Broncos-Panthers Super Bowl rematch is an NFL rarity

After all the schedule-release pomp and circumstance Thursday night, the wide world of sports knows the 2016 NFL season will kick off with a Super Bowl rematch in the Mile High City.

And that Sept. 8 clash between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers also represents a true NFL rarity.

In the last 49 seasons, the teams which played in the previous Super Bowl only have met six times, making the 2016 tilt at Sports Authority Field only the seventh Super Bowl rematch in 50 years. It’s the second Big Game redux in three years, though, as you might recall the last one: The Seahawks’ 26-20 overtime win over the visiting Broncos in Week 3 of the 2014 season.

Even rarer still are the season-opening Big Game rematches as the Broncos-Panthers clash will be only the second – and first since the Chiefs and Vikings played in 1970 – to be contested in Week 1.

Meanwhile, if history is any indication, give a slight nod to the Orange & Blue on Sept. 8 as the previous year’s Super Bowl winner wound up winning the rematch in four of the previous six such games. Add in the home field advantage, and is the deck is even further stacked against Cam Newton and Co. in their quest for “revenge.”

Here’s the full list of next-season Super Bowl rematches:

• 1970: Vikings 27, Chiefs 10 (Chiefs won Super Bowl IV 23-7)
• 1977: Raiders 35, Vikings 13 (Raiders won SB XI 32-14)
• 1979: Steelers 14, Cowboys 3 (Steelers won SB XIII 35-31)
• 1993: Bills 13, Cowboys 10 (Cowboys won SB XXVII 52-17)
• 1997: Packers 28, Patriots 10 (Packers won SB XXXI 35-21)
• 2014: Seahawks 26, Broncos 20, OT (Seahawks won SB XLVIII 43-8)
• 2016: Broncos vs. Panthers (Broncos won SB 50 24-10)

Notable from the above list is the Bills-Cowboys game in ’93. The two teams would go on to meet a third time in two seasons in Super Bowl XXVIII with the Cowboys, of course, rolling 30-13 to bookend the Bills’ regular-season win with a back-to-back Super Bowl triumphs.

Just another cruel irony in Buffalo’s storied four-year run of runner-up finishes.