In case you haven’t noticed, the San Francisco 49ers are a mess. The team was already sliding after a shockingly poor 2014 campaign, but then defensive stalwart Patrick Willis retired, as did rising star Chris Borland. Top free agent Mike Iupati skipped town, as did head coach Jim Harbaugh. Frank Gore is gone and there are legitimate questions about the quarterback position.
With the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals already of playoff caliber and getting better, it doesn’t bode well for San Francisco’s chances to getting back to the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl.
Which means that despite the fact things were looking promising when the Bay Area was awarded the Super Bowl two years ago (the Niners were coming off a Super Bowl appearance at the time), it looks as though we’ll go at least another year without a team hosting a Super Bowl in its own stadium.
Make that 50 in a row.
Weird how it works. The Super Bowl was in New York two years after the Giants won it all, but Big Blue wasn’t even close. It was in New Orleans three years after the Saints won a championship, but that was the one year the Saints didn’t make the playoffs in a five-year span. The Cardinals made the big game a year after it was held in Arizona in 2008, and the Buccaneers won a Super Bowl two years after it was held at Raymond James Stadium earlier this century. The Georgia Dome hosted the game one year after Atlanta lost a Super Bowl in 1999.
There have been some borderline home games. For instance, the 49ers beat the Dolphins at Stanford University in Super Bowl XIX in 1985. And the Los Angeles Rams lost to the Steelers at the Rose Bowl in Super Bowl XIV in 1980. But while those games both took place within the same territory of teams competing, neither were played in their home stadiums.
What are the odds the curse is finally lifted beyond this season? Super Bowl 51 is slated to be played in Houston, which isn’t too promising, while the next game will go down in Minneapolis, which doesn’t sound much better. Then again, a lot can change in a short amount of time in this league.
