Obscure Super Bowl notes

The recently played 50th Super Bowl in which the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers, was the fourth match up of teams that both had lost in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs in the previous NFL season.

It marked the third time Denver quarterback Peyton Manning was involved in such a situation and the second time his team emerged as NFL champion in that scenario.

The situation, again a Super Bowl pitting two teams that had each lost in the divisional round/quarterfinals the season before, had involved the Panthers and a Peyton Manning team once before.

Then in the 2005 divisional round, on the same Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers handed Manning one of his 4 home divisional round losses when he was the Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback, followed by the Panthers winning in Chicago, vs the Bears.

In the 2006 season Supe, Manning was the Colts’ “QB” as they defeated the Bears in the Super Bowl.

In the 2012 divisional playoffs, the eventual champion Baltimore Ravens beat the Broncos and Manning in Denver while the Atlanta Falcons, favored by 2 and a fraction points, took the Seattle Seahawks by 2 points.

The next season Seattle whomped Manning and the Broncos in the Supe.

Last year, the Seattle Seahawks as with the Panthers and Broncos, involved in 2 of these scenarios, beat the Panthers in the divisional round. The Indy Colts beat Manning and the Broncos in Denver, in the same round.

Then the Broncos defeated the Panthers in the just completed Super Bowl.

The other instances in some of what was written above:

The other Supe clash between teams that had each lost in the NFL divisional round/quarterfinals the year before was 1989 and 1990.

In 1989, the “real” Cleveland Browns, who became the Baltimore Ravens, held off the Buffalo Bills in their divisional round game. The next day, Willie “Flipper” Anderson hauled in a Jim Everett overtime touchdown pass, to beat the New York Giants.

The next season (1990) the Giants survived, to beat the Bills in the Super Bowl.

The other Manning home divisional round loss, the other 3 all occurred in seasons cited above that preceded Super Bowl appearances, was when he could not produce on the last drive and they fell to the San Diego Chargers in 2007.

Knowing this “stuff” and the fare will get you aboard a New York City subway train.