Did you even read the article?
It is based on a trend for the past 5 years and the recent years of the NFL...not historical
I didn't read the article, but I listed a lot of flashy players acquired in free agency or via trade that won Super Bowls in the last five years including Plaxico Burress, Drew Brees, Charles Woodson, Darren Sharper, and Jonathan Vilma.
Besides, the last 5 years is such an arbitrary number. The last few years there hasn't been many big name free agents because of the uncapped year and the lack of a lockout. There hasn't been a free agent class like this one in a decade. Prior to this year, the only truly flashy free agent that I can think of being available in free agency is Julius Peppers in the last 2-3 years. Oh yes, Nmandi Asomougha.
So I agree with the premise of the article. Because over the last 5 years there has been very few flashy free agents, none of the non-existent flashy free agents helped a team win a Super Bowl. Seriously, the article is flawed when it doesn't acknowledge that over the last few years there hasn't been a lot of flashy free agents.
In fact, some of the flashy free agents listed in the article were crapshoot QBs like Matt Cassel and Kevin Kolb who neither started more than one season when they were acquired and neither were free agents (both were trades). Ignoring the fact they weren't free agents, the only reason they were flashy was because they were QBs. Any other position and they wouldn't have netted what the teams traded them got nor gotten huge QBs. They were just potential franchise QBs in a QB starved league.
I'm glad I didn't read the article before I responded because it is a weak arsed article with incorrect information and a major point ommitted (free agency over the last five years has been devoid of marquee talent unlike this one).
Personally, I don't think getting flashy free agents guarantee much of anything, but plenty have helped teams win Super Bowls. There is no magic formula on this. Some marquee free agents pan out great. Some fail miserably.