Were The 72 Dolphins Or 66 Packers Better Champions: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Better Champions ballot is and who runs it

Were the '72 Dolphins or '66 Packers Better Champions is a listener vote run by WTMM-FM, a New York radio station, and carried on 1045theteam.com, the domain the station operates itself. The ballot sits in the best-of field, but its shape is unusual for the category: instead of asking readers to rank many local businesses, it stages one head-to-head argument and lets the audience settle it.

The argument is a familiar one among football fans: the '72 Dolphins or the '66 Packers, which championship was better? The ballot page frames the matchup as the closing stage of a wider competition, describing both entries as "the final two teams remaining in our Best Champions Bracket". Supporters register a choice directly: the page presents the two finalists and the audience decides, with no middleman between the listener and the tally.

Because the vote lives on the organizer's own domain, everything a supporter needs, from the matchup itself to the winner announcement, stays inside WTMM-FM's coverage. The station's own text is also where its decisions about the form surface, since no outside balloting service sits between the listener and the result.

The dated facts behind the bracket

The bracket has confirmed runs in eight separate years, 2019 through 2026 with one edition per year, all carried on 1045theteam.com under the same head-to-head question. That span makes the Better Champions vote a recurring February fixture in WTMM-FM's programming year rather than a one-time stunt.

The clearest dated fact on the ballot concerns the finish. The station's own text states: "When we finalize the winner on Monday morning, February 4, we will also be pulling one winner from each round of voting." Two things follow from that sentence. The result is settled on the Monday morning of February 4, and a giveaway-style element runs alongside it, with one winner drawn from each earlier round of voting.

The rest of the calendar is absent from the ballot. WTMM-FM names no opening day, no closing hour for the form and no schedule for the bracket's earlier rounds; a supporter who wants those details has to confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How a supporter votes in the '72 Dolphins or '66 Packers matchup

Voting takes place entirely on 1045theteam.com. A supporter opens the ballot page, reads the head-to-head between the '72 Dolphins and the '66 Packers, selects a side and submits. The page presents the choice as a straight public vote, and the station's text around it treats those submissions as the basis of the result.

No login step is printed on the ballot, and the page sets no ceiling on repeat votes in the '72 Dolphins and '66 Packers matchup. WTMM-FM also publishes no eligibility wording for the vote and no separate rules document for the bracket. A supporter who wants certainty on either point needs to read the current form itself, because only the live ballot could carry such a rule.

Timing matters as much as mechanics here. Because the result is settled on the Monday morning of February 4, a vote cast after that point cannot move the two-team tally, and the winners drawn from earlier rounds are separated at the same moment. The single-question format means the entire bracket outcome rests on this form, which is worth remembering before the finalization morning arrives.

How this ballot sits beside New York's other fan votes

WTMM-FM's bracket final is one of several public votes in the New York market, but its neighbours mostly take a different shape. City-level programs such as Best of Brooklyn, Best of Queens, Best of the Bronx and The City's Best, Best of New York City spread a ballot across many categories and many local businesses, so a supporter's energy divides among dozens of entries.

The Better Champions vote concentrates all of that energy into two choices. Every vote on the 1045theteam.com form moves a two-team tally, which changes how support behaves: there are no categories to work through, only one question asked at full volume, with the '72 Dolphins and the '66 Packers as the only options.

Regional titles behave similarly to the city guides. Best of Hudson Valley and Best of Westchester run the many-nominee, many-category format tied to their own publications. Against that field, WTMM-FM's head-to-head stands out as the market's purest popularity contest: two championship teams, one ballot, and a result settled on a stated Monday morning.

Rounding up support before the finalization morning

Because this ballot is a two-option final, the arithmetic of support is unusually simple in the Best Champions Bracket: every additional vote for the '72 Dolphins or the '66 Packers moves a head-to-head count with only one opponent. That makes direct asks, aimed at fans who already hold a position in the argument, the most natural channel, especially with WTMM-FM settling the result on a stated Monday morning in February and drawing a winner from each round at the same moment.

Whatever the channel, the practical deadline is the same: once the station finalizes the result, the two-team count stops moving, so support needs to arrive before that point to matter at all. For technique beyond sharing the ballot link, the guide to getting more votes online covers outreach that suits head-to-head polls, and a separate overview of award-style ballots describes how recognition votes differ from other contest formats.