Blog

The Best Players in Super Bowl History

Posted by Custom Throwback Jerseys on 10th Jan 2020

The Super Bowl has been the premier event in the NFL ever since the first of these games was held on January 15, 1967. How could it be anything else? It’s the game that decides the champions of the National Football League, the team that gets to lay claim to the prestigious award that since 1971 has been known as the Vince Lombardi Trophy.¹

Although the first and second games were formally known as the "AFL-NFL World Championship Game," the truth is that a lot of people, including the media, were calling it the Super Bowl from the very beginning, inspired by a suggestion from Lamar Hunt during the merger talks of 1966.²

With Super Bowl LIV coming up fast on the horizon, now’s a good time to have a look at the legendary performers in the history of this annual gridiron event—not necessarily the best-ever players of the NFL, but those who’ve managed to achieve the most in the Big Game.

Tom Brady

Were you expecting someone else? You don’t even have to make an argument for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady as the greatest player in the history of the Super Bowl. All you have to do is point at his stats. He has more Super Bowl rings (six) than any player in NFL history, edging out Charles Haley's five-ring collection.³ (Pats coach Bill Belichick has the overall record for Super Bowl rings, with eight.)⁴

Brady can also boast many other Super Bowl records, including these:

Most appearances as a player (9)
Most career passing completions (256)
Most career passing yards (2838)
Most career passing touchdowns (18)
Most passing yards in a single game (505, in Super Bowl LI),
Most passes without an interception in a single game (48, in XLII and LII)
Most passes completed in a single game (43, in LI)
Most game-winning drives (6)
Oldest QB to win a Super Bowl (41.5 years old when he played LIII)
Most Super Bowls passing for 300 yards (4) ^{5 6}

Pretty good for a guy who was the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL Draft.⁷

If you’re going to pick the #1 Tom Brady Super Bowl highlight, there are more than a few possibilities to choose from. We’ll go with the obvious choice: Brady’s incredible come-from-behind victory in LI, which saw the Pats miraculously overcoming a 28-3 deficit to capture victory in the only overtime Super Bowl to date.

Joe Montana

As quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, “The Comeback Kid” went 4-0 in his Super Bowl appearances and was named MVP three times (which was the record until Brady came along). Joe Montana was legendary for his ability to stay calm under pressure—which earned him an alternate nickname, “Joe Cool”⁸—and it’s no surprise that the now-or-never tension of the Super Bowl seemed to bring out the best in him.

His greatest Super Bowl performance came in XXIII. With the 49ers down 16-13 and only three minutes on the clock, Montana directed a merciless 92-yard march down the field, concluding with a 10-yard touchdown pass to John Taylor for the win.⁹

Oddly, that was the only one of Montana's Super Bowl victories where he didn't get the MVP. It went to Jerry Rice, who caught 11 passes that night.

Terry Bradshaw

Like Montana, the famed Pittsburgh Steelers QB managed to rack up a four-and-oh record in his Super Bowl career, and he did it in a six-year period. He also has the distinction of being one of only two players to be selected as Super Bowl MVP two years in a row (XIII & XIV).¹⁰ A tough competitor with a strong arm, Terry Bradshaw seemed to save his best efforts for the postseason, for which Steelers fans are eternally grateful.

Bradshaw’s best Super Bowl moment? Probably his extraordinary 64-yard TD pass to Lynn Swann in Super Bowl X. It’s all the more impressive when you consider that Bradshaw was under such intense pressure from the Cowboys’ defense on the play that he was knocked unconscious immediately after the ball left his hand.

Bart Starr

Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr was the MVP for the first two Super Bowls ever held, which alone is enough to earn him an honored place in NFL history. His career passer rating in the Super Bowl was a very solid 106.0.¹¹ Starr, always at his best when it mattered most, won 9 out of 10 playoff games in his career.¹²

Those weren’t his first trips to the summit of the NFL, though. Prior to the AFL-NFL merger, Starr led the Green Bay Packers to three NFL championships: 1961, 1962, and 1965. If the Super Bowl had been established just five years earlier, Starr’s reputation today might be even higher among football fans, many of whom tend to ignore the pre-merger days.

Joe Namath

This overview of Super Bowl glory just wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging the achievement of Broadway Joe. There is no other player in NFL history whose fame rests so heavily on his performance at the Super Bowl. In fact, a lot of casual football fans have trouble thinking of any Namath accomplishments on the field apart from leading the New York Jets to victory in Super Bowl III. That’s not really fair to Joe, however.

