Super Bowl LIII Coverage: “The Curse of the Super Bowl Hosts”

By Stuart Tomlin

As part of our continuing Super Bowl LIII coverage, today we have a look at one of those strangest of phenomena in the NFL: the Super Bowl host curse.

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We sports fans are a superstitious bunch.

So much is thrown into the little superstitions we have. I don’t speak for every single sports fan here, but I speak for many amongst you. You may have a favourite shirt or jersey you wear for every single game, you might not wash a jersey until a defeat (2007 Patriots fans may have had a rough go of this one), you might always watch the games in the same bar or same seat in the house, and so on and so forth. Bud Light, long before the “Dilly Dilly” days, ran a campaign about superstitions fans have – “It’s only weird if it doesn’t work”.

So, we all have our superstitions. We also have the facts that we look to – for example this postseason we had “The Colts had never lost to Kansas City in the postseason, 4-0”, of course that was “HAHA TIME FOR INDIANAPOLIS” territory as it turns out. Tom Brady has only lost one postseason game on the road – the 2006 AFC Championship in Indianapolis – and that has remained the same. 

As with omens, there are curses. There’s the Madden Curse, which traditionally states that the player who appears on the Madden NFL videogame cover will go and have difficulties in that particular season. Very few winners have gone back to the Super Bowl, and even fewer have retained the title. The Buffalo Bills went back to four successive Super Bowls – and lost all four of them. They’ve still never lifted the Lombardi Trophy.

The Curse of the Super Bowl Hosts first came to my attention during the 2010 NFL Season. It was my second NFL season as a fan, and the Dallas Cowboys were the hosts of the Super Bowl. Tony Romo got injured early in the season, a broken left clavicle in week 7 at home to the Giants. The Cowboys struggled through the rest of the season and finished 6-10. My friend Kris, the Cowboys fan who properly got me into the sport in the first place, told me about the curse and I didn’t immediately believe him.

Then the 2011 Season happened.

The Colts were the Super Bowl hosts.

Peyton Manning was out for the season with a broken neck, we went to a horrific 2-14 season with Dan Orlovsky, Kerry Collins and Curtis Bastarding Painter at Quarterback, and ended up with the worst overall record in the league for that season.

On the plus side, we saw the Patriots lose the Super Bowl in Lucas Oil Stadium, and drafted Andrew Luck that April, and that’s worked out alright hasn’t it?

None the less, I’ve believed in the curse ever since.

Let’s have a look at what’s happened since then, shall we?

2012 Season. The Super Bowl hosts were the New Orleans Saints. And then: BOUNTYGATE. The actions of the Saints paying players to target opposition stars to try and injure and earn extra money for doing so, came home to roost. And it had to do so during the 2012 season, when they hosted the Super Bowl. Sean Payton was suspended for the season, and the Saints went 7-9 and missed the playoffs.

The 2013 NFL Season saw the New York Giants and New York Jets as the co-hosts of the Super Bowl. Neither team were particularly hit hard by the curse, going 7-9 and 8-8, but neither team made the playoffs. The following year, the Arizona Cardinals were hit by the curse of the Super Bowl Hosts in a different way – they made the playoffs, becoming the first Super Bowl host team to make the playoffs since the 2000 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yep, told you this thing was real. However they had ALL of the Quarterback injuries, losing Carson Palmer, and had a 9-1 start followed up by a 2-4 performance in the regular season, then were immediately bounced from the playoffs. By the 7-8-1 Carolina Panthers. Yeesh.

The 2015 San Francisco 49ers had that one year of Jim Tomsula, and went 5-11. Shall we just leave that at that?

The 2016 Houston Texans did make the playoffs, and even won a playoff game. Their opponents in that game were the Oakland Raiders, minus Derek Carr, who broke his leg against the Colts just before Christmas. The Raiders started Connor Cook. I don’t think that counts as a playoff win, really. The Texans lost JJ Watt for most of the season due to injury, and were immediately bounced in the next round of the playoffs to the Patriots. Who went to the Super Bowl. In their stadium. I think having the Patriots play the Super Bowl in your stadium is enough of an example of the curse. 

I speak from personal experience there.

Then of course, last season, there was the Minnesota Vikings. The 2017 Vikings went all the way to the NFC Championship, and after the incredible moment of the Minneapolis Miracle against the Saints (who I think are cursed in a different way, but that’s a story for another time) and you thought “this might be the team to do it”. And then they hit a brick wall. That brick wall’s name was the Eagles.

The Eagles utterly battered the Vikings in the NFC Championship, and then went on to win the Super Bowl.

In the Vikings’ Stadium.

The Curse struck late in 2017, but it got the Vikings all the same.

This year, the Curse struck the Atlanta Falcons in the traditional way – by injuries to starting running back Davonte Freeman and pretty much the entirety of their secondary and other key defensive players. The Falcons therefore could not stop anyone for shit this season. They went 7-9, and missed the postseason. Fortunately for the Falcons, they just narrowly avoided the nightmare Saints v Patriots Super Bowl, thanks to some Refball. I’m sure we’ll get to that in the Conference Championship Review.

So how far does this thing go back, anyway? Well, no team has ever played the Super Bowl in their own stadium. Two teams HAVE played the Super Bowl in their own state – The San Francisco 49ers played, and won, Super Bowl XIX in Stanford Stadium rather than their own (at the time) Candlestick Park – and the Los Angeles Rams played Super Bowl XIV in the Rose Bowl rather than the LA Memorial Coliseum – but lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

From 1966 to 2018, excluding six Super Bowl games held in a stadium without a professional team – imagine if Wembley ever got the Super Bowl? – but including the 2013 Season where there were two Super Bowl host teams, the Giants and the Jets, the Super Bowl host team had 14 winning seasons, 5 split seasons, and 29 losing seasons. Eight teams have made the playoffs in the season where they hosted the Super Bowl: The Miami Dolphins have done it four times – 1970, 1978, 1994 and 1998. Interestingly, their undefeated season would come two years later after their first hosting of the Super Bowl, in 1972. The 2000 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2014 Arizona Cardinals, 2016 Houston Texans, and 2017 Minnesota Vikings round off this list. Of the eight teams, only the Minnesota Vikings have reached Championship Sunday, losing to the Eagles in the 2017 NFC Championship.

On four separate occasions, the Super Bowl hosts have ended up with the worst overall record in the league. The 1973 Houston Oilers (who had moved from Rice Stadium to the Astrodome, but the Super Bowl was still played in their city), 1980 New Orleans Saints, the 1983 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, my own Indianapolis Colts in 2011. Yeah, I don’t like remembering that 2011 season.

So who’s next for the Super Bowl Host Curse? Well, next season, the Super Bowl, Super Bowl LIV, will be played at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, so that means, over to you, Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins have already talked about looking towards 2020 and the Draft for their successor to Tannehill, so the Curse could be kicking off early. Good luck with that, Miami.

One final fact related to that.

The Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts have played every single one of our Super Bowls in Miami.

I’m just saying.

Go Colts.