About nine years ago I stumbled upon something odd… the team that wore white kept winning the Super Bowl every year. I immediately wrote a story calling the Green Bay Packers fools for opting to wear their home green jerseys, didn’t they know there was some dark jersey curse???
Of course, as curse law goes, the Packers won that year ending the streak, thus making me the fool.
So what happened next? Well, a curse is a curse, after all. Since that game, there have been eight Super Bowls, and in those eight Super Bowls, the team wearing white has won SEVEN times.
The dark uniform curse dates back to Super Bowl XXXIX when the New England Patriots wearing white beat the Philadelphia Eagles in that sorta-greenish uniform they wear, with the Pats winning it that year it ended a three-game losing streak for the teams wearing white.
The next year, in Super Bowl XL the Steelers had the first choice and instead of wearing their darks they chose white, as a wildcard team they had worn it already all throughout the AFC playoffs and it seemed to have brought them luck. The Seahawks were forced to wear blue, green, grey, teal… “Seahawk Blue”. Anyways, the Steelers won.
In Super Bowl XLI the Colts, as the “road” team won their first Super Bowl since their days in Baltimore, they were wearing white against Chicago in blue.
Super Bowl XLII saw the Pats who started the white uniform streak return to the big game. For some silly reason they chose to wear blue, and their dreams of an undefeated season were history, the New York Giants won it in white.
At Super Bowl XLIII the Arizona Cardinals of all teams made it to the championship. They were just happy to be there so they chose red, and yes, they lost to the Steelers who again won in white.
Super Bowl XLIV brought New Orleans their first and only Super Bowl championship, the Colts chose blue, the Colts chose a loss. New Orleans wins in white bringing the streak to six in a row.
Here’s where I started to muck things up, Super Bowl XLV was held just a few days after I launched the news section of this site. Looking to drop a bombshell, I revealed the white jersey pattern. Now everyone talks about it every year. I’m sorry. Anyways, Green Bay chose green, Pittsburgh was in their whites (which had worked for them twice already during this run) and naturally, the Packers won. Good job everyone.
At Super Bowl XLVI the Giants and Patriots were again facing each other, again the Pats chose blue, again the Pats lost. Giants win!
For Super Bowl XLVII the San Francisco 49ers opted to go with their home reds… what could go wrong? Well, they lost of course. Baltimore wins it in white.
The Denver Broncos chose orange at Super Bowl XLVIII which was doubly bad, the Broncos had already been smoked while wearing orange at the Super Bowl three times prior. You’ll never guess what happened, they got smoked. Seattle wins their first Super Bowl, and they did it wearing white.
By this point you’d think teams would learn, but at Super Bowl XLIX the Seattle Seahawks returned and with the jersey choice they picked… blue! And they lost. New England wins their first Super Bowl in ten years ending a two game losing streak (during which they wore blue both times)
So now’s when teams started to get wise to this whole thing. At Super Bowl 50 the Denver Broncos returned, the coverage of the white uniform curse was getting annoying, not to mention their own orange jersey problems. Denver chose to wear white forcing the Carolina Panthers to wear black. Denver won. Strategy folks.
But at Super Bowl LI the Atlanta Falcons were just so surprised they were at the game they completely forgot about the streak, they chose red against the Patriots white and well, you all know what happens next. New England wins, that’s six in a row for white uniforms and a record of 12-1 over the last thirteen years.
New England returned in Super Bowl LII and with the first option of choosing the uniform colours, they wisely went with what worked, they chose white forcing the Eagles to wear green. It was in this game we discovered the Super Bowl white uniform weakness – green. Philadelphia won ending the streak and this would be the last time a team would choose to wear white at a Super Bowl. The fools.
Super Bowl LIII last year brought the Patriots back but the Los Angeles Rams had the choice of uniform and picked their retro blues. It sure looked pretty but it didn’t help them much, they managed only a field goal and lost.
From Super Bowl XXXIX through Super Bowl LIII, a span of 15 games, white uniforms had an incredible record of 13-2, those only two losses against teams wearing green. You might be thinking “big deal, teams go 13-2 all the time in the NFL”, yes, sure, fine, but do those teams go 13-2 when they’re exclusively playing that season’s conference champion? Of course not, that would be crazy! I mean, what kind of schedule would that be?
Take a look, here’s all fifteen games, who wore what, and the scores of each (the jersey numbers, yes, clever)
This year the Kansas City Chiefs chose to wear red, the 49ers are in white. There’s no green jersey this year. If the Chiefs win, it might be the end of this silly story we like to trot out every year… but if they don’t I get to CTRL+C, CTRL+V this baby for Super Bowl LV. Content!
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