Greatest Super Bowls of All-Time

This was a little post (not here) I wrote a year ago after the Super Bowl. I'll share it with y'all. Let the debating begin.


The 12 best, most exciting Super Bowls as polled by one guy, namely me. I meant to do the top 10, so number 11 and 12 are Honorable Mentions. (And I also had to put one in that has Dallas winning, since so many of the others have them losing, in order to keep the fanatics happy). As you peruse through the list, you can see that we are in the midst of the era of great Super Bowls.

12) XXX - Dallas 27, Pittsburgh 17 - The only Dallas win that was not a blow out, and a valiant effort by the underdog Steelers, until O'Donnell's two picks to Larry Brown.

11) XVII - Washington 27, Miami 17 - Featuring John Riggins' 4th and 1 rush for 43 yards to put the 'Skins up for good. One thing I remember about this game is that a new TV show premiered after the game. It was the A-Team, which is probably the 2nd greatest show of the 80's, next to of course, Magnum, p.i. I was 12 at the time, the perfect age to take in the excitement and grandeur of Hannibal and the gang.

10) XIII - Pittsburgh 35, Dallas 31 - Okay, now we get to the Dallas losses. Jake-what's-his-name drops an easy catch in the end zone that would have made the difference for the Cowboys.

9) X - Pittsburgh 21, Dallas 17 - This Super Bowl defined the Big Game for a decade or more. As a kid, I remember just about every NFL toy or product used Pitt vs. Dallas in its advertising. They even made movies about it - remember Black Sunday with the big blimp almost killing everyone in the stands? And the little guys on the electric vibrating game? Super Bowl X was a turning point, as it started to become a huge event with that game. The other nice thing about it was that it was played during the day. I miss day games in sports. Everything's so late these days, I can hardly stay awake to watch them.

8) V - Baltimore 16, Dallas 13 - Jim O'Brien's last-second field goal wins it for the Colts. The only Super Bowl where the MVP came from the losing team - Chuck Howley, LB for the Cowboys.

7) III - N.Y. Jets 16, Baltimore 7 - Not an incredibly exciting game, but oh so significant for the future of the NFL. This proved that the AFL was for real and led to the eventual NFL/AFL merger. The AFC then went on to dominate the NFC for more than a decade.

6) XXIII - San Francisco 20, Cincinnati 16 - Montana's drive in the last seconds to defeat Sam, Boomer, Ickey and his stupid shuffle.

5) XXV - N.Y. Giants 20, Buffalo 19 - Norwood's missed field goal (47 yards - no chip shot) on the last play of the game. Kind of a sloppy game overall, but exciting nonetheless.

4) XXXVI - New England 20, St. Louis 17 - Brady's drive in the last minute and Vinateri's last second field goal, as the huge underdog Patriots defeat the Greatest Show on Turf.

3) XXXIV - St. Louis 23, Tennessee 16 - That last play of the game may go down as the most memorable play in Super Bowl history. We all remember McNair, Warner, Faulk, even Dyson who almost scored on that last play, but can you name the guy who tackled Dyson? Mike Jones. His tackle was textbook, and it was the most clutch tackle in Super Bowl history.

2) XXXVIII - New England 32, Carolina 29 - Brady's drive in the last minute and Vinateri's last second field goal - wait a minute, wasn't that XXXVI? Oh yeah, they did it twice. This game was actually the better of the two, and could almost be given the number one spot, as it featured more lead changes or ties than any other Super Bowl.

1) XXXII - Denver 31, Green Bay 24 - Johnny Boy finally does it! I remember during that stretch of the 80's and 90's when the Super Bowl was a laughing stock - boring, blow-out games with Denver as the whipping boy nearly every year. (I bet Cleveland would have liked to have been whipped a time or two, though.) In this one however, Denver was again the underdog but came out on top on a great back-and-forth struggle. Favre against Elway. It couldn't get any better, and it still hasn't, at least yet. This was the turning point of the NFC dominating for 15 years, and now the AFC has had a good run since then. Everyone expected a blow-out, but they got the Greatest Super Bowl of All-Time.

 

Umm, thanks for the comment.

 

Maybe if you are a Bears fan, but not for the rest of us. The 1980's and early 90's had some of the worst Super Bowls ever, and that one was among them. It was a shame the Patriots made it that year. They beat Miami in the AFC Championship. What would have been great was a rematch of Chicago and Miami in the Super Bowl. Now that would have been interesting, and probably a much closer game. Even if Chicago won by a couple of TD's, it still could have ranked as one of the best, considering the context. But the Patriots of the mid-80's? What a snooze.

 

Time to pull a Rippon and resurrect an old thread.

I posted this two years ago. I think I need to tweak the list a little, due to some new information.

I would put last night's game as no. 1 or 2. I am leaning towards no. 1.

The current no. 12 falls off the list (it wasn't that great anyways).

I would probably move Super Bowl V to the no. 10 slot and move up the two Pitt/Dalls ones.

Last years Indy/Chi Super Bowl would come very close to cracking the top 12. For now, I would leave it off the list.

I am ambivalent about the two N.E. wins, in light of the fact that they likely cheated their way to those wins. However, the games themselves were great. I guess I'll leave them on the list. However, I would move the Rams/Titans game to no. 3 ahead of Pats/Panthers.

I am inclined to move Super Bowl III to no. 9 and further move up the two Pitt/Dallas games.

What do you think?

 

Good points about the former NFL teams actually winning in the 70's. I always forget that the Steelers were from the old NFL.

As for the merger, the merger didn't happen until after Super Bowl IV, correct? I know that through at least SB IV, the AFL was just that - the American Football League, not the AFC. In other words, they were still a competing league with the NFL. Here is a quick article from Wiki that says the merger was in 1970, which was the season for Super Bowl V.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFL-NFL_Merger