The NFL’s wild-card weekend might be particularly wild within the Sunshine State.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are the latest of the three Florida NFL franchises, holding their debut marketing campaign in 1995. Since then, the Jags have gained four division titles, together with final season.
Jacksonville additionally captured division crowns in the course of the 1998, 1999 and 2017 campaigns.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been round since 1976 and have gained their group eight occasions, sharing the respect with the Jaguars in 1999 and 2022. Whereas the Miami Dolphins have been across the longest and have gained 14 division titles, none of them got here when each Jacksonville and Tampa Bay have been additionally on prime.
The Dolphins had 5 division crowns within the Seventies alone and 5 extra within the Nineteen Eighties in the course of the Don Shula days, together with 4 straight from 1971-74 and 5 in a row from 1981-1985. Miami then completed first in 1992 and 1994 in the course of the second half of Corridor of Fame quarterback Dan Marino’s profession.
Since then, the Dolphins have solely claimed first within the AFC East in 2000 and 2008.
Florida’s likelihood at historical past comes roughly six months after a brutal stretch of sports activities defeats on the best levels for groups within the state.
In early April, each the Florida Atlantic Owls and Miami Hurricanes males’s basketball groups misplaced of their NCAA basketball event Ultimate 4 contests. Within the NBA and NHL respectively, the Miami Warmth and Florida Panthers misplaced to the Denver Nuggets and Vegas Golden Knights of their leagues’ championship rounds. Florida misplaced to LSU within the winner-take-all Sport 3 of the lads’s Faculty World Sequence in late June.
Whereas asking for 3 particular NFL groups to win on a given day looks as if a tall activity, every of the Buccaneers, Dolphins and Jaguars ought to have a superb likelihood at victories in Week 18.
Each Jacksonville and Tampa Bay have highway video games on Sunday afternoon, however the contests are towards two of the worst groups within the NFL, the Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers, respectively. Miami has a troublesome “Sunday Evening Soccer” battle with the Buffalo Payments on faucet, however they play at house. If the Dolphins can get a few of their key injured gamers like working backs De’Von Achane and Raheem Mostert, in addition to wideout Jaylen Waddle on the sector, they need to have a superb shot at capturing their first division title in 15 years.
