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List of Super Bowl champions

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List of Super Bowl champions

The Super Bowl is an annual American football game that determines the champion of the National Football League (NFL). The game culminates a season that begins in the previous calendar year, and is the conclusion of the NFL playoffs. The contest is held in an American city, chosen three to four years beforehand, usually at warm-weather sites or domed stadiums. Since January 1971, the winner of the American Football Conference (AFC) Championship Game has faced the winner of the National Football Conference (NFC) Championship Game in the culmination of the NFL playoffs.

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Before the 1970 merger between the American Football League (AFL) and the National Football League (NFL), the two leagues met in four such contests. The first two were known as the "AFL–NFL World Championship Game". Super Bowl III in January 1969 was the first such game that carried the "Super Bowl" moniker, the names "Super Bowl I" and "Super Bowl II" were only retroactively applied to the first two games. The NFC/NFL leads in Super Bowl wins with 26, while the AFC/AFL has won 25. Nineteen different franchises, including teams that relocated to another city, have won the Super Bowl.

The Pittsburgh Steelers (6–2) have won the most Super Bowls with six championships, while the New England Patriots (5-4), the Dallas Cowboys (5–3), and the San Francisco 49ers (5–1) have five wins. New England has the most Super Bowl appearances with nine, while the Buffalo Bills (0–4) have the most consecutive appearances with four losses in a row from 1990 to 1993. The Miami Dolphins are the only other team to have at least three consecutive appearances: 1972–74. The Denver Broncos (3–5) have lost a record five Super Bowls. The New England Patriots (5–4), the Minnesota Vikings (0–4), and the Bills have lost four. The record for consecutive wins is two and is shared by seven franchises: the 1966–67 Green Bay Packers, the 1972–73 Miami Dolphins, the 1974–75 and 1978–79 Pittsburgh Steelers (the only team to accomplish this feat twice), the 1988–89 San Francisco 49ers, the 1992–93 Dallas Cowboys, the 1997–98 Denver Broncos, and the 2003–04 New England Patriots. Among those, Dallas (1992–93; 1995) and New England (2001; 2003–04) are the only teams to win three out of four consecutive Super Bowls. The 1972 Dolphins' win is the only perfect season in NFL history. The only team with multiple Super Bowl appearances and no losses is the Baltimore Ravens, who in winning Super Bowl XLVII defeated and replaced the 49ers in that position. Four current NFL teams have never appeared in a Super Bowl, including franchise relocations and renaming: the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Houston Texans, though both the Browns (1964) and Lions (1957) had won NFL championship games prior to the creation of the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl Championship (1966–present)

Numbers in parentheses in the table are Super Bowl appearances as of the date of that Super Bowl and are used as follows:

  • Winning team and losing team columns indicate the number of times that team has appeared in a Super Bowl as well as each respective teams' Super Bowl record to date.
  • Venue column indicates number of times that stadium has hosted a Super Bowl.
  • City column indicates number of times that that metropolitan area has hosted a Super Bowl.
  • Consecutive winners

    Seven different franchises have won consecutive Super Bowls, one of which has accomplished it twice:

  • Green Bay Packers (Super Bowls I and II)
  • Miami Dolphins (VII and VIII)
  • Pittsburgh Steelers (twice: IX and X as well as XIII and XIV)
  • San Francisco 49ers (XXIII and XXIV)
  • Dallas Cowboys (XXVII and XXVIII)
  • Denver Broncos (XXXII and XXXIII)
  • New England Patriots (XXXVIII and XXXIX)
  • No franchise has yet won three Super Bowls in a row, although several have come close:

  • The Green Bay Packers won the first two Super Bowls, and also won the NFL championship the preceding year.
  • The Miami Dolphins appeared in three consecutive Super Bowls (VI, VII, and VIII), winning the last two.
  • The Pittsburgh Steelers won two consecutive Super Bowls (IX and X); the following season they were eliminated in the AFC championship game by the eventual Super Bowl champion Oakland Raiders.
  • The San Francisco 49ers won two consecutive Super Bowls (XXIII and XXIV); the following season they were eliminated in the NFC championship by the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants.
  • The Dallas Cowboys won two consecutive Super Bowls (XXVII and XXVIII); the following season they were eliminated in the NFC championship game by the eventual champion San Francisco 49ers. The Cowboys won Super Bowl XXX the following year for three wins in four seasons.
  • Super Bowl appearances by team

    In the sortable table below, teams are ordered first by number of appearances, then by number of wins, and finally by season of first appearance. In the "Season(s)" column, bold years indicate winning seasons, and italic years indicate games not yet completed.

