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Gamblers who sided with the favoured Kansas City Chiefs will have lost their money as the defending champions lost the fifty-fifth Super Bowl to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their quarterback Tom Brady, the most successful player in the National Football League’s history.
But stock market investors may be pleased to see Brady grab an unprecedented seventh league title, at least if the old ‘Super Bowl’ rule has anything to do with it.
As a result of the merger between two rival leagues in the 1960s, the National Football League is split into two conferences, National (NFC) and American (AFC), whose winners meet in the Super Bowl to decide the overall champion.
The US stock market, as benchmarked by the S&P 500 index, has, on average, performed better in years when the team from the NFC has won and less well when the team from the AFC has claimed the Super Bowl and the players have won their championship rings.
| Winning side from | Number of wins | Average return from S&P 500 |
|---|---|---|
| NFC | 27 | 10.5% |
| AFC | 27 | 6.9% |
Source: NFL, Refinitiv data. First Super Bowl played in January 1967. Average returns based on calendar year of each game.
This effect has become a little less pronounced over time but it is noticeable nonetheless, so investors who own US shares will be hoping that a little of the shine from the 31-9 victory for the Buccaneers, who hail from the NFC, rubs off on the American stock market this year.
| Average S&P 500 calendar year performance | ||
|---|---|---|
| NFC | AFC | |
| After 10 years (1967-1976) | 14.5% | 0.4% |
| After 20 years (1967-1986) | 14.7% | 1.8% |
| After 30 years (1967-1996) | 13.5% | 1.8% |
| After 40 years (1967-2006) | 13.8% | 3.0% |
| After 50 years (1967-2016) | 11.1% | 5.1% |
| After 54 years (1967-2020) | 10.5% | 6.9% |
Source: NFL, Refinitiv data. First Super Bowl played in January 1967. Average returns based on calendar year of each game.
After the early dominance of the National Football League’s (now NFC’s) Green Bay Packers, the 1970s saw the AFC’s Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders rule the roost, with only the NFC’s Dallas Cowboys getting in the way. Yet from an economic perspective, those teams ruled the field after an oil price shock, galloping inflation and soaring interest rates made the 1970s difficult years for investors.
Come the 1980s, the Paul Volcker-led Federal Reserve had begun to tame inflation and cut interest rates, while Reaganomics were helping to drag America out of its post-Vietnam funk. As it happened, the NFC dominated that decade, as Washington, San Francisco and the York Giants bagged multiple Vince Lombardi Trophies.
Dallas and Green Bay established fresh dynasties in the 1990s, when benign inflation, low interest rates, globalisation, the Greenspan put and the rise of technology stocks gave US equities a further boost – although the AFC got its slice of the action as the Denver Broncos, under quarterback John Elway, ended a rotten run of three Super Bowl defeats to win back-to-back titles as the technology bubble inflated in 1998 and 1999.
