Super Bowl history: Patriots will make 9th appearance, but it’s just the 2nd for the Falcons

The New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons will meet at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas for Super Bowl LI. The Patriots and Falcons dominated the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers in their respective conference championship games.

It will be the third Super Bowl ever played in Houston. The first was Super Bowl VIII in 1974 and the second was Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004. NRG Stadium is a modern venue that opened in 2002, making this the second time it has hosted the big game.

Notably, the team based in Houston, the Texans, has never appeared in a Super Bowl, along with the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and Jacksonville Jaguars. Another nine teams have made appearances in the Super Bowl without a win, including the Falcons. The Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings each have four trips to the Super Bowl but no wins.

The Falcons would get their first-ever title if they beat the Patriots on Feb. 5, but Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will already make history when the game kicks off — their ninth appearance in the Super Bowl is an NFL record.

The Super Bowl history for the Patriots is far more extensive than the Falcons’. The Patriots have represented the AFC in the Super Bowl seven times now since the new millennium. Before that, they appeared in two other Super Bowls.

Belichick is responsible for taking seven Patriots teams to the Super Bowl, breaking his tie with Don Shula for most of all time by a single coach. He is tied with Chuck Noll in head coaching Super Bowl wins at four, and will get a crack at No. 5 if he can guide his team to beating the Falcons.

Of those appearances, the Patriots have won four. Most recently, they won Super Bowl XLIX, beating the Seattle Seahawks in February 2015. Prior to that, they had lost their past two appearances, both to the New York Giants, who seem to have it out for New England.

The Patriots have lost four Super Bowls. The Falcons have played in one. The reason this matters is because the Patriots’ Super Bowl history is, for the most part, recent. Belichick and Tom Brady have been the most successful coach-and-quarterback combination in the history of the NFL and they look as good today as they did when they first started dominating the rest of the league.

New England will put itself in a tie with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys for second-most Super Bowl titles with five if the Patriots beat the Falcons. Only the Steelers have more with six.

For the Falcons, it will be just their second-ever appearance in the Super Bowl, and a chance for their first-ever Lombardi Trophy. The last time they made it to the big game was in 1999 where they faced John Elway and the Denver Broncos, and the storyline of that game quickly left the Falcons behind.

Elway was 38 years old and he retired after earning that Super Bowl win. He threw for 336 yards and a touchdown that went 80 yards. The Falcons lost, 34-19, and were immediately an afterthought.

Denver sent two players from that game, Elway and Shannon Sharpe, to the Hall of Fame. Atlanta sent none. Although it was huge for the Falcons to finally make it to the big game, they went on to post losing records in their next three seasons.

They made the playoffs again in 2002, winning in the Wild Card round but not making it past the Divisional round. The next year, the coach that took them to their first Super Bowl, Dan Reeves, was let go. Since their Super Bowl loss, they’ve made the postseason in just seven of 18 seasons.

Counting this year, they are now 2-2 in NFC Championship games. Coming into this season, quarterback Matt Ryan was 1-4 in postseason games. But Ryan is the likely MVP of the NFL this season, finishing the regular season with 4,944 yards, 38 touchdowns, and just seven interceptions. In two playoff games thus far, he’s thrown for over 700 yards with seven touchdowns and no interceptions.