If you’re set to host a Super Bowl, odds are, you’re going to have a miserable season.
Coming into this 2017 regular season, host teams have compiled a record of 295-400-4 – or a winning percentage of 42 percent. Some call it the Super Bowl Host Curse.
There have been 51 Super Bowls, yet a host team has never made it to the big game or even the conference championship for that matter. Hell, even making the Divisional Round is next to impossible.
Who’s done it?
There’s only been seven times that a host team finished with double-digit win totals. Funny enough, the Dolphins have accounted for five of those instances.
- The Dolphins in: 1970, 1975, 1978, 1994 and 1998
- The 2000 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- The 2014 Arizona Cardinals
Both the Buccaneers and Cardinals lost in the Wild Card Round.
The Dolphins are one of the just two host teams – the 2016 Texans being the other – to have even played in the Divisional Round, and Miami is the only team to have even hosted a Division Round matchup, doing so three times: ’70, ’94 and ’98.
Neutral site exceptions
There have been seven Super Bowls that have been at neutral sites – stadiums that teams didn’t call their home – and on two occasions, teams from those respective states have made the Super Bowl.
The 1980 LA Rams made it Super Bowl XIV in Pasadena, California where they lost to the Steelers.
And the 1984 San Francisco 49ers won Super Bowl XIX in Stanford California, but again, neither stadium was the respective home field.
Enter the Vikings
So let’s assume the Vikings beat the Cleveland Browns this week. If that happens, Minnesota will own a record of 6-2 – a winning percentage of 75 percent.
They’d need just four wins over their last eight games to be just the fourth host team to have ever secured double-digit wins.
According to ESPN, the Vikings have the second easiest schedule remaining in the NFC.
If they receive a first-round bye – and as it stands right now, they’d have one – Minnesota will be just the second team to ever host a playoff game in the Divisional Round.
Now, there’s a lot of football left and knowing the Vikings history, something is bound to go drastically wrong.
Yet, the Vikings are well on their way to defying the laws of a Super Bowl Curse – and that’s something worth cheering about.
