Wild card teams in NFL, which are the franchises that make the playoffs without winning their division, are unfortunate in the sense that it is incredibly rare for them to host a game.
While it is not impossible, the circ*mstances for that to happen are very precise and demand that wild card teams all pick up excellent results.
As the chances increase with wins for wild card teams, it is a point linked to the fact that two wild card teams have never met in either conference's championship game or the Super Bowl.
Have two wild card teams every played each other in the playoffs?
There has never been a meeting of two wild card teams in either conference's championship game or in the Super Bowl.
The closest that we ever came to a Super Bowl game between two wild card teams was in 2010.
That year, the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets went on incredible runs of form after both ended their regular seasons as the second wild card team.
The Packers won the NFC Championship Game and went on to win the Super Bowl, while the Jets eventually suffered a one-score loss to the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game.
Has an NFL wild card team hosted a game in the playoffs?
As no wild card teams have met in the playoffs or the Super Bowl, this also means that a wild card team has not hosted a playoff game.
That has been the case since the league expanded to 32 teams in 2002.
Is it possible for a wild card team to host an NFL playoff game?
Since a rule change in 2020, it has been a possibility that a wild card team could host a divisional round playoff game.
For that to happen, all three wild card teams would have to win their games and be re-seeded.
The number seven seeded wild card would then travel to the top seeded division winner and the number five seeded wild card would host the number six seeded wild card.
