Greatest Super Bowls of All Time

Yesterday I reviewed the best catches ever in Super Bowl history.  Today I went right for the juglar.  These are the 5 best Super Bowls of all time.  In 46 games there has been some snoozers and some great performances.  Chief among these are the classic upset, of which this list is heavy.  Enjoy, and as always, feel free to comment and disagree!

5. Super Bowl I  Packers 35 Chiefs 10 "Max McGee's Drunken Night"

No, this wasn't the best Super Bowl of all time, and it wasn't even called the "Super Bowl" at the time, but the brain child of Pete Rozel pitted the champion of the NFL versus the champion of the upstart AFL.  Though the NFL's Packers thoroughly dominated the Chiefs, the game legitimized the AFL and would lead a few years later to the super merger and the NFL that we know today.  The game is best known for the performance of Packers tight end Max McGee's 7 receptions for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns.  That performance may seem pedestrian, but the story is that McGee, the backup TE, got drunk the night before, thinking he wouldn't get much playing time.  When the starter Boyd Dowler went down, Max shook off his hangover, made the first Super Bowl touchdown, and became the first Super Bowl star.  What many don't know is that he couldn't even find his helmet and had grab the first one he could find!

4. Super Bowl XXXVI Patriots 20 Rams 17 "Tom Brady's Coming Out"

The St. Louis Rams' "Greatest Show on Turf" looked to win their second Super Bowl in three years, but the underdog Patriots had other plans.  The Pats were a surprise Super Bowl team, making their way through a minefield of great teams in the playoffs, including a shellacking of the top seed Pittsburgh Steelers.  That alone was impressive, but doing so with rookie backup quarterback Tom Brady made the feat nearly miraculous.  Brady had taken Drew Bledsoe's starting spot earlier in the year due to an injury, but when Bledsoe returned, their head coach decided to stick with his rookie quarterback, a very risky and unpopular decision in the Boston area.  It worked though (and Bostonites have been smiling ever since.)  Tied at 17 all and with only 1:30 on the clock and no time outs, Brady led his team down the field to set up Adam Vinateiri's 48 yard field goal with no time remaining to shock St. Louis and begin the Patriots own dynasty that would result in two more Super Bowl victories in the new centuries's first five years.

3. Super Bowl XXV Giants 20 Bills 19 "Wide Right"




Everyone just knew that the Bills were going to win.  They had the game's best all-purpose running back in Thurmon Thomas, one of the best quarterbacks in Jim Kelly, and possibly the most accurate kicker in Scott Norwood.  That the New York Giants had made the Super Bowl was a bit of a side note to the Bills high octane "Run and Shoot" offense.  Well, on this night the Bills offense didn't run or shoot very well, mostly because the Giants held the ball for over 40 minutes, still a Super Bowl record.  Always an X factor, Bill Parcels had his team well prepared, and a great game plan of Otis Anderson running for 102 yards, Dave Megget's129 all-purpose yards, and Jeff Hostetler not making any mistakes.  Still, the Bills had their chance.  Kelly drove the Bills to the Giants 29 yard line with 8 seconds to go to set up Norwood for a 47 yard field goal, practically a chip shot for him.  Unfortunately for the Bills, the ball just missed wide right and the Bills fortunes went down the drain with the kick.  The Bills would represent the AFC in the next three Super Bowls, but this was the only game they had any shot of winning.

2. Super Bowl XIII Steelers 35 Cowboys 31 "Bless His Heart!"


The Cowboys and Steelers meeting up in the Super Bowl is the NFL's version of Celtics-Lakers, Ali-Frasier, or Yankees-Red Sox.  It's possibly the greatest collection of football talent ever to take the field for a single game.  14 players and 2 coaches would find their way to the Hall of Fame.  If the football gods (or NFL execs) had it their way, these two teams would meet in the Super Bowl every year.  Thankfully we've had it that way three times, but the best of those games is Super Bowl XIII.  The game was close throughout, but turned on a single play. Late in the 3rd quarter with Pittsburgh up 21-14, HOFer Roger Starbach drove the Cowboys to the Steelers 10 yard line.  On a third down play, Starbach found future HOFer Jackie Smith wide open in the back of the end zone.  The normally sure-handed Smith lost his footing.  As his feet came out from under him, the ball, thrown a little low, bounced right off his hands, prompting one of the most famous broadcasting calls in Super Bowl history by Verne Lundquist.  "Bless his heart!  He's got to be the sickest man in America!"  The Cowboys settled for a field goal.  Pittsburgh took over at this point and were able to squelch a furious Dallas rally at the end when war hero HOFer Rocky Blier recovered an onside kick to preserve the win.


1.??? Gotta wait till tomorrow.  Feel free to guess though!