Winning a Super Bowl Is Extraordinarily Hard: How Do Teams Achieve It?

There isn’t a more prestigious prize in the whole of American sports than winning a Super Bowl. Ask any player or coach and they will tell you, lifting the Vince Lombardi trophy is the pinnacle of their professional lives and an honor that no one can ever take away from them.

These winners are, if you will, forever immortalized in American football history which means that the stakes are also incredibly high: with every celebrated winner, there must also be a devastated loser, a team that fails to climb the eternal steps to the summit of the sport.

Capitalizing on the moment when it presents itself

Failure to capitalize on an opportunity during a Super Bowl may mean that it never comes around again, such is the ever-changing landscape of professional football.

A good example of the fickle nature of the NFL can be found in the latest NFL betting odds for the 2024 season. The Super Bowl betting odds for the 2024 showdown price impressive 2023 finalists, the Philadelphia Eagles, at +900 to go all the way next season. As you can see, these odds on the Eagles winning Super Bowl LVIII guarantee very little in the way of continued success which goes to show how heightened the sense of jeopardy is on the night of the big game. In some instances, it really is a case of now or never. 

GO BIRDS#SBLVII | #FlyEaglesFly

(via IG/jl.jr86) pic.twitter.com/wfi3L5ssDU

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 8, 2023

So, how do teams successfully manage to accomplish the seemingly impossible?

Belief

It all begins with believing that winning the Super Bowl can be achieved. While this is integral on the night, this belief needs to be instilled in the personnel of a specific franchise long before they get under the bright lights of the Super Bowl. Essentially, it is a journey that starts when perhaps the likelihood of a Super Bowl victory looks slim, but without making this conscious decision and having a mission statement that drives an institution on, there can be no glory in the future, irrespective of the odds against them. This was, at least, the stirring approach that the St Louis Rams adopted when they won the Super Bowl in 2000 despite starting their preseason at odds of +15000 to lift Super Bowl XXXIV. 

Planning

Once an organization believes, it then comes down to meticulous planning. Whether that involves finding the right quarterback in the draft that can one day boast the same stats as Tom Brady, or selecting the optimal diet for the squad, no detail can be overlooked, from the most glaring to the ones that appear inconsequential.

TEAM WIN. NFC SOUTH CHAMPS. pic.twitter.com/1CXVOJhGkU

— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) January 1, 2023

The reality is that when the smaller decisions are given as much time as the bigger ones, the need for luck becomes a lot less.

Good old-fashioned luck 

With that being said, it would be naive to think that seasons and legacies aren’t defined by small margins, and every now and then, a slice of fortune does decide who will be crowned Super Bowl champions and who won’t. Take the Eagles for example who have been described as being extremely lucky in 2023 owing to how their squad has stayed almost injury free throughout the entire campaign. That’s not to say that they made the Super Bowl by being lucky but rather that they have had a good break which has allowed them to follow their plans without disruption.

As nine-time major golf champion Gary Player once famously said, “the more I practice, the luckier I get.”

Yes, winning the Super Bowl is tough and there are many different hurdles to clear, but when a franchise believes, plans, and has a tailwind that blows in its favor, there is a better chance of the dream becoming a reality.