Starting in 1978, when the NFL expanded to a 16-game regular season, the NFL adopted a 2-team wild card strategy for the playoffs where those two teams would then face off in the first weekend of postseason play. Then in 1990 each league— the AFC and NFC— added one more wild card team to the playoff picture.
Much like the original installment of the two-team wild card, the three-team wild card only lasted 12 years until 2002. In 2002 the NFL expanded to 32 teams and realigned them into eight four-division teams. This expansion led the league to return to 2 wild card teams to go along with the four division winners, meaning six teams from each conference would be eligible to play in the postseason.
The original concept of a wild card in the NFL started in 1970 and only had one team in it until the expansion to two teams starting in 1978. Since its installment the wildcard teams have played an important role in increasing interest in the playoffs and driving the best competition possible into playing for the Lombardi Trophy.
Now, 50 years after the original installment of the wild card, we can truly see how the addition of this system has changed the landscape of the teams fighting for a chance to win the Super Bowl.
In the past 50 seasons in the league, the Lombardi trophy has been won by a wild card team six of those times (12%). Four of those six times has the wild card team played all of their games on the road to end up winning the trophy, and wild card teams have combined for a total of 10 appearances in the biggest game of the year. Never have two wild card teams met in the final game of the season to determine the champion.
The first time a wild card winner made it to the Super Bowl game was in 1975 when the 10-4, 2nd place Dallas Cowboys went on to play the historic “Steel Curtain” Pittsburgh Steelers, they would lose the game 21-17. The next wild card team to make it to the Super Bowl was a team that made history while doing it. The 1980 Oakland Raiders not only made it to the Super Bowl where they would face the Philadelphia Eagles, but they would be the first wild card team to win the trophy, with a final score of 27-10.
In the 20th century, wild card teams did not have the greatest track record of winning the Super Bowl if they even managed to make it that far. Before the turn of the century the wild card teams who managed to make it combined for a Super Bowl record of 2-4 (.3333).
Since 2000 the wild card teams have fared much better when and if they were in the Super Bowl, combining for a record of 4-0: 2000 Ravens, 2005 Steelers, 2007 Giants, and 2010 Packers.
It is not all that often that a wild card team does end up making it to the Super Bowl, but when they do everyone should be scared (fans).
The best teams do not always make it to the championship game, instead it is a mix of the least injured team, the lucky team, and the hot team. This is why wild card teams are exactly that, a wild card, you don’t know what you will get out of them in any given week.
Most wild card teams are teams who have gotten hot at the right time to help them make a deep playoff push. Very rarely do you see a team that had everything going for it through the first 10 games fizzle out to only make a wild card spot, and if you do, those are not the teams you need to look out for.
Instead, you have to watch for the teams that have some sort of combination of injuries, luck, and timing. These will be your most dangerous wild card teams and will turn out to be the teams that will make it to the final game or stand in the way of your team making it to the final game.
We have not seen a wild card team make it to the Super Bowl since the 2010 Green Bay Packers, where they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, but if history tells us anything it tells us that we should be expecting it soon.
The NFL season is only in week 14 and there are still three weeks remaining in the season, so we can see a plethora of changes to the playoff standings before then, but the biggest area of concern for any team who thinks it will be an easy ride to the Super Bowl is the wild card teams.
Any team who ends up making the playoffs should not surprise you that they are a good team, however, it seems every year that at least one wild card team makes a run and surprises everyone. As we know this can happen anytime anywhere, so watch out for the wild card teams because if you overlook them, they will catch you sleeping.