Seahawks’ rare opportunity to win a Super Bowl in enemy territory
The Seattle Seahawks are heading to their fourth Super Bowl ever, and have a chance to lift the Lombardi Trophy in the house of their division rival.
The Seattle Seahawks don’t just have a chance to win their second Super Bowl in franchise history a couple weekends from now. They have a chance to do it while rubbing it in the face of their division rivals by lifting the Lombardi Trophy in San Francisco.
Namath blazed the trail
In the history of professional football, there have only been three instances where a team made the Super Bowl that was hosted by a divisional rival and won the title on enemy ground. I say professional football because the first time it happened was back in 1969 before the AFL and NFL had merged.
That year, the AFL’s New York Jets won the AFL earning a the right to play in Super Bowl III in Miami, Florida. That was the famous Super Bowl in which Joe Namath guaranteed the Jets would prevail over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts. Namath and the Jets delivered a historic win from the Orange Bowl in Miami and New York was able to celebrate their victory on the home of their AFL Eastern Division rivals, the Miami Dolphins.
The next time a Super Bowl winner won on the field of a division rival happened almost 30 years later. In 1998, John Elway and the Denver Broncos made it to the Super Bowl after going 12-4 in the regular season and having to get though the playoffs as a Wild Card. They won all three playoff games on the road and set up a Super Bowl matchup against the Green Bay Packers from Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. They would go on to beat the Packers with Elway’s famous helicopter run late in the 3rd quarter and lifted the Lombardi Trophy on the field of their AFC West rivals, the San Diego Chargers, home field.
KC’s Sin City Super Bowl
It has happened just one other time since 1998, and that was a couple years ago when the Kansas City Chiefs won the second of a back-to-back run in Las Vegas. The Chiefs had a walkout overtime win over the the San Fransico 49ers in the newly unveiled Allegiant Stadium and celebrated their Super Bowl title on the field of AFC West rivals, the Las Vegas Raiders.
THE CHIEFS WIN THE SUPER BOWL pic.twitter.com/0YTNIiX6RU
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 12, 2024
Now the Seattle Seahawks are licking their lips to get a chance to not just win the Super Bowl, but win it in San Francisco. There has been no shortage of bad blood between the two teams over the years, and now the Seahawks have a chance to become the fourth team to win the Super Bowl on enemy grounds.
The ironic thing about the the Seahawks Super Bowl run is they had to beat the San Fransico 49ers in Levi’s Stadium in Week 18 which was a head-to-head matchup for the one seed in the NFC. The Seahawks won that game, taking the one seed, a home field and a chance for the Niners to host all of their playoff games including the Super Bowl from Levi’s Stadium. To make it sting even worse for the Niners fans, the Seahawks are a win away from winning it all on their home soil.
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