Submitted by St. Paul’s senior Trevor Schott.

Why is it that lately, the Super Bowl host team seems to have a poor season?  Let’s take the last two Super Bowls. Super Bowl XLV was held in Dallas, and Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. When each of these Super Bowls were scheduled, it seemed as though there would be a legitimate chance for a home Super Bowl.

Well, Dallas shut down this idea starting an abysmal 1-7 and having Tony Romo suffer a season-ending injury in Week seven against the Giants.  It is not as if Dallas was a bad team though. Analyzing the past five Cowboy seasons (2007-12), not including the Super Bowl year, the Cowboys have had a winning record four times and made the playoffs three times.

Now, let’s take Super Bowl XLVI and the Colts.  Obviously, their Super Bowl hopes were crushed when Peyton Manning got hurt. Why this year though?  Manning had never missed a game in his career before this season and had missed the playoffs only twice in all of his 13 seasons.  Peyton Manning would not play at all this season, and the Colts would start 0-13.

Now, I come to the Saints.  Although it is just the beginning of the season, it appears that they will not be the team to break this streak. The Saints are currently 1-4 and are pretty much out of the playoff race. I do not think I have to name the recent accomplishments of this football team; they should speak for themselves.

The puzzling part about the phenomenon is that not only do these teams not make the Super Bowl (which is obviously no easy task), they are not even close. These teams are looking ahead to the next season before Week six is even over.  It would be one thing to lose in the first round of the playoffs or have a respectable playoff-less 10-6 season; at least you gave your fans a chance.  The host team cannot even do that, though.  Now, it will just be interesting to see what team can actually break this football phenomenon. I am not talking win a Super Bowl, or even get there; simply a host team making the playoffs would be nice. What is it? A curse? A coincidence? Or, is it just plain tradition?

Future Super Bowl Host Sites

• Super Bowl XLVIII- East Rutherford, New Jersey (New York Giants and New York Jets)

• Super Bowl XLIX- Glendale, Arizona (Arizona Cardinals)