With the 2012 NFL season now officially complete, the Baltimore Ravens have made history in a multitude of ways. Here's a rundown of the historical significance of Baltimore beating San Francisco in the 47th Super Bowl.
1. Teams from the city of Baltimore have now won three championships — one as the Colts in 1970 and two as the Ravens (2000 and 2012). That moves the city into a tie with regional rival Washington and ahead of Oakland, Denver and Miami. The only cities that have thrown more Super Bowl parades: Pittsburgh, Dallas, San Francisco, Green Bay and New York.
2. Beating San Francisco means the Ravens are the NFL's only team that has been to more than one Super Bowl without losing one of those games. The 49ers had a perfect 5-0 Super Bowl record and the Ravens were 1-0, so the winner of this game was going to hold that distinction regardless.
3. "Quarterback wins" are overrated, but Joe Flacco — still two years shy of his 30th birthday — now has as many playoff wins as surefire Hall of Famers Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning (nine each). Of the 10 quarterbacks who have more playoff victories than Flacco, only Tom Brady, Brett Favre and Ben Roethlisberger aren't in the Hall of Fame. Brady and Favre will be shoo-ins when eligible and you'd have to think that Big Ben is on that track, too. Flacco, Warner and Roethlisberger are the only quarterbacks in NFL history with nine or more playoff wins and fewer than five playoff losses.
4. Baltimore becomes the third champion in as many years that was a No. 4 seed or lower. The Giants were also a No. 4 seed and the Packers were a No. 6 seed. Only one top seed has won the Super Bowl since 2004 (New Orleans in 2009). And since the turn of the century, only two teams (New England in 2003 and the Saints in '09) have come through as top seeds. The Ravens were a No. 4 seed in both of their Super Bowl seasons. As a result, 10 of the 12 playoff games the last three champions have won have come away from home.
5. The Ravens now have the best postseason winning percentage in NFL history. They were only eighth on the list with a 10-7 playoff record entering this January, but four wins moves them to 14-7 (.667), which is ahead of the now-second-place Giants (20-11, .645). Had the Ravens lost the Super Bowl, they'd be fifth on the list, behind fourth-place San Francisco. The Ravens have now won more road playoff games than any team in NFL history.
