the patriots are considered the home team for super bowl 52.
the patriots are considered the home team for super bowl 52.
who is considered the home team for super bowl 52?
the patriots
since super bowl xiii in january 1979, the home team is given the choice of wearing their colored or white jerseys. originally, the designated home team had to wear their colored jerseys, which resulted in dallas donning their less exposed dark blue jerseys for super bowl v. while most of the home teams in the super bowl have chosen to wear their colored jerseys, there have been six (6) exceptions: the dallas cowboys during super bowl xiii and xxvii, the washington redskins during super bowl xvii, the pittsburgh steelers during super bowl xl, the denver broncos during super bowl 50, and the new england patriots in super bowl lii. the cowboys, since , have worn white jerseys at home. the redskins wore white at home under coach joe gibbs starting in through , continued by richie petitbon and norv turner through , then again when gibbs returned from through . meanwhile, the steelers, who have always worn their black jerseys at home since the afl–nfl merger in , opted for the white jerseys after winning three consecutive playoff games on the road, wearing white. the steelers' decision was compared with the new england patriots in super bowl xx; the patriots had worn white jerseys at home during the season, but after winning road playoff games against the new york jets and miami dolphins wearing red jerseys, new england opted to switch to crimson for the super bowl as the designated home team. for the broncos in super bowl 50, denver general manager john elway simply stated, "we've had super bowl success in our white uniforms"; they previously had been in super bowls when wearing their orange jerseys. the broncos' decision is also perceived to be made out of superstition, losing all super bowl games with the orange jerseys in terrible fashion. it is unclear why the patriots chose to wear their white jerseys for super bowl lii. during the pairing of bill belichick and tom brady, new england has mostly worn their blue jerseys for home games, but have worn white for a home game in the , , and seasons. the new england patriots were 3–0 in their white uniforms in super bowls prior to super bowl lii with belichick and brady, and they may have been going on recent trends of teams who wear white for the super bowl game. white-shirted teams have won 33 of 52 super bowls to date (63%). the only teams to win in their dark-colored uniform in more recent years are the green bay packers against the pittsburgh steelers in super bowl xlv and the philadelphia eagles against the new england patriots in super bowl lii, with teams in white winning 12 of the last 14 super bowls.
super bowl
because of the team's unofficial policy of always wearing their black jerseys in home games, the team gained some notoriety when, as the designated "home" team for super bowl xl, the team elected to wear their white jerseys, becoming just the third nfl team to elect to wear white as the "home" team in the super bowl (denver would later elect to wear white as the home team in super bowl 50 and new england would elect to wear white as the home team in super bowl lii). but while the other two teams that have elected to wear white as the "home" team in the super bowl (dallas in super bowl xiii and super bowl xxvii, and washington in super bowl xvii) traditionally wear white at home, a variety of reasons were rumored as to why the steelers elected to wear white in super bowl xl. reasons included the fact that the team wore white in all three playoff victories that year (all on the road) to former head coach bill cowher's comments that since it wasn't at heinz field, it was a road game (a statement contradicted by the fact that ten years earlier in super bowl xxx, cowher's squad was the "home team" and chose to wear their black jerseys away from three rivers stadium, where they had played both playoff games–and did so against the cowboys, whose opponents will often wear white at home simply to force them to use their "unlucky" blue jerseys). the game took place in detroit, which is only a five-hour drive from pittsburgh and with the league preferring to have the super bowl in subtropical or mediterranean climates or in domed/retractable roof stadiums due to the winter weather, is likely the closest the steelers would have to a home game in a super bowl in the foreseeable future. (not surprisingly, there were also an overwhelming number of steelers fans at the game compared to the number of supporters of their opponent, the seattle seahawks. one espn.com columnist suggested that steelers fans outnumbered seahawks fans by a ratio of 25 to 1.) having been the cowboys' opponent in xiii, the steelers are the only team to have worn both white jerseys for a "home" super bowl and colored jerseys for an "away" one.
logos and uniforms of the pittsburgh steelers