| Super Bowl | Year | Winner | Conference | S&P 500 change* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1967 | Green Bay Packers | NFL* | 20.1% |
| 2 | 1968 | Green Bay Packers | NFL* | 7.7% |
| 3 | 1969 | New York Jets | AFL** | (11.4%) |
| 4 | 1970 | Kansas City Chiefs | AFL** | 0.1% |
| 5 | 1971 | Baltimore Colts | AFC | 10.8% |
| 6 | 1972 | Dallas Cowboys | NFC | 15.6% |
| 7 | 1973 | Miami Dolphins | AFC | (17.4%) |
| 8 | 1974 | Miami Dolphins | AFC | (29.7%) |
| 9 | 1975 | Pittsburgh Steelers | AFC | 31.5% |
| 10 | 1976 | Pittsburgh Steelers | AFC | 19.1% |
| 11 | 1977 | Oakland Raiders | AFC | (11.5%) |
| 12 | 1978 | Dallas Cowboys | NFC | 1.1% |
| 13 | 1979 | Pittsburgh Steelers | AFC | 12.3% |
| 14 | 1980 | Pittsburgh Steelers | AFC | 25.8% |
| 15 | 1981 | Oakland Raiders | AFC | (9.7%) |
| 16 | 1982 | San Francisco 49ers | NFC | 14.8% |
| 17 | 1983 | Washington Football Team | NFC | 17.3% |
| 18 | 1984 | Los Angeles Raiders | AFC | 1.4% |
| 19 | 1985 | San Francisco 49ers | NFC | 26.3% |
| 20 | 1986 | Chicago Bears | NFC | 14.6% |
| 21 | 1987 | New York Giants | NFC | 2.0% |
| 22 | 1988 | Washington Football Team | NFC | 12.4% |
| 23 | 1989 | San Francisco 49ers | NFC | 27.3% |
| 24 | 1990 | San Francisco 49ers | NFC | (6.6%) |
| 25 | 1991 | New York Giants | NFC | 26.3% |
| 26 | 1992 | Washington Football Team | NFC | 4.5% |
| 27 | 1993 | Dallas Cowboys | NFC | 7.1% |
| 28 | 1994 | Dallas Cowboys | NFC | (1.5%) |
| 29 | 1995 | San Francisco 49ers | NFC | 34.1% |
| 30 | 1996 | Dallas Cowboys | NFC | 20.3% |
| 31 | 1997 | Green Bay Packers | NFC | 31.0% |
| 32 | 1998 | Denver Broncos | AFC | 26.7% |
| 33 | 1999 | Denver Broncos | AFC | 19.5% |
| 34 | 2000 | St Louis Rams | NFC | (10.1%) |
| 35 | 2001 | Baltimore Ravens | AFC | (13.0%) |
| 36 | 2002 | New England Patriots | AFC | (23.4%) |
| 37 | 2003 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | NFC | 26.4% |
| 38 | 2004 | New England Patriots | AFC | 9.0% |
| 39 | 2005 | New England Patriots | AFC | 3.0% |
| 40 | 2006 | Pittsburgh Steelers | AFC | 13.6% |
| 41 | 2007 | Indianapolis Colts | AFC | 3.5% |
| 42 | 2008 | New York Giants | NFC | (38.5%) |
| 43 | 2009 | Pittsburgh Steelers | AFC | 23.5% |
| 44 | 2010 | New Orleans Saints | NFC | 12.8% |
| 45 | 2011 | Green Bay Packers | NFC | 0.0% |
| 46 | 2012 | New York Giants | NFC | 13.4% |
| 47 | 2013 | Baltimore Ravens | AFC | 29.6% |
| 48 | 2014 | Seattle Seahawks | NFC | 11.4% |
| 49 | 2015 | New England Patriots | AFC | (0.7%) |
| 50 | 2016 | Denver Broncos | AFC | 9.5% |
| 51 | 2017 | New England Patriots | AFC | 19.4% |
| 52 | 2018 | Philadelphia Eagles | NFC | (6.2%) |
| 53 | 2019 | New England Patriots | AFC | 28.9% |
| 54 | 2020 | Kansas City Chiefs | AFC | 16.3% |
| 55 | 2021 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | NFC |
Source: NFL, Refinitiv data. *Packers’ wins as part of the pre-1967 National Football League classified as National Football Conference (NFC). **Jets’ and Chiefs’ wins as part of the pre-1967 American Football League (AFL) classified as American Football Conference (AFC).
These articles are for information purposes only and are not a personal recommendation or advice.
Written by:
Russ Mould
Russ Mould has 28 years' experience of the capital markets. He started at Scottish Equitable in 1991 as a fund manager and in 1993 he joined SG Warburg, now part of UBS investment bank, where he worked as equity analyst covering the technology sector for 12 years. Russ joined Shares in November 2005 as technology correspondent and became Editor of the magazine in July 2008. Following the acquisition of Shares' parent company, MSM Media by AJ Bell Group, he was appointed AJ Bell’s Investment Director in summer 2013.