How Many Teams Have Played the NFL Hall of Fame Game and Won a Super Bowl (or Missed the Playoffs) the Same Season?

The NFL‘s annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game is essentially nothing more than a meaningless preseason game. But as it’s typically the first preseason game of the new campaign, signaling the return of football, and is held adjacent to the Hall of Fame building in Canton, Ohio, the week of induction ceremonies, it tends to get a touch more attention than others.

Since the inaugural edition in 1962, the game has been held every year except for four. Seemingly for no particular reason, it wasn’t played in 1966. The scheduled meeting between the St. Louis Rams and Chicago Bears in 2011 was canceled due to the NFL lockout.

Poor field conditions in 2016 nixed the battle between the Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts. And COVID-19 halted the 2020 matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers, who squared off a year later.

So that means 56 editions of the game have taken place over the last six decades, which obviously means 112 different teams have taken the field in Canton. So how have those 112 teams fared in the seasons they appeared in the Hall of Fame Game?

No team to appear in the Hall of Fame Game has ever won a Super Bowl

Of the 112 teams to appear in the Hall of Fame Game, not a single one has gone on to win the Super Bowl. And perhaps you think there’s a technicality here as the Super Bowl wasn’t played until after the 1966 season. But that’s not the case.

Of the eight teams to appear in the game from 1962 to 1965, only two made the postseason, the 1962 New York Giants and the 1964 Baltimore Colts. And both lost the NFL Championship. The much more shocking stat is that of the 104 teams to play the Hall of Fame Game in the Super Bowl era, only three have reached the season finale.

And once again, all three lost, those being the 1988 Cincinnati Bengals, the 1994 San Diego Chargers, and the 2001 St. Louis Rams. The San Francisco 49ers thwarted the first two, while Tom Brady’s New England Patriots upset “The Greatest Show on Turf.”

More than half the teams to play in Canton miss the NFL Playoffs

So if you can’t win a Super Bowl by playing in the Hall of Fame Game, how far can you get? Well, despite the fact that 62.5% (70 of 112) of teams to play in Canton finish with a .500 record or better in the regular season, only 42.9% (48 of 112) have made the NFL Playoffs.

Of those 48, 13 have fizzled out in the Wild Card Round, 25 have been knocked out in the Divisional Round, and five have lost their conference championship game. And, of course, there are the five teams mentioned above who lost the NFL Championship Game or the Super Bowl.

Now, there’s obviously no direct correlation between the Hall of Fame Game and the Super Bowl, as one is a meaningless exhibition in which most stars don’t play while the other is the biggest event in American sports.

But aren’t numbers fun?

How every team to play the Hall of Fame Game fared that season

Here’s a look at how every team to appear in the Hall of Fame Game fared during the season in which it played in Canton.

Stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference

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