Blog Archives
NFL: Wild Cards That Have Won the Super Bowl
The 2010 Green Bay Packers Were the Last Wild Card Team To Win the Super Bowl (sbnation.com)
Six wild card teams have won the Super Bowl, including last year’s champion, the Green Bay Packers.
The year before the AFL-NFL merger, the Kansas City Chiefs finished second in the AFL West to the Oakland Raiders, but defeated them in the playoffs to meet the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.
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| SEASON | SUPER BOWL | DEFEATED | ||
| 1969 | IV | Kansas City Chiefs | 2nd in AFL West | Minnesota Vikings |
| 1980 | XV | Oakland Raiders | AFC Wild Card | Philadelphia Eagles |
| 1997 | XXXII | Denver Broncos | AFC Wild Card | Green Bay Packers |
| 2000 | XXXV | Baltimore Ravens | AFC Wild Card | New York Giants |
| 2005 | XL | Pittsburgh Steelers | AFC Wild Card | Seattle Seahawks |
| 2007 | XLII | New York Giants | NFC Wild Card | New England Patriots |
| 2010 | XLV | Green Bay Packers | NFC Wild Card | Pittsburgh Steelers |
Tampa Bay Rays, St. Louis Cardinals and All the Wild Card Winners
2011 Wild Card Winners, Tampa Bay Rays and St Louis Cardinals (dandodiary.com, usatoday.com)
Wow. What a finish to the baseball season yesterday. Everyone’s talking about it, some say the biggest night in baseball history.
The Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals are in the playoffs following two of the biggest collapses (simultaneously mind you) in baseball history by the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves. I can’t believe it myself.
The Rays and Cards enter the postseason as the wild card of each’s repective league. Here’s a list of every wild card winner since the playoff system was instituted in 1995 – a year after baseball went on strike and there were no playoffs at all.
Four wild card winners went on to win the World Series: the 2002 Anaheim Angels, the 2004 Boston Red Sox and the Florida Marlins twice (1997, 2003).
The Boston Red Sox have won the most wild cards – 7.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
1995 – New York Yankees
1996 – Baltimore Orioles
1997 – New York Yankees
1998 – Boston Red Sox
1999 – Boston Red Sox
2000 – Seattle Mariners
2001 – Oakland A’s
2002 – Anaheim Angels (won World Series)
2003 – Boston Red Sox
2004 – Boston Red Sox (won World Series)
2005 – Boston Red Sox
2006 – Detroit Tigers (lost World Series)
2007 – New York Yankees
2008 – Boston Red Sox
2009 – Boston Red Sox
2010 – New York Yankees
2011 – Tampa Bay Rays
NATIONAL LEAGUE
1995 – Colorado Rockies
1996 – Los Angeles Dodgers
1997 – Florida Marlins (won World Series)
1998 – Chicago Cubs
1999 – New York Mets
2000 – New York Mets (lost World Series)
2001 – St. Louis Cardinals
2002 – San Francisco Giants (lost World Series)
2003 – Florida Marlins (won World Series)
2004 – Houston Astros
2005 – Houston Astros (lost World Series)
2006 – Los Angeles Dodgers
2007 – Colorado Rockies (lost World Series)
2008 – Milwaukee Brewers
2009 – Colorado Rockies
2010 – Atlanta Braves
2011 – St. Louis Cardinals
