I am getting so tired of all the hype spewing from the mouths of 49er fans and just about everyone else. They claim to be the best team on the planet, even though they lost the last Super Bowl. They claim to have the best roster God has ever seen, and that they will cruise through the regular season, post season, and win the next Super Bowl.
Nay I say... and here is why:
Reason # 1: The Losers Curse
In the Super Bowl era two teams have lost the Super Bowl, and then won it the following season. The first was the Dallas Cowboys, who lost Super Bowl V to the Baltimore Colts, but came back in 1971 and defeated the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI. The Dolphins repeated the feat in 1972 when they rallied to go a perfect 17-0, capping the season with a win over the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII. That’s right….2 teams out of all those Super Bowls…..and you think you can do it?..... Please give us a break.
In fact both the Ravens and the 49ers can expect to have worse seasons this year. History says the odds are agin-ya! So just take it like a man and shut it!
Team | Before | After | |
SB # | Record | Record | |
23 | 12-4 | 8-8 | |
24 | 11-5 | 5-11 | |
28 | 12-4 | 7-9 | |
33 | 14-2 | 5-11 | |
35 | 12-4 | 7-9 | |
36 | 14-2 | 4-9 | |
37 | 11-5 | 4-12 | |
38 | 11-5 | 7-9 | |
39 | 13-3 | 6-10 | |
41 | 13-3 | 7-9 |
Sure there are a few exceptions where they at least tied the previous season’s record:
Exception | SB | Record | Record |
Bills | 25 | 13-3 | 13-3 |
29 | 11-5 | 11-5 | |
34 | 13-3 | 13-3 | |
43 | 9-7 | 10-6 |
Reason #2: The Non-Repeat Curse
Sorry Ravens, it looks like you won’t make it back to the Super Bowl either!
This type of the curse has affected defending Super Bowl Champions since 2005. Only seven teams have ever made back-to-back visits to the Super Bowl. Considering the difficulty of winning one Super Bowl in a 32-team league, some wouldn't consider this to be a curse, but rather a difficult feat.
Reason #3: The Host Curse
Okay this one is not for the 49ers but it affects the Saints so I thought I’d throw it in here too.
The last Super Bowl host to make the playoffs is the 2000 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Since then, the hosts of the next 12 Super Bowls have failed to make the playoffs.
From 1966-2011, excluding the 6 Super Bowls held in a stadium without a professional team, the Super Bowl host team had a record of 249-364-2. In those 40 years, the host teams had 11 winning seasons, 4 split seasons, and 25 losing seasons. Mathematically, the probability of that many losing seasons or more occurring by chance (given the variable length of NFL regular seasons and assuming a long-term average probability of winning any one game of .5) is 0.35%. The probability of the combined win/loss record is 0.0002%.
Sorry New Orleans, it doesn’t look like you will be going to the playoffs this year.