Is it just a bit ironic that the first time ever a Super Bowl participant is playing the game in their home stadium is the same season that the National Football League completed a regular season that for the first time in history found visiting teams winning more games than home squads?
The NFL will complete the most amazing feat of their 101 year history next Sunday when they stage Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium. That accomplishment is simply getting through a 256 game regular season and expanded playoff schedule in the timeframe determined before the season started. They worked around occasional outbreaks of Covid-19 with the deftness that a skilled press secretary avoids answering unwanted questions.
In the process, the league found home teams winning 127 games while losing 128 and tying one. So, if the home teams had their first losing season straight-up, they must have had a horrible year against the point spread.
Right?
Wrong.
In a typical NFL season, the average for the ten years before this season, home teams win 57% of the time but in the same 2,560 games cover the point spread in only 49% of their games. Last year, while the home teams had their winning average cut to 50% how did their point spread results drop?