He was famous before he ever played a single pro game. He signed a $400,000 contract in 1965 to play for the Jets—an unprecedented amount of money for a greenhorn—and managed to capture AFL Rookie of the Year honors. In 1967, he achieved another milestone by becoming the first NFL quarterback to throw for 4000 yards in a season.¹³

The Namath legend really begins with his appearance at the Miami Touchdown Club just a few days before Super Bowl III. Annoyed by a heckling Colts fan in the audience, Namath famously retorted "We're gonna win the game. I guarantee it."¹⁴

That unplanned comment was soon to become football's version of Babe Ruth's "called shot." Just as few observers really expected Ruth to knock the ball into the stands that day back in 1932, no one who didn't wear a Jets uniform on Sundays really thought Namath had a chance of fulfilling his promise. The Jets were 18-point underdogs.¹⁵ However, they were also determined to shut up the naysayers—and that’s what they did. The Jets not only won the game 16-7; they kept the Colts scoreless until late in the fourth quarter.¹⁶

For his role in engineering one of the biggest upsets in football history, Namath was named Super Bowl MVP. Some critics have questioned the choice, noting that Namath's numbers on the day (206 passing yards, no touchdown throws) weren't all that amazing and that running back Matt Snell (121 rushing yards; scored Jets' only touchdown) might have been a more appropriate choice.¹⁷

Also, the Jets’ defense deserves a lot of credit for the team’s victory in such a low-scoring game. Still, you can’t really dismiss Namath’s role in expertly guiding the Jets’ offensive efforts on that day back in 1969.

Chuck Howley

Chuck who? Howley was a linebacker who played 13 seasons (1961-73) with the Dallas Cowboys, and he was selected to the Pro Bowl no fewer than six times.^{18 19} We’re listing him here due to his performance in Super Bowl V, the turnover-filled “Blunder Bowl,” where he nabbed two interceptions (one in the end zone) during a game that his Cowboys ultimately lost 16-13 to the Baltimore Colts.^{20 21}

What’s so special about that, you ask? Howley ended up being named the Super Bowl MVP. It's still the only time in Super Bowl history that MVP honors were awarded to a player from the losing team. Incidentally, Howley returned to the Big Game the following year, grabbing his third Super Bowl interception en route to a 24-3 Cowboys victory over the Miami Dolphins.²²

Football fans owe it to themselves to check out what we have to offer in our collection of the finest authentic NFL throwback jerseys that can be found anywhere on the 'net. Feel free to contact Custom Throwback Jerseys with your questions about our inventory of classic NFL jerseys.

Sources:

The Evolution of Hockey

Hockey has changed a lot since James Creighton organized the first indoor ice hockey game in 1875. In fact, you might be surprised to learn just when some now-traditional aspects of hockey actually made their debut.For instance, the Stanley Cup was first awarded in 1893, even though the NHL itself wasn't established until 1917. The center red line wasn't introduced [...]

Notable Achievements in NHL Power-Play History

The power play is one of the most exciting events in hockey, and on average it happens a half-dozen times in an NHL game. Some hapless player gets caught doing something naughty, and he’s forced to spend some quality time in the sin bin while the rest of the team tries not to get slaughtered during his temporary absence from [...]

2020 Stanley Cup Predictions

The Stanley Cup Finals of 2019 was notable for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that it was the first-ever championship for the eventual winners, the St. Louis Blues, after more than half a century of competition in the National Hockey League. The Blues, who arrived in the NHL as part of the 1967 [...]

Best Coaches in NHL History

If you want to get a discussion going among a band of hockey fans, ask who were the best coaches in the NHL. A lot of fans have some pretty strong opinions, but there are a few names that seem to come up time and time again. One reason these coaches' names come up is because of their win records. [...]

Best MLB Players Who Never Won a World Series Ring

Being part of a World Series championship team is the goal of every player in Major League Baseball, for obvious reasons. The World Series title is not only the biggest prize in baseball, it’s one of the most prestigious championships in all of sports. It's a fiercely contested prize, though: Only one out of the 30 current major [...]

Little-Known NHL Records

The thing about NHL records is that the answer to any trivia question on this subject is likely to be “Wayne Gretzky.” That’s an exaggeration, of course, but not much of one. Two decades after the Great One finally hung up his skates, he still owns sixty records recognized by the National Hockey League, from most career points (2,857) to [...]

Unusual MLB Records

More than just about any other game in the world, Major League Baseball is all about the numbers. It’s a game where a simple box score can tell an emotional rollercoaster of a story. Where even the most casual fan knows their RBIs from their ERAs. Where the race for the Triple Crown is as hotly debated as the [...]

Unusual MLB Facts and Statistics

Baseball fans tend to be statistics fans as well. That’s why so many of us happily embrace the term “stathead.” Who hit the most home runs? Who has the most career stolen bases? Which team has won the most World Series titles? Ask your average MLB fan any of these questions, and you’ll probably receive the correct answer quicker than [...]

Famous Events in World Series History

For baseball fans, everything leads up to the World Series, the annual best-of-seven event between the champions of the National League and American League. The winner of the World Series receives the Commissioner's Trophy, not to mention the honor of being regarded as the best squad in the known universe, at least until next season.It goes without saying that the history [...]

Brands

Additional Information

Site Information