The Lombardi Curse

The NFL's Super Bowl championship trophy, the Vince Lombardi Trophy, was named in honor of Vince Lombardi after his death in 1970.

The Lombardi Curse is a sports-related curse that supposedly prevents the Philadelphia Eagles National Football League (NFL) franchise from winning the Super Bowl for as long as the game's trophy is named after Vince Lombardi. Its origin is traced to the Eagles upsetting the Green Bay Packers in the 1960 NFL Championship Game. This game ended up being the lone playoff defeat in Lombardi's coaching career as his Packers would go on to establish a dynasty that would win five NFL championships in the next seven seasons, including the first two Super Bowls.

Meanwhile, the Eagles have not won another league championship since, including having never won the Super Bowl since the game started being played annually in 1966. They appeared in Super Bowl XV in the 1980 season and Super Bowl XXXIX in the 2004 season, but lost both times. In 1970, the Super Bowl trophy was officially named the Vince Lombardi trophy when the league decided to honor Lombardi by naming the trophy after him following his death in 1970.^[1] This renaming of the Super Bowl trophy combined with the Eagles inability to win the championship game has led some Eagles fans to believe that the franchise is cursed by Vince Lombardi; that beating Lombardi meant never winning the trophy named after him.^[2]

Origins

In 1958, the Philadelphia Eagles offered and nearly hired Vince Lombardi to be their head coach after having been Offensive Coordinator for the New York Giants, but after some discussion he refused it in the end.^[3] The Eagles were reportedly not happy by this decision.^[4]

The Eagles hired Buck Shaw as their head coach later that offseason. After spending an additional season with the Giants, Lombardi would go on to become head coach for the Green Bay Packers in 1959.

On December 26, 1960, the Eagles defeated Lombardi and the Packers 17-13 in the 1960 NFL Championship Game. While the Eagles organization celebrated the victory over the man who had turned them down two years earlier, Lombardi did not take the loss kindly, and it is said that the loss is what drove him for the rest of his coaching career.^[5] He took the blame for the loss and reportedly told his team after the game that "We'll never lose another championship".^[6] Lombardi would fulfill his promise, as the Packers went 9-0 with Lombardi in the playoffs since that defeat, winning five championships which included the first two Superbowls. The Eagles though have not won another championship since; this 56-year drought represents the third longest active title drought among all NFL franchises.

In 1970, Lombardi passed away following a battle with cancer, and the league decided to honor him by naming the Super Bowl trophy after him. While there are no reports that Lombardi has said anything that would suggest he placed a curse on the Eagles, some Eagles fans believe the franchise is cursed to never win the Super Bowl for as long as the game's trophy is named after the man they handed the lone playoff defeat to.

Events suggesting a curse

Many misfortunes, disappointing seasons, and postseason failures since the Eagles 1960 championship can be attributed to the Lombardi Curse. Some of these instances are listed below:

Throughout the rest of the 1960's decade, the Eagles franchise faced turmoil and on-the-field play worsened rapidly. In 1963, Jerry Wolman, a 36-year-old millionaire Washington developer, bought the team, and he would hire Joe Kuharich as head coach the next season. Kuharich was heavily criticized as a coach and received blame for wasting the team's talent and contributing to the team's failures in the 1960's.

In 1968, chants of "Joe must go" were heard all season long from Eagles fans frustrated with the direction of the franchise under Kuharich, and on the last game of that season, the rowdy reputation of Philadelphia sports fans became popularized when some Eagles fans booed and threw snowballs at an actor playing Santa Claus.^[7]

That same season, two meaningless wins in the last three games of the season cost the franchise the first pick in the draft and the opportunity to add O. J. Simpson to the roster. The Eagles pick that year instead, Leroy Keyes, would play only four seasons with the franchise.

The Eagles went seventeen years from 1961 to 1977 without a playoff appearance, one of the longest postseason droughts in NFL history.

In 1978, the Eagles blew a 13-0 lead in the final 5 minutes to the Atlanta Falcons in their return to the postseason and lost 14-13, when a possible game winning field goal was missed in the closing seconds.

In the 1980 season, the Eagles lost Super Bowl XV 27-10 to the Oakland Raiders despite being the heavy favorites to win that game. A potential game-tying 40-yard touchdown pass from Ron Jaworski to Rodney Parker was nullified by an illegal motion penalty, and the Eagles were unable to get the game close afterwards.

In 1988, the Eagles lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Chicago Bears 20-12 in a game which infamously became known as the "Fog Bowl" due to the foggy weather conditions during the game.

The Eagles made the playoffs again in 1989 and 1990, but would again fail to make it past the first round despite the team being commonly acknowledged as among the most talented in the NFL.

In 1992, defensive tackle Jerome Brown died in a high-speed automobile crash before the start of the season on June 25. The rallying cry "Bring It Home For Jerome" was adopted that season to refer to the team's desire to win the Super Bowl for their fallen teammate. However, the Eagles lost in the Divisional round of the playoffs that year 34-10 to the rival Dallas Cowboys.

The Eagles would again lose in the playoffs to the Cowboys 30-11 in 1994 and to the San Francisco 49ers 14-0 in 1995. Continued early playoff exits led to fans and local media blaming the team's highly priced free agent signings such as Irving Fryar for not stepping up in big games.

In the 2001, 2002, and 2003 seasons, the Eagles would lose three straight NFC Championship Games to the St. Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Carolina Panthers respectively, despite being the heavy favorites in the latter two games.

In the 2004 season, the Eagles finally solved their NFC Championship Game struggles, defeating the Atlanta Falcons 27-10, but lost Super Bowl XXXIX 24-21 to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

In the 2006 season, the Eagles lost the divisional playoff game to the New Orleans Saints 27-24 after a controversial decision to punt with less than two minutes remaining was made by head coach Andy Reid.

In the 2008 season, the Eagles were able to sneak into the playoffs on the last week of the season, and were able to upset both the Minnesota Vikings and top-seeded New York Giants in the playoffs, but lost the NFC Championship Game to the Arizona Cardinals 32-25, which denied the chance for an all-Pennsylvania Super Bowl against the Pittsburgh Steelers and ended Quarterback Donovan McNabb's last chance for a Super Bowl run. The Eagles lost again in the 2009 season in the playoffs, this time in the first round 34-14 to the Cowboys.

In the 2010 season, the Eagles used a resurgent season from quarterback Michael Vick to make the playoffs once again, but they again lost 21-16 in the first round in the playoffs, this time to, ironically, the Green Bay Packers, who used this victory as the start of their run to winning Super Bowl XLV in the playoffs.

In 2011, numerous big free agent acquisitions created high expectations for the team and even led backup quarterback Vince Young to call the Eagles a "Dream Team" that year.^[8] However, the team disappointed with an 8-8 record that year and missed the playoffs.

In the 2013 season, a surprisingly strong performance from backup quarterback Nick Foles rallied the team to a playoff appearance in head coach Chip Kelly's first year on the job. However, they lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Saints 26-24 on a field goal as time expired.

References

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The Lombardi Curse

Origins

Events suggesting a curse

See Also

References