The NFL conference championship games this Sunday will set the stage for Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara. For fans getting ready for the big game, if their team is out of it, they often want to see a team that has never won it before a matchup that has never taken place in the Super Bowl.
This year, there will be no chance of a team that hasn't won the Lombardi Trophy winning it this year. Those hopes faded when the Denver Broncos eliminated the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round and the New England Patriots dispatched the Houston Texans the following day.
Of the four teams remaining, the Broncos, Patriots, Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams have all won the Super Bowl. Of the four potential Super Bowl matchups, three of them have already happened before as well.
The Patriots and Seahawks battled in Super Bowl XLIX following the 2014 season. In one of the greatest and most shocking endings to a game in NFL history, the Seahawks chose to throw the ball from the 1-yard line rather than to hand it to Marshawn Lynch and the Patriots' Malcolm Butler came up with possibly the most famous interception in NFL history to prevent the Seahawks from going back-to-back.
The Broncos and Seahawks were once AFC West rivals, but after the Seahawks moved to the NFC in 2002, a matchup in the Super Bowl became a possibility. It happened in Super Bowl XLVIII, following the 2013 season, with the high-powered Broncos being totally shut down by the "Legion of Boom" defense in 43-8 loss.
The Patriots and Rams have met in the Super Bowl twice before, so if it comes down to them this season, they would join the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers as the only teams to face off in the Super Bowl three different times. The Steelers and Cowboys played in Super Bowls X, XIII and XXX.
The Patriots have beaten the Rams in the Super Bowl twice. In Super Bowl XXXVI, Tom Brady and the Patriots capped off a fairytale season with a 20-17 victory on a last-second field goal by Adam Vinatieri. Seventeen years later, the two teams met again. Brady and Bill Belichick were still in New England and they handed the Rams a 13-3 defeat.
Broncos, Rams have never met in the Super Bowl
The Broncos and Rams would be the only first-time Super Bowl matchup from the possibilities remaining. It would be an interesting game pitting two terrific head coaches, Sean Payton and Sean McVay, against one another. Both teams have been at the top of their respective conferences all season, but both teams will be underdogs heading into Sunday's action.
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The closest these two teams ever came to playing against each other in the Super Bowl came in the playoffs following the 1989 season. The Broncos got past the Cleveland Browns in the AFC Championship Game, but in the NFC Championship Game, the Rams ran into the buzzsaw that was that year's San Francisco 49ers and were defeated 30-3.
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