By Don Watz,Total Apex Sports
Copyright yardbarker
The Green Bay Packers and host Dallas Cowboys played to a 40-40 tie on Sunday Night Football. No one likes ties. The sportsbooks certainly are not fans. The online and print sports pages that have to add a column will probably tell you it is not as easy as it sounds. The fans who came from out of town, bought a plane ticket, secured a rental car, got a hotel room, purchased a game ticket, all for a tie… probably are a little irked.
But there is an obscure piece of history that tells us there is another reason not to like it when your favorite team plays a game ending in a tie. Not since 1971 has a team that played a game that ended in a tie in the regular season gone on to win the Super Bowl. And it has only happened twice, the Packers in 1968 and the Colts in 1971.
NFL Regular Season Games Ended In A Tie Until 1974 – Making The Cowboys-Packers Fate Even Worse
As fast as we mention that the 1968 Packers and 1971 Colts had a tie on their record and went on to win the Super Bowl, we need to mention that there was no overtime during the regular season until 1974. Therefore, the likelihood of a tie in the regular season was much higher when the Packers and Colts won their Super Bowl.
That makes this worse: Since overtime in the regular season started in 1974, no team with a tie on their record has won the Super Bowl. Yes, this is an obscure observation, and it should have no relevance in 2025. It is doubtful that the Packers and Cowboys storyline for the playoffs will be: “Can the Packers or Cowboys beat the curse of the tie?”
But, it is interesting. Vegas, what do you think – ready to change your odds?
There Is A History of Teams Making the Super Bowl With a Tie On Their Record – But They Lose
All is not all bad for Cowboys and Packers fans; at least you might make the Super Bowl. Just do not plan on winning. In 59 years of playing the Super Bowl, there have been seven teams that came into the game with a tie on their record. But then that leads to the fate for all but the before-mentioned two teams – a Super Bowl loss.
The last team to reach the Super Bowl with a tie on their record was the San Francisco 49ers in 2013. They say playing to a tie is like kissing your sister, perhaps we should find irony in that this game was between brothers Jim and John Harbaugh. Irony aside, the 49ers did not win the game, and it is doubtful the curse of the regular-season tie showed up in any storyline prior to the game.
Will The New OT Rules Lead To More Ties?
The tie between the Cowboys and Packers on Sunday came during the first season of the new overtime rules. From 1974 to 2010, a regular season game that ended regulation in a tie went to sudden death OT. The team with the first score in overtime would win. In 2010 until this year, a team needed to score a touchdown to win and go home; a field goal would allow the other team a possession. This year, the regular season rules follow recent playoffs rules that, in short, allow both teams a possession.
With the old rules, it is very, very doubtful the Packers would have deferred after winning the coin flip. Now, the strategy changes. The Packers had an advantage in seeing what the Cowboys did, but then the clock became an issue. (There is only 10 minutes of OT).
In the Packers-Cowboys game, a lot of exciting and interesting things happened to cause the 40-40 tie. It does not mean that we are headed for a season of ties. After all, we were one second away from talking about Jordan Love blowing the clock management strategy and costing his team a chance for the tie.
If Love did blow it, and the clock went down to zero before his pass fell incomplete, and the Packers lost, at least both teams would not now be subjected to the obscure “curse of the tie.”
