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Are the New England Patriots victims of a Super Bowl losers’ curse?

By Mike James
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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Not that Game 6 of the NFL season will ultimately determine the New England Patriots’ fate, but a loss to Denver tonight would put the Pats at 3-3 and well on their way to continuing an unenviable trend of the last decade for Super Bowl losers.

Green Bay lost the Super Bowl to Denver in 1997. The next year, it lost the wild-card game in the playoffs. Since then, seven of nine Super Bowl losers failed to reach the playoffs during the following season.

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Neither of the two teams that made the postseason the following year got back to the big game. Tennessee (1999) and Seattle (2005) both lost in the divisional playoffs. The other seven teams that lost in the Super Bowl? Zero playoff appearances and an overall record of 43-69.

To be sure, the the loss of Tom Brady has hurt the Patriots’ offense, but the defense has been just as erratic, the 30-10 loss in San Diego last weekend being a perfect example.

Patriots fans aren’t thrilled. With New England’s 18-1 record of last season a distant memory, the question now becomes what can the team do to get back on track -- and whether they can avoid a Super Bowl loser jinx that defies explanation.

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-- Mike James

Sports Now
Mike James

Mike James is a former Sports editor of the Los Angeles Times. A native of suburban Washington, D.C., James came to The Times from the Hartford Courant in 1985, took a hiatus from the print world in 2000 to work as coordinating producer at FoxSports.com and managing editor of the nightly news report on Fox Sports Net. He returned to The Times in 2002 and, after three years as deputy Sports editor, became Sports editor in 2009.

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