Penn St., #6 Cal and #9 Miami all lost by double digits. Then-#3 USC lost to Washington, who then lost at home to Stanford. Outside of the top two teams in the country (Florida and Texas), every team in college football looks vulnerable.