Why Winning Your Season Opener In The NFL Is So Important

With the regular season of the NFL set to kick off tonight, I thought I would check out how the teams that eventually appeared in the Super Bowls over the past ten years did in their season openers. Let's just say that if your team loses on Sunday don't plan your Super Bowl party around them.

Over the past ten years, there have been 20 teams that made Super Bowl appearances(this kind of math is easy and fun!). Their combined season opener record is 16-4. Of those four losses, three were in road games('02 Tampa Bay is the lone home loser to appear in the SB), and two of the four were suffered by the New England Patriots(just another reason to hate Belichick, Brady and Co.!). The only good news is that 3 out of the 4 losers actually defied the odds, made the Super Bowl and ended up winning it. Well, it's good if you're not a fan of the '05 Seahawks(see, they really should have won that game).

So, if your team plays at home this weekend and loses, then you can probably kiss those Super Bowl aspirations goodbye. However, if they play on the road and lose, then things might not be so bad come next February.