NFL: 5 reasons Seattle Seahawks won’t repeat
By Phil Watson
Once upon a time in the National Football League, repeating as Super Bowl champions was almost commonplace.
The first Super Bowl champs, the Green Bay Packers, became the second Super Bowl champs.
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Over the first 24 (or should I say XXIV?) Super Bowls there were five repeat champions—the Packers (I & II), the Miami Dolphins (VII & VIII), the Pittsburgh Steelers (IX & X), the Steelers again (XIII & XIV) and the San Francisco 49ers (XXIII & XXIV).
The Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos later joined the repeaters club and the New England Patriots accomplished the feat by winning Super Bowls XXXVIII and XXXIX.
But it’s been a decade since the 2004 Patriots repeated and winning the Super Bowl has become almost a curse.
To wit, the last nine Super Bowl champions and how they fared the year after:
- 2005 New England Patriots: 10-6, won AFC East, won wild card playoff, lost divisional playoff
- 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers, 8-8, missed playoffs
- 2007 Indianapolis Colts, 13-3, won AFC South, lost divisional playoff
- 2008 New York Giants 12-4, won NFC East, lost divisional playoff
- 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers, 9-7, missed playoffs
- 2010 New Orleans Saints, 11-5, lost wild card playoff
- 2011 Green Bay Packers, 15-1, won NFC North, lost divisional playoff
- 2012 New York Giants, 9-7, missed playoffs
- 2013 Baltimore Ravens, 8-8, missed playoffs
The final tally is dismal—almost half (four) didn’t even get back into the playoffs and the five teams that did get back to the postseason were a combined 1-5.
That hasn’t stopped VegasInsider.com and Bovada.lv from making the Seattle Seahawks a 7/1 shot to repeat as Super Bowl champions. Their odds are second-best on the board, just behind the 13/2 odds given to the Denver Broncos, the team the Seahawks ran over like a speed bump en route to winning the big game at the end in February.
So will the Seahawks break the Super Bowl champions hangover curse?
Here are five reasons why they won’t: