The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bucs will be the first team to play Super Bowl at home
Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will feel right at home in the Super Bowl after making history at Green Bay on Sunday by defeating the Packers 31-26 in the NFC championship game.
Tampa Bay (14-5) is the first team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium. The Super Bowl will take place Feb. 7 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
The wild-card Bucs reached the NFL finale after winning three playoff games in Wash- ington, New Orleans and Green Bay. The prize is much different this year, though, because the Super Bowl will be played in front of a far smaller crowd than usual.
Tampa Bay averaged 14,483 fans for its eight home games in 2020 — about 22% of stadium capacity. The NFL plans for about 22,000 fans at the Super Bowl. Fans will be in pods separated by 6 feet, and masks will be required in accordance with local COVID- 19 safety protocols.
Capacity at Raymond James Stadium is 65,890. It’s a huge drop from the 75,000 that would have been expected with additional temporary bleachers in the end zones.
So Tampa Bay won’t have a significant advantage by playing in front of its home crowd. Technically, it won’t even be a sellout, and the
game would set an attendance record for the smallest Super Bowl crowd.
The first Super Bowl in 1967 was played in front of 61,946 fans at the Los Ange- les Coliseum. It’s the only one that didn’t sell out.
In the 53 Super Bowls since, two teams have played the game in their home region: the 1984 San Fran- cisco 49ers beat Miami in Super Bowl 19 in Stanford Stadium rather than Can- dlestick Park; and the 1979 Los Angeles Rams lost Super Bowl 14 to Pittsburgh in the Rose Bowl instead of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Here’s a look at some recent teams that made the playoffs but came up short in the season their home stadiums hosted the Super Bowl:
Minnesota, 2017 season: Coming off the “Minnesota Miracle” at home against
New Orleans — Stefon Diggs hauled in a 61-yard touchdown pass from Case Keenum on the final play — the Vikings traveled to Philadel- phia for the NFC title game and got shellacked 38-7. Eagles backup Nick Foles threw for 352 yards and three touchdowns, a sign of things to come in the Super Bowl against New England.
Houston, 2016 season:
The Texans won the AFC South and were the No. 4 seed heading into the AFC playoffs. They beat Oakland in a wild-card game but lost 34-16 the following week on the road to Brady and New England. It was quarterback Brock Osweiler’s final start for Houston. Brady went on to win his fifth of six cham- pionships, this one in come- from-behind fashion after trailing Atlanta 28-3 late in the third quarter.
Miami, 1998 season:
The Dolphins were the No. 4 seed in the AFC and beat division rival Buffalo at home to open the playoffs. They barely showed up the following week in Denver, getting smoked 38-3 by a team that featured four future Hall of Famers: QB John Elway, running back Terrell Davis, tight end Shannon Sharpe and safety Steve Atwater. Another Hall of Famer, Dan Marino, threw two intercep- tions. Elway and the Broncos went on to claim their sec- ond straight championship.