TODAY’S SPORTSTAT — History isn’t on Eagles’ side for Super Bowl
By JERRY TAPP
Will the third time be the charm for the Philadelphia Eagles?
If history has anything to say about their chances in their third attempt to win a Super Bowl, the answer is “No.”
The Eagles are 0-2 in Super Bowl contests; they lost to Oakland in Super Bowl XV, 27-10 on January 25, 1981, and were beaten by the New England Patriots 24-21 in Super Bowl XXXIX on February 6, 2005. With their appearance in Super Bowl LII, the Eagles become the 16th NFL franchise to play in three or more Super Bowls.
Of the other 15 franchises that have played in three or more Super Bowls, seven won their third appearance in the big game and eight lost their third Super Bowl game.
What’s even more telling is that four teams went into their third Super Bowl game having lost the previous two: Buffalo, Denver, Minnesota and New England. Of these four teams, the Patriots are the only team in NFL history to lose their first two Super Bowl games and then win their third one. New England lost their first Super Bowl to the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX (1986) and then lost Super Bowl XXXI to the Green Bay Packers 11 years later. They finally won their first Super Bowl in Super Bowl XXXVI against the St. Louis Rams (on February 2, 2002) on their third try. It was current New England coach Bill Belichick’s first Super Bowl as head coach of the Patriots.
Following is a look at how each of the 15 franchises that have played in three or more Super Bowls did in their third Super Bowl appearance.
Won first two Super Bowl appearances, won third one
Green Bay, Pittsburgh and San Francisco
Won first two Super Bowl appearances, lost third one
New York Giants
Won one and lost one in their first two Super Bowl appearances, won third one
Colts, Miami, Raiders
Won one and lost one in their first two Super Bowl appearances, lost third one
Dallas, Rams, Seattle, Washington
Lost first two Super Bowl appearances, won third one
New England
Lost first two Super Bowl appearances, lost third one
Buffalo, Denver, Minnesota
How will the Eagles do in their third Super Bowl contest?
Jerry Tapp
Jerry Tapp is a freelance writer from Racine, WI with a major concentration on sports statistics and numbers that define sports teams and players. He began his foray into sports stats-focused writing as a regular contributor to the “Numbers” column in Inside Sports magazine in the mid-1980’s and then began writing a weekly “Stats on Tapp” column for the Racine Journal Times. That column was eventually nationally syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate. He later wrote sports stats items for the Washington Post under the “Stat of the Day” heading. After launching his blog, www.statsontapp.com in 2011, Jerry turned his sports stats attention to sports websites. He wrote regularly for Bleacher Report, BallHyped, football.com and Heavy.com. Today he keeps busy writing weekly columns of stats-centric articles for three sports websites, Today’s Pigskin (NFL), Today’s Knuckleball (MLB) and Today’s Fastbreak (NBA), and as a monthly contributor to the Milwaukee Brewers “GameDay” publication that is distributed to fans attending games at Miller Park.