This Unlucky Super Bowl Number
And yes, of course there's a Taylor Swift mention in here.
Hi, I’m Joey! Welcome to Fun Fact Friyay, the newsletter for curious people. There’s no bad blood here, but there may be some lucky (or unlucky) numbers.
Only one quarterback wearing the No. 13 has ever won the Super Bowl.
Taylor Swift fans “invading” the NFL has made plenty of people mad. Perhaps one of the silliest outcomes is that these fans have spent approximately three months following a team — the Kansas City Chiefs — before seeing them reach the Super Bowl.
Think about people who root for teams like the Detroit Lions or Cleveland Browns. Both those squads are older than Swift, and they’ve NEVER made the Super Bowl. Wild.
In any case, loyal Swifties know that the singer rocks No. 13 as a lucky number. But for this game, she’ll be rooting for someone else (Travis Kelce’s 87, of course, but also the #15 that Patrick Mahomes sports).
That’s because San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy wears No. 13. And the 49ers are notably the opponent of the Chiefs during this Super Bowl.
While 13 has good connotations for Swift, it’s proven to be a detriment to NFL teams. Only once has a quarterback wearing No. 13 won the Super Bowl. In 2000, Kurt Warner and the then-Saint Louis Rams won Super Bowl XXXIV in one of the most exciting finishes of any Super Bowl.
Mahomes’s No. 15 has a much better track record. Bart Starr wore the number and won the very first two Super Bowls. Earl Morrall won three years later. And in Super Bowl XXV, Jeff Hostetler and his No. 15 emerged victorious.
The Chiefs have also won two Super Bowls with Mahomes under center. That means quarterbacks wearing No. 15 have won six times as many Super Bowls as No. 13-touting QBs.
Hopefully, there’s no bad blood during the Super Bowl, or else we might have some confessions. And since both teams wear red, we can’t even get the blues during the game.
Okay, I’ll see myself out. Happy Super Bowl, y’all!