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Winning the Super Bowl is an incredibly difficult achievement, but doing it as a wild card is even more challenging. You have to go all the way without a bye week, and barring a miracle, you will play all your playoff games away from home.
The wild card format was instituted with the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 and has been used since then. The number of wild card teams has expanded over the years, and currently, three teams qualify for the postseason with a wild card.
While winning a ring as a wild card is an incredibly difficult accomplishment, six teams have pulled that off.
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Which is the last wild card team to win the Super Bowl?
In NFL history, since the wild card format was introduced in 1970, ten teams made it to the Super Bowl as a wild card. Apart from six winners, as mentioned above, four other teams won the conference but could not get a ring for themselves.
The most recent example of a wild card team winning it all is the 2010 Green Bay Packers, who upset the #3 Philadelphia Eagles, #1 Atlanta Falcons and the #2 Chicago Bears before beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in the big game. It was the Packers' fourth Super Bowl win and remains Aaron Rodgers' only title.
Wild card teams are on a winning streak in the Super Bowl. Before the Packers, the 2007 New York Giants, the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers and the 2000 Baltimore Ravens all won their rings. The other two teams that won the big game are the 1997 Denver Broncos and the 1980 Oakland Raiders.
Lots of great teams have qualified for the postseason through a wild card before without winning the ring. The 2000s Ravens are considered one of the best defenses of all time. John Elway and Aaron Rodgers won their first rings beating the #1 of their conference away from home.
Since the NFL changed its playoff format in 2020, only the #1 seed in each conference gets a bye week in the first round of the playoffs. That gives them an even bigger advantage, making the wild card team's route to the title even more difficult.
