The "home field advantage curse" was broken in 2020 when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the first team to ever play and win the Super Bowl in their own stadium. Previously, all Super Bowl winners have been visiting teams playing on foreign soil. The Bucs took down the Atlanta Falcons 34-30 in what was arguably the game of the year.
In fact, no team has won both the NFL Championship and the Super Bowl in the same season. The closest any team has come is when the Chicago Bears defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 38-16 in Super Bowl IX.
However, there are two exceptions to this rule: the Dallas Cowboys in 1954 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020. Both games were played at Texas Stadium in Dallas and both titles went to the visiting team. The Cowboys were awarded the title because they had already qualified for the playoffs as the top seed before the game even started. The Buccaneers received the title after defeating the Atlanta Falcons 34-30 in the NFC Championship Game.
Furthermore, both these teams came from small college programs that didn't have much of a history of success at the time. The Buccaneers were called the Cleveland Browns until 1964 when it was decided they would be named after Florida.
The Curse of the Home Field Advantage: The home field advantage curse impacts the Super Bowl host club. So date, just one club, the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has qualified for and won the Super Bowl in their home stadium, Raymond James Stadium.
The curse was created by two factors: first, the majority of games are played on neutral grounds; and second, many of these neutral site games are scheduled during winter months, when football is not as popular as in summer.
The curse was broken in 2019 when the Rams defeated the Saints 28-22 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. It was the first time that a host city had won the Super Bowl after previously losing the game's preceding regular season finale at their own venue.
There have been six instances where a visiting team has won the Super Bowl after previously losing the game's preceding regular season finale at their own venue. Here they are: 1972 Miami Dolphins (lost 20-17 to Oakland Raiders in Miami); 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers (lost 16-13 to Cincinnati Bengals in Pittsburgh); 1997 Denver Broncos (lost 50-48 to Green Bay Packers in Denver); 1998 New York Giants (lost 21-17 to St. Louis Rams in New York); 2012 Baltimore Ravens (lost 23-20 to San Francisco 49ers in Baltimore); and 2019 Rams (won 28-22 over New Orleans Saints).
The Super Bowl host team is affected by the home field curse.
That's not to say that no team has won the Super Bowl while playing their games away from home. In fact, six teams have done so: the 1933 Chicago Bears, 1954 Dwight D. Eisenhower Eagles, 1979 New York Yankees, 1992-93 Dallas Cowboys, 2015-16 NFL Denver Broncos.
Of those six teams, only two remain active in the NFL today: the 1993 Cowboys and the 2016 Broncos. Both of these teams were able to win the Super Bowl despite being based in different states than their opponents. The Cowboys defeated the 49ers, 27-17, at Texas Stadium in Arlington, while the Broncos beat the Pats, 42-25, in Miami.
Dallas went on to play Seattle in the Super Bowl, winning its second title in three years. The Broncos took down Oakland in the championship game.
Since the Bucs last appeared in the Super Bowl, they've been replaced by another Florida team: the 2017 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That team lost to Atlanta, 34-30, in overtime of the NFC Championship Game.
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