    Teams with no Super Bowl appearances

    Four current teams have never reached the Super Bowl. Two of them held NFL league championships prior to Super Bowl I in the 1966 NFL season:

  • Detroit Lions, NFL champions four times in 1935, 1952, 1953, and 1957; appeared in one other NFL Championship Game in 1954; and appeared in one NFC Championship Game in 1991
  • Cleveland Browns, NFL champions four times in 1950, 1954, 1955, and 1964; appeared in seven other NFL championship games in 1951, 1952, 1953, 1957, 1965, 1968, and 1969; and appeared in three AFC Championship Games in 1986, 1987, and 1989 The Browns are officially viewed as one continuous franchise that began in 1946 as a member of the All-America Football Conference, joined the NFL in 1950, suspended operations from 1996–1998, and resumed play in 1999. The Baltimore Ravens were an expansion team created in 1996 with former Browns players.
  • Jacksonville Jaguars, 1995 expansion team; appeared in two AFC Championship Games in 1996 and 1999
  • Houston Texans, 2002 expansion team; Divisional Round appearances in 2011, 2012, and 2016 seasons.
  • In addition, Detroit, Houston and Jacksonville have hosted Super Bowls; this means Cleveland is the only current NFL city that has neither hosted, nor had its team play in, a Super Bowl.

    Teams with Super Bowl appearances but no victories

    Nine teams have appeared in the Super Bowl without ever winning. In descending order of number of appearances, they are:

  • Buffalo Bills (4), appeared in Super Bowls XXV, XXVI, XXVII, and XXVIII. Their second and last AFL championship was in 1965, the season before the first Super Bowl.
  • Minnesota Vikings (4), appeared in Super Bowls IV, VIII, IX, and XI. They won the NFL Championship Game in 1969, the last year before the AFL–NFL merger, but failed to win the subsequent Super Bowl.
  • Cincinnati Bengals (2), appeared in Super Bowls XVI and XXIII. An AFL expansion team in 1968, they have no pre-Super Bowl league championships.
  • Philadelphia Eagles (2), appeared in Super Bowls XV and XXXIX. Their last championship was in 1960.
  • Atlanta Falcons (2), appeared in Super Bowls XXXIII and LI. An expansion team in 1966, they have no pre-Super Bowl league championships.
  • Carolina Panthers (2), appeared in Super Bowls XXXVIII and 50. A post-merger expansion team, their first season was in 1995.
  • Arizona Cardinals (1), appeared in Super Bowl XLIII. Their last championship was in 1947 as the Chicago Cardinals.
  • San Diego Chargers (1), appeared in Super Bowl XXIX. Their only AFL championship was in 1963.
  • Tennessee Titans (1), appeared in Super Bowl XXXIV. Their second and last AFL championship was in 1961 as the Houston Oilers.
  • Teams with long Super Bowl droughts

    The following eight teams have appeared in the Super Bowl, but not since 1995, meaning their droughts are longer than Jacksonville's and Houston's.

    Two of these teams have not appeared in the Super Bowl since the AFL–NFL merger in 1970:

  • New York Jets (most recently appeared in Super Bowl III, 1968 season)
  • Kansas City Chiefs (Super Bowl IV in 1969 season)
  • The most recent Super Bowl appearance for the following teams was after the AFL–NFL merger, but prior to the 1995 regular season:

  • Minnesota Vikings (Super Bowl XI, 1976 season)
  • Miami Dolphins (Super Bowl XIX, 1984 season)
  • Cincinnati Bengals (Super Bowl XXIII, 1988 season)
  • Washington Redskins (Super Bowl XXVI, 1991 season)
  • Buffalo Bills (Super Bowl XXVIII, 1993 season)
  • San Diego Chargers (Super Bowl XXIX, 1994 season)
  • Super Bowl rematches

    The following teams have faced each other more than once in the Super Bowl:

  • Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers (3) – Super Bowls X and XIII were won by Pittsburgh, and Super Bowl XXX was won by Dallas. See also Cowboys–Steelers rivalry.
  • Miami Dolphins and Washington Redskins (2) – Super Bowl VII was won by Miami, and Super Bowl XVII was won by Washington.
  • Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers (2) – Super Bowls XVI and XXIII were both won by San Francisco.
  • Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys (2) – Super Bowls XXVII and XXVIII, the only rematch in consecutive seasons, were both won by Dallas.
  • New England Patriots and New York Giants (2) – Super Bowls XLII and XLVI were both won by New York.
  • References

    List of Super Bowl champions Wikipedia