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In Super Bowl LI on Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons are the home team. The NFC representative earns home team status in odd-numbered games, while the AFC gets it in even ones.
One of the supposed benefits of being the home team is that the Falcons get to pick which uniform color they want to wear in the game. The Falcons have chosen to wear their typical red home uniforms on Sunday, which means that the New England Patriots will wear their traditional road whites.
The Green Bay Packers play into this for a few minor reasons. First is that the Patriots also wore white in the meeting between those two teams when they met in Super Bowl XXXI at the Louisiana Superdome. The Packers won that game 35-21 as the franchise earned its first NFL title since 1967.
An added bonus for New England is that 11 of the past 12 Super Bowls have been won by the team wearing white; in fact, the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers are the only team in the past decade to win the title while wearing their home jerseys.
Green Bay is 3-0 in Super Bowls when wearing their home greens; they won Super Bowl I in addition to XXXI and XLV. They are 1-1 in white, however, winning Super Bowl II but losing to the Denver Broncos in XXXII.
The Patriots, meanwhile, are in their ninth Super Bowl all-time and have a 4-4 record overall, but they have worn their whites in just three of their eight previous appearances. Their only loss so far in white was to the Packers.
Home Uniforms (2-3)
XX (red): lost to Bears 46-10
XXXVI (blue): beat Rams 20-17
XXXVII (blue): beat Panthers 32-29
XLII (blue): lost to Giants 17-14
XLVI (blue): lost to Giants 21-17
Road Uniforms (2-1)
XXXI: lost to Packers 35-21
XXXIX: beat Eagles 24-21
XLIX: beat Seahawks 28-24
Meanwhile, the Falcons are making just their second Super Bowl appearance. They wore their home black uniforms in Super Bowl XXXIII, but lost to the Broncos in that game.