President Donald Trump likes a trio of teams to win the Super Bowl. Did he actually just curse them?
Appearing at the Patriot Games on Tuesday, Aug. 11, Trump named three teams that he'll be keeping an eye on to advance to Super Bowl 61 in 2027 as true favorites to win the whole thing.
"Maybe I'll pick a few," Trump told ESPN's Laura Rutledge. "I think New England looks good. I think the Giants – I like their quarterback (Jaxson Dart) a lot. I think that, they say the L.A. Rams are looking very strong.
"But I better not get into this too much, I'm gonna get myself in trouble if I do. But I think you have a lot of good teams, a lot of great teams. And we'll see how it turns out, I'll be watching."
While two of the three teams mentioned – the Patriots
and Rams – have realistic Super Bowl aspirations, the Giants are not considered among those to pose a true threat to hoist the Lombardi Trophy, at least according to recent betting odds.
The Patriots are fresh off an appearance in Super Bowl 60, which they lost to the Seattle Seahawks. The Rams were a Super Bowl favorite in 2025, losing in the NFC championship game to the eventual NFL champs.
According to BetMGM, at +6600 the Giants have 18 teams ahead of them to navigate to become a favorite to appear in SoFi Stadium next February. They're tied with NFC East rival Washington, while the Dallas Cowboys (+2500) and Philadelphia Eagles (+1800) both pace them in the division.
Win projections are also less kind to the Giants, with a number of 7½ indicating that they may be a .500 team when the dust settles.
There might be more of a personal connection to Dart, who introduced Trump at a rally earlier this year. That led to a minor controversy with Giants teammate Abdul Carter, though the pair would later clear the air.
The Trump sports curse
A small bit of a jinx has seemingly developed around the president and teams that he's involved himself with in recent years. Those teams have had a tendency of faltering in the biggest moments.
- In the 2026 NBA Finals, the eventual NBA champion New York Knicks lost a game in which Trump attended. That was the only game they would lose during the Finals, and it also snapped their 13-game playoff win streak.
- The United States Men's National Team would lose their knockout stage matchup in the 2026 World Cup after Trump intervened with the decision to allow Folarin Balogun to play.
- The U.S. lost the 2025 Ryder Cup after Trump attended the first day of the competition at Bethpage Black on Long Island, New York. Trump would guarantee victory after the first day for the U.S., telling reporters, "we're going to get it done. One way or another, we'll get it done."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Donald Trump picks a trio of teams as his favorites for Super Bowl 61
