13. The home team selects the uniform colors to wear
For the Super Bowl, beginning with the first, the home team is designated by the last number of the year. NFC teams are home during odd-numbered years. Though it sounds insignificant since the game is played at a usually neutral site, it does have some bearing on the game. The team designated as the home team selects which color uniform jersey they will wear. Six different times in the game’s history, the home team has selected their white jerseys, normally worn (by most teams) on the road. The reason is simple superstition, with some teams considering their dark jerseys to be harbingers of bad luck. The Denver Broncos are a case in point.
The Broncos appeared in four Super Bowls wearing their orange jerseys, and lost all four. They were four of the worst defeats in the history of the game. In 1997 they returned, in white, and won. They repeated in 1998, also in white, and when they appeared in 2015, General Manager John Elway informed the press “We’ve had Super Bowl success in our white uniforms“, opting for that color. They won again. Strangely, there may be something to superstition. Teams appearing in white jerseys have won 63% of the Super Bowls played to date.
