Wild Card teams that went on to win the Super Bowl
The Los Angeles Rams lost their Monday Night game against the Falcons in Atlanta which means they lost out on their chance for the five seed in the NFC.
The playoff picture is getting clearer and clearer heading into the final week of the season. The Los Angeles Rams lost to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night which basically sealed their fate for the sixth seed in the NFC, which got us thinking how many Wild Cards have gone on to win the Super Bowl in the history of the NFL?
LA has to take the tough road
The Rams path to the Super Bowl got a little tougher after their loss to the Falcons in Atlanta on Monday night. If they had won their final two games of the season they were on track to get the five seed in the NFC which would have set them up with a match up against the winner of the Tampa Bay - Carolina game on Sunday.
While the game would still be on the road, neither Carolina nor Tampa Bay are looking like teams that opponents are going to be scared to play. Instead of the “easier” matchup of the Wild Card round, the Rams are going to have to get through the Bears in Chicago or the Eagles in Philly.
Meanwhile the loser of the San Francisco and Seattle game will get the five seed in the NFC and face the NFC South winner while the winner of that game in the Bay will earn the one seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Tough but not impossible
While entering the postseason as a Wild Card isn’t exactly ideal, it doesn’t mean that your playoff fate is sealed. Sure, you play higher seeded teams and have to go on the road for every game, but it’s not impossible. Just ask the 2020 Tampa Bay Bucs who were the last team to win the Super Bowl as a Wild Card as Tom Brady took the team on his back and carried them to the podium on Super Sunday.
You don’t need Tom Brady to win the title as a Wild Card, although it never hurts. The Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers did it in 2010 to become the fourth team in a decade to win the Super Bowl as a Wild Card. The Baltimore Ravens in 2000, the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005 and the New York Giants in 2005 all won the Super Bowl as Wild Cards in what was a crazy decade to bring in the new millennium.
Before 2000, there were only two teams to ever lift the Lombardi Trophy as Wild Cards. The first team to do it was the Oakland Raiders in 1980 when they beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27-10 in Super Bowl XV. The second team to do it came 17 years later when John Elway led the Denver Broncos to the Super Sunday in 1997 and ended up beating the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII.
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