Since history is told by the victors, we often forget the great teams, players, and coaches that lost some of our most celebrated games – particularly the Super Bowl, where logic has often been flipped on its head. The media and masses seem to feel that either the muscular Chiefs will lay waste to the Buccaneers, or that Tampa Bay - err, make that Tompa Bay - can add one more unlikely line in the archives.
Only one can be right, though. So, with the winners in mind, we offer a nod to some of the greatest teams to lose the Super Bowl. This is entirely objective, of course, but each game has indeed been recorded and archived as an upset.
To what extent, you decide.
5) Super Bowl IV - Vikings
Most folks think the Jets were the last AFL team to win a Super Bowl. In fact, it was the 1969 Kansas City Chiefs. Yes, those Chiefs of Hank Stram, his hair piece, and his fabulous battle cries all game that were recorded by a keenly placed microphone. All his quirks were caught by NFL Films, with the funny and fascinating coach pacing the sideline and shrieking for his top receiver, "Where's Otis?!?!" Or he shouts at a ref for a blown call, asks another ref a question, and then forgot what he asked. Best of all was Stram's exhortation of QB Len Dawson - whom Stram loved to call Leonard - to "keep matriculating the ball downfield." All of which led to a shocking 23-7 whipping of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV on Jan. 11, 1970, at Tulane Stadium.
The '69 Vikings, the early Purple People Eaters, trampled over a loaded NFL, finishing with a 12-2 record, and beat the Rams and Browns to win the NFL title. They entered the Super Bowl as 12-point favorites over the supposedly softer Chiefs after leading the NFL in points scored (379) and in points allowed (133) – their 246-point differential at least 100 points better than any other NFL team. Like most clubs from this era, the Vikings were led by a Hall of Fame coach, Bud Grant, who was the first to lose four Super Bowls, before being joined by Marv Levy in Buffalo. If the Jets and Joe Namath didn't convince the hardline NFL advocates that the AFL was just as good, then this game did. The two leagues then merged, and a superb team in Minnesota became a footnote to a talented Chiefs team, led by a great quarterback and a goofball head coach.
4) Super Bowl 50 - Panthers
For some reason, the old-school NFL got jiggy and erased the Roman numerals for this one, No. 50, between the Denver Broncos and the rather favored Carolina Panthers. Carolina was one of those rare 15-1 juggernauts that freckle football history, led by league MVP Cam Newton, the hulking, acrobatic QB who scored 45 total touchdowns and tossed just 10 picks. The Broncos were, oddly enough, strong everywhere but under center, where Peyton Manning had clearly lost his might, and his lightning-chucking arm that not long before set the NFL record with 55 TD passes. Manning was marginal now, so it was only fitting that Newton was about to take the torch from the most prolific passer in NFL history.
But the Broncos had other plans. Sack master Von Miller went wild, and had his mail forwarded to the Panthers pocket. He harassed Newton all game, sacked him several times, and caused a crucial turnover that led to a Broncos touchdown, which led to a 24-10 stunner. Miller was the rare defender to win Super Bowl MVP, and the Broncos covered the spread as at least one touchdown underdogs.
Sadly, the postgame was best known for Newton's moody presser, during which he grunted responses, and then left long before he was supposed to. All of it masked a sublime season in which they rampaged the NFC West in the playoffs, beating Seattle before destroying the Cardinals 49-15 in the conference title game.
3) Super Bowl XXXVI - Rams
On Feb. 3, 2002, an upstart group called the Pats, led by a tall, awkward quarterback named Brady, shocked football fans, sportsbooks, and the Rams, 20-17, to win their first Super Bowl. Just the year before, the Dick Vermeil-coached Rams, led by a former stock boy named Kurt Warner, stunned the NFL by racing through the 1999 season and conquering the Tennessee Titans to win their maiden Super Bowl. They were quickly branded the "Greatest Show on Turf" for their electric, four-pronged attack led by Warner, who threw to Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce and then had the alarming luxury of handing the ball to the best player in the sport, halfback Marshall Faulk. They finished the season 14-2, with Warner named NFL MVP, and scored an astonishing 503 points (for contrast, the 13-3 Bears scored 338 points).
Since that game, which quickly shuttered one potential dynasty and started another, there has been conjecture, largely from Faulk and other prominent Rams players, that New England cheated in the first half by spying on their practice before the game to learn which plays the Rams would run ahead of time. New England vehemently denies this, of course, but it is curious that the Rams were stifled in the first half, then rumbled back to tie the game in the fourth quarter, once they changed their signals at halftime.
2) Super Bowl III - Colts
If history is indeed written by the winners, then Joe Namath is the ultimate historian. After the Jets eclipsed the Colts on January 12, 1969, winning Super Bowl III by a 16-7 score despite being 18-point dogs, we only recall Gang Green's deeds and Namath flexing his forefinger as he jogged out of the Orange Bowl, and into history. He guaranteed the win at a time when hubris and bluster were blasphemous.
What most folks may not know is that those Colts were a behemoth. They plowed through the NFL to a 13-1 record, and then whipped the Vikings in the playoffs and pummeled the Browns in the NFL title game. They were led by a Hall of Fame coach, Don Shula, who also has the most wins in league history; by a defensive assistant named Chuck Noll; and by quarterback Earl Morrall, who was NFL MVP that year. Even the immortal John Unitas made a fourth-quarter cameo. But none of it mattered because the Jets won - quite easily, frankly - and Joe Namath became a sex symbol of the counterculture. Most of those Colts say they would have whipped the Jets nine out of 10 times…then why didn't they during the one chance they got?
1) Super Bowl XLII - Patriots
At a certain point you stop pretending you know the Roman numerals. This game is glorified by a magical catch by an ordinary player, a play just as shocking for the team that allowed it as the team that executed it. This play, which may go down as the greatest in human history, is certainly the greatest play by one of our two NFL teams. We refer to David Tyree, of course, who caught a ball against his helmet while swallowed up by several Patriots defenders on a broken play in which Eli Manning tore free of two sacks before heaving a wobbly ball downfield. The impossible pass led to an improbable TD pass to Plaxico Burress, and Big Blue sealed the big upset, 17-14, on February 3, 2008, in Arizona.
You know the rest, how unlikely the G-Men's journey really was. But what about the Pats? New England entered that Super Bowl 18-0, primed to pass Don Shula's 1972 Dolphins (17-0) as the best in league history. Tom Brady, then 30, was in his prime, and finally had a fellow immortal to catch his passes in Randy Moss. With an upgraded tool set, Brady was first-team All-Pro and win NFL MVP after leading the league with a 69 percent completion percentage, 4,806 yards, and 50 touchdowns (against just 8 interceptions). He also led the NFL with 300 passing yards per game, an 87 QBR, and a 117.2 passer rating. So naturally, the Pats were double-digit favorites over the lowly Giants, a club that finished 10-6 and didn't even win the NFC East. They made up for it in January, and one week in February.
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