the last time the home team played in the super bowl was 1985.
the last time the home team played in the super bowl was 1985.
when was the last time the home team played in the super bowl?
1985
no team has ever played the super bowl in its home stadium. the closest any team has come was the 2017 minnesota vikings, who were within one win of playing super bowl lii in u.s. bank stadium, but lost the nfc championship game to the philadelphia eagles. in that instance, u.s. bank stadium became the first super bowl host stadium (selected on may 20, 2014) to also host a divisional playoff game in the same season (which the vikings won; all previous times that the super bowl host stadium hosted another playoff game in the same postseason were all wild card games. two teams have played the super bowl in their home market: the san francisco 49ers, who played super bowl xix in stanford stadium instead of candlestick park; and the los angeles rams, who played super bowl xiv in the rose bowl instead of the los angeles memorial coliseum. in both cases, the stadium in which the super bowl was held was perceived to be a better stadium for a large, high-profile event than the stadiums the rams and 49ers were playing in at the time. this situation has not arisen since 1993, in part because the league has given preference in awarding the super bowl to brand-new or recently renovated stadiums, alongside a trend of teams demanding public money or relocating to play in new stadiums. besides those two, the only other super bowl venue that was not the home stadium to an nfl team at the time was rice stadium in houston: the houston oilers had played there previously, but moved to the astrodome several years prior to super bowl viii. the orange bowl was the only afl stadium to host a super bowl and the only stadium to host consecutive super bowls, hosting super bowls ii and iii.
super bowl
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