What NFL Teams Have Never Been to the Super Bowl?
Contents
As the NFL season comes to a close, we take a look at which teams have never made it to the Super Bowl.
Introduction
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The NFL is one of the four major North American professional sports leagues, the highest professional level of American football in the world.
The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL). The game is the culmination of a regular season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. Normally, Roman numerals are used to identify each game, rather than the year in which it is held. For example, Super Bowl I was played on January 15, 1967, following the 1966 regular season. The sole exception to this rule is Super Bowl 50, which was played on February 7, 2016, following the 2015 regular season. The next game, Super Bowl LII, scheduled for February 4, 2018, will follow the 2017 regular season.
The conference champions receive trophies for their accomplishment. The winners of Super Bowl XLIX (the 49th edition of the game) were able to take home not only their Lombardi Trophy signifying their status as NFL champions for that particular year but also $97,000 each in cash bonuses. In addition to earning their bonuses for being on a winning team, most players receive additional bonuses based on individual accomplishments such as being selected for the Pro Bowl or being named as a first or second-team All-Pro by various voting bodies such as the Associated Press or Pro Football Writers Association. Based on these varying factors each player could potentially earn several hundred thousand dollars in bonus money beyond their basic salary in any given year.
Arizona Cardinals
The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Cardinals were founded as the Morgan Athletic Club in 1898, and are the oldest continuously run professional football team in the United States. The Cardinals play their home games at State Farm Stadium, which opened in 2006 and is located in Glendale.
The team has made two appearances in the Super Bowl, both during the 2009 season. They lost Super Bowl XLIII to the Pittsburgh Steelers 27–23 and Super Bowl XLIV to the New Orleans Saints 31–17.
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills have never won a Super Bowl, nor have they even been to one. They did, however, make it to four straight Super Bowls from 1990-1993, but lost all four. The Bills haven’t made the playoffs since 1999 and haven’t had a winning season since 2004.
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns have never been to the Super Bowl. They have been to the playoffs 14 times, most recently in 2002.
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions have never been to the Super Bowl. The closest they’ve come was in 1991 when they lost to the Washington Redskins in the NFC Championship game.
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans have never been to the Super Bowl. The franchise was founded in 2002, and they have yet to make it to the big game.
Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional football franchise based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team plays its home games at TIAA Bank Field.
Founded in 1993, the Jaguars were created as an expansion team and joined the NFL as part of the AFC expansion that placed two additional teams in AFC South: the Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans. The Jaguars have won division championships in 1998 and 1999 (as members of the now-defunct AFC Central) and again in 2017 (as members of the AFC South). They have also qualified for the playoffs six times, most recently in 2018.
Los Angeles Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers have never been to the Super Bowl. The team has been to the playoffs 14 times and the AFC Championship game 5 times, but they have never made it to the big game.
Los Angeles Rams
The Los Angeles Rams have never been to the Super Bowl. The Rams were in Super Bowl XIV, but lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Vikings joined the National Football League (NFL) as an expansion team in 1960, and first took the field for the 1961 season. The team competes in the National Football Conference (NFC) North division.
New Orleans Saints
The New Orleans Saints join the Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions, and Houston Texans as the only teams in NFL history to have never won a Super Bowl.
New York Jets
The New York Jets have never been to the Super Bowl. They have been to the AFC Championship game three times, but have never made it to the big game.
Philadelphia Eagles
Although they’ve been around since 1933, the Philadelphia Eagles have never won a Super Bowl. They’ve been to the big game twice, but lost both times – first to the Oakland Raiders in 1980 and then to the New England Patriots in 2004.
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team located in the San Francisco Bay Area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The 49ers have not appeared in a Super Bowl since the 1995 season.
Seattle Seahawks
The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football franchise based in Seattle, Washington. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference West division. They joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team, along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Seahawks are owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and are currently coached by Pete Carroll. Since 2002, the Seahawks have played their home games at CenturyLink Field, located south of downtown Seattle. The Seahawks previously played home games in the Kingdome (1976–1999) and Husky Stadium (1994, 2000–2001).
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Although the Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined the NFL in 1976, they have yet to make an appearance in the Super Bowl. The Buccaneers made it to the Conference Championship game in 1979, 1981, 1999 and 2002, but they were unable to make it to the big game. The closest they came was in 2002 when they lost to the eventual Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots.
Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 in Houston, Texas, as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL). The Oilers won the first two AFL Championships, and joined the NFL as part of the AFL–NFL merger in 1970.
The team relocated from Houston to Tennessee in 1997, and played at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis for one season. The club moved to Nashville in 1998 and played in Vanderbilt Stadium. For those two years, the team was known as the “Tennessee Oilers”, but changed its name to “Tennessee Titans” for the 1999 season. The team currently plays at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, which opened in 1999 as Adelphia Coliseum. The Titans’ training facility is at Saint Thomas Sports Park, a 31-acre site at 455 Great Circle Road northwest of Downtown Nashville.
Washington Redskins
The Washington Redskins have never been to the Super Bowl.
