Best Super Bowls

For years, the Super Bowl had a well-earned reputation for being all hype and little or no substance. Each year, the media would descend on the lucky city chosen to host the event, send a week’s worth of breathless  hyperbole back to the home folks…then sit and watch one team completely dominate the other on a telecast better remembered for its commercials.

More recently, however, the game has lived up to its billing. Last year’s New York Giants-New England matchup didn’t look like much on paper, but a real game broke out before the Giants came away with a shocking upset of the previously unbeaten Patriots. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ come-from behind win over Arizona in Super Bowl XLIII belongs in the discussion as well.

Which was the Super Bowl ever? Here’s our list. Let the arguments begin.

III –New York Jets 16, Baltimore 7: The game itself wasn’t all that great, but this was the Super Bowl that legitimized the Super Bowl. After two beatings at the hands of the Lombardi Packers, the American Football League was looking like it really didn’t belong with the big boys. Joe Namath and the Jets changed all that with an upset made all the more satisfying in the wake of Namath’s famous guarantee that New York would prevail.

XLII — New York Giants 17, New England 14: Given little or no chance against the unbeaten Pats, the Giants shook off losing a fourth quarter lead and promptly drove to the winning score. Eli Manning’s escape from pressure and David Tyree’s circus catch will be toasted in the Big Apple for years to come. A great finish to a very good game.

XLIII — Pittsburgh 27, Arizona 23: Santonio Holmes caught a six-yard touchdown pass with 35 seconds remaining to give the Steelers a record-setting sixth Super Bowl win. Arizona, which trailed 20-7 at one point, had gone ahead 23-20 with just 2:37 to play before Pittsburgh rallied in the final minute.

XXIII — San Francisco 20, Cincinnati 16: The upstart Bengals had a 16-13 lead in the fourth quarter before Joe Montana took the Niners on a long scoring drive that culminated in a touchdown pass to John Taylor. San Francisco beat Cincinnati in a five-point game seven years earlier.

XXXIV — St. Louis 23, Tennessee 16: The Greatest Show on Turf barely escaped when Tennessee receiver Kevin Dyson came up a yard short of the goal line on the game’s final play.

XXXVIII — New England 32, Carolina 29: Jake Delhomme appeared to be sending the game to overtime with a touchdown pass with just over a minute to play, but Adam Vinatieri won it for the Pats with a field goal with four seconds left.

XXXVI — New England 20, St. Louis 17: While John Madden was questioning the Patriots decision to run a two-minute drill at the end of the game, Tom Brady was marching his team into position for Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning kick.

XXV — New York Giants 20, Buffalo 19: Who knows what might have happened to the Bills of the 1990s if Scott Norwood’s 47-yard field goal had found the mark in the game’s final seconds? Instead, it was the start of four straight Super Bowl losses for Buffalo.

XIII — Pittsburgh 35, Dallas 31: The heavily favored Steelers built a big early lead, then held off a furious Cowboy comeback. The Dallas cause wasn’t helped when normally sure-handed tight end Jackie Smith dropped a touchdown pass with Pittsburgh up, 21-14.

XXXII — Denver 31, Green Bay 24: The Packers were going for a repeat, but John Elway’s time finally came. Green Bay’s strategy to let the Broncos score a touchdown (rather than milk clock and kick a field goal) late in the game was a bit of a head-scratcher.

XXXIX — New England 24, Philadelphia 21: Terrell Owens performed courageously, coming back early from a fractured leg, but the Pats’ Deion Branch was the game’s MVP. Owens’ suggestion that quarterback Donovan McNabb “choked” was the beginning of the end of their relationship.

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