Sports-related curses
A sports-related curse is a superstitious belief in the effective action of some malevolent power that is used to explain the failures or misfortunes of specific sports teams, players, or cities. Teams, players, and cities often cite a "curse" for many negative things, such as their inability to win a sports championship, or unexpected injuries.
American football
Detroit Lions
In 1958, the Detroit Lions traded Bobby Layne to the Pittsburgh Steelers, with Layne responding to the trade by supposedly saying that the Lions would "not win for 50 years". The veracity of this story has been disputed, particularly because the quote was never published at the time.Despite this, in the 50 years after the trade, the Lions accumulated the worst winning percentage of the 12 teams in the National Football League at the time, and are still one of only two franchises that were in the NFL prior to 1966 that have not yet played in the Super Bowl. The Lions' lone playoff win, prior to the 2023–24 season, came against the Dallas Cowboys following the 1991 season.
When the Pittsburgh Steelers won their fifth Super Bowl championship in 2006, they won it at Ford Field, the Lions' current home stadium. Two years later - in the last year of the supposed curse - the Steelers won their sixth Super Bowl championship, while the Lions finished 0–16, the first team to lose every game of a 16-game season.
After the 2023–24 season, the Lions won a Wild Card spot, and were able to defeat the Los Angeles Rams 24–23 to advance to the divisional round, where they defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31–23 to advance to the NFC Championship Game, where they faced the San Francisco 49ers. During halftime, the Lions held a 24–7 lead, but the 49ers rallied to tie the game in the third quarter, helped by a turnover on downs at the 49ers’ 28-yard line and a crucial fumble by running back Jahmyr Gibbs at the Lions’ 24-yard line, which allowed the 49ers to even the game at 24–24. In the fourth quarter, the Lions were unable to recover an onside kick late in the game, and eventually lost 34–31. This comeback mirrored that of the Lions win over the 49ers in the 1957 NFL playoffs, where they coincidentally overcame a 24–7 deficit to beat the 49ers 31–27.
In the 2024–25 season, the Lions got out to their best start in franchise history since their inaugural 1934 season at 12–2, including a franchise record win streak of eleven straight victories and winning all of their regular season road games for the first time in franchise history. However, the team was decimated by injuries to 22 players, with the most notable injury being to star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who suffered a season-ending leg injury during the Lions’ Week 6 matchup against the Dallas Cowboys in Bobby Layne's home state of Texas, just seven days removed from the anniversary of Layne being traded to the Steelers. Despite all of this, the Lions finished the season with a 15–2 record, tied for the best in the NFL, swept their division for the first time in franchise history, and earned the number one seed in the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. However, in their first playoff game in the divisional round, the Lions were upset by the Washington Commanders, 45–31, plagued by five turnovers, a crucial twelve men on the field penalty late in the third quarter that led to a Commanders touchdown, allowing Washington to go 4-for-4 on fourth down conversions, and the possible distractions of having both their offensive and defensive coordinators interview for head coaching positions during the teams bye week, which both eventually took after the Lions' loss.
Kirk Cousins
The Kirk Cousins curse refers to a curse in which an NFL team who has lost to quarterback Kirk Cousins has failed to win a Super Bowl since he entered the league in 2012. The curse first started to take effect in 2016 when Cousins, as a member of the Washington Redskins defeated the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants. The Giants would go on to lose 38–13 in the wild card to the Packers, and the Packers went on to lose the NFC Championship game to the Atlanta Falcons.In 2023, the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers lost to Cousins in the regular season. The Packers were eliminated by the 49ers, and the curse nearly took effect for the 49ers in the NFC Championship game against the Detroit Lions when they trailed 24–7 before rallying to win the game. With the win, the 49ers became the first team to lose to Kirk Cousins in the regular season and reach the Super Bowl. However, the 49ers lost Super Bowl LVIII to the Kansas City Chiefs, keeping the curse fully intact. Luckily, the curse was broken when the Philadelphia Eagles, who lost to the Atlanta Falcons during the 2024 season, dominated the Chiefs 40–22 in Super Bowl LIX.
Pottsville Maroons
The Pottsville Maroons curse refers to a long-standing legend tied to the 1925 NFL Championship controversy. That year, the Pottsville Maroons defeated the Chicago Cardinals on the field and were widely considered the rightful champions. However, the NFL stripped Pottsville of the title after the team played an unauthorized exhibition game against Notre Dame in what the league claimed was another team’s protected territory. As a result, the championship was officially awarded to the Cardinals, despite the fact that Pottsville had beaten them head-to-head.Over time, fans and historians began referring to a “curse” on the Cardinals, suggesting that the team’s decades of championship struggles were karmic fallout from benefiting unfairly at Pottsville’s expense. The Cardinals did not win another NFL championship after 1947, and the franchise endured long periods of losing seasons and relocations. While the curse is more folklore than fact, it remains a popular part of NFL lore, symbolizing unresolved grievances and the sense that Pottsville’s lost title still haunts the now-Arizona Cardinals’ history.
''Madden NFL''
Prior to 1999, every annual installment of the Madden NFL video game franchise primarily featured John Madden on its cover. In 1999, Electronic Arts selected San Francisco 49ers running back Garrison Hearst to appear on the PAL version's cover, and has since featured one of the league's top players on every annual installment despite Madden's opposition.While appearing on the cover has become an honor akin to appearing on the Wheaties box, much like the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, certain players who appeared on the Madden video game box art have experienced a decline in performance, usually due to an injury.
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl curse or Super Bowl hangover is a phrase referring to one of two things that occur in the National Football League : Super Bowl participant clubs that follow up with lower-than-expected performance the following year, and NFL teams that do not repeat as Super Bowl champions.The phrase has been used to explain both why losing teams may post below-average winning percentages in the following year and why Super Bowl champions seldom return to the title game the following year. The term has been used since at least 1992, when The Washington Post commented that "the Super Bowl Curse has thrown everything it's got at the Washington Redskins. The Jinx that has bedeviled defending champs for 15 years has never been in better form". The phenomenon is attributed by football commentator and former NFL manager Charley Casserly to such elements as "a shorter offseason, contract issues, more demand for your players' time". Casserly also notes that "once the season starts, you become the biggest game on everybody's schedule." Alleged curse notwithstanding, multiple teams have indeed repeated as Super Bowl champions, including the Green Bay Packers in the first two Super Bowls, the Pittsburgh Steelers twice in the 1970s, the Miami Dolphins also in the 1970s, the San Francisco 49ers in 1989 and 1990, the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s, the Denver Broncos also in the 1990s, the New England Patriots in the 2000s, and the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2020s. Additionally, there are multiple cases of teams reaching the conference championship or further up to four times in a row, including the mid-1980s Cleveland Browns, 1990s Cowboys and Buffalo Bills, the 2000s Philadelphia Eagles, early 2010s San Francisco 49ers, the late 2010s-early 2020s Kansas City Chiefs, and most notably the 2010s New England Patriots who went to 8 straight AFC title games from 2011 through 2018, including three straight Super Bowl appearances from 2016 to 2018 winning two of them at the end of the 2016 season and Super Bowl LIII following the 2018 season.