What NFL Wild Card Teams Have Won the Super Bowl?

The NFL Wild Card teams have a long and successful history of winning the Super Bowl. Here’s a look at some of the most successful teams.

Introduction

In the National Football League (NFL), a wild card team is a club that did not win its divisional championship, but yet qualified for the playoffs. Wild card teams compete against each other in the Wild Card round. Since 1975, when the NFL expanded its playoffs to include four divisions within each conference, eight teams have qualified for the postseason as wild card teams, but only six of those teams have gone on to win the Super Bowl.

What NFL Wild Card Teams Have Won the Super Bowl?

There have been 11 NFL teams that have won the Super Bowl after being a Wild Card team. These teams are the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Green Bay Packers, the New York Giants, the Baltimore Ravens, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the New England Patriots, the Los Angeles Rams, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New Orleans Saints, the Seattle Seahawks, and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Green Bay Packers

The Green Bay Packers have won the Super Bowl four times as a wild card team. They won Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II as the NFL Champions and then again in 1996 and 2010 as a wild card team.

New York Giants

The New York Giants have been one of the most successful NFL teams in recent memory, winning the Super Bowl in both 2007 and 2011. In both cases, they entered the playoffs as a wild card team, proving that it is possible for teams that don’t have the best record to still Win the big game.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Since the NFL expanded to a 12-team playoff format in 1990, only eight Wild Card teams have gone on to win the Super Bowl. The most recent team to do so were the Pittsburgh Steelers, who defeated the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII.

Here is a complete list of all eight Wild Card teams to win the Super Bowl:

-1990: New York Giants (defeated Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV)
-1991: Washington Redskins (defeated Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI)
-1993: Dallas Cowboys (defeated Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVII)
-1997: Denver Broncos (defeated Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII)
-2000: Baltimore Ravens (defeated New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV)
-2002: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (defeated Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII)
-2005: Pittsburgh Steelers (defeated Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL)
-2007: New York Giants (defeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII)

Baltimore Ravens

In the history of the NFL, there have been six teams that have won the Super Bowl as a Wild Card team. The first team to do so was the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VII. They were followed by the Denver Broncos (XXXII), Baltimore Ravens (XXXV), Pittsburgh Steelers (XL), New York Giants (XLII), and Green Bay Packers (XLV). Of these teams, the Ravens are the only team to have won more than one Super Bowl as a Wild Card team.

Conclusion

Since the playoff system was expanded in 1978, there have been 37 NFL teams that have qualified for the playoffs as a Wild Card team. Of those 37 teams, only 8 have gone on to win the Super Bowl. That’s a 21.6% success rate for Wild Card teams, which is actually not too shabby.

The most recent team to do it was the 2012 Baltimore Ravens, who were 10-6 in the regular season and went on to defeat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.

The 8 NFL teams that have won the Super Bowl as a Wild Card team are:
-1979 Pittsburgh Steelers
-1980 Oakland Raiders
-1982 Washington Redskins
-1991 New York Giants
-1997 Denver Broncos
-2000 Baltimore Ravens
-2005 Pittsburgh Steelers
-2012 Baltimore Ravens