What NFL Wild Card Team Won the Super Bowl?
The NFL Wild Card Team that won the Super Bowl was the New England Patriots.
Introduction
In the National Football League (NFL), the Wild Card Round is the first round of the playoffs. Unlike the other three rounds, in which four teams from each conference play each other in two games, only two teams from each conference play in the Wild Card Round. The winners of these games then advance to the Divisional Round to play the first-seeded team from their conference.
The NFL Wild Card Teams
The National Football League (NFL) playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Wild Card Weekend is the first round of the playoffs. The four teams with the best record in each conference play each other in the Wild Card round. The winners of those games advance to Divisional Playoff weekend, where they play the first-seeded team from their conference. The winners of those games advance to the Conference Championships, and then finally the Super Bowl.
In order for a team to even make it to Wild Card Weekend, they must have a winning record. A team’s winning percentage is calculated by dividing their number of wins by their number of games played (including ties). For example, if a team has an 8-8 record, their winning percentage would be .500. In order for a team to be eligible for the playoffs, they must have a winning percentage of .500 or better.
The four teams with the best record in each conference make it to Wild Card Weekend. The seeding is based on each team’s record, with the team with the best record being seeded first, and so on. The seedings are as follows:
1st seed: Team with best record
2nd seed: Team with second-best record
3rd seed: Team with third-best record
4th seed: Team with fourth-best record
The Super Bowl
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 year. Normally, Roman numerals are used to identify each game, rather than the year in which it is held. For example, Super Bowl XLVII was played at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 3, 2013, following the 2012 regular season. The game was won by the Baltimore Ravens 34-31 over the San Francisco 49ers.
The Results
In the past 28 years, since the NFL increased the number of Wild Card teams from two to four in 1990, only eight Wild Card teams have gone on to win the Super Bowl. The most recent team to do so was the Denver Broncos, who won Super Bowl 50 following the 2015 season.
Of those eight teams, five have been from the AFC and three from the NFC. The Broncos (XLL), Pittsburgh Steelers (XL), New York Giants (XLII), Green Bay Packers (XLV), and Baltimore Ravens (XLVII) have all done it from the AFC, while the NFC has seen the Dallas Cowboys (XXVII), San Francisco 49ers (XXIX), and Seattle Seahawks (XLVIII) win a title after starting their postseason as a Wild Card team.
Conclusion
From this analysis, it can be concluded that NFL Wild Card teams have a significantly higher chance of winning the Super Bowl than teams that did not make the playoffs.
