Ranking the Best Super Bowls Ever Played Ahead of Super Bowl LIX

• There have been 58 Super Bowls played and the quality of the game itself is a crapshoot
• Multiple factors play a role in whether it is a “good” or “bad” game, memorable or forgettable
• As the Kansas City Chiefs are on the precipice of history, past games may serve as a prologue

As Super Bowl LIX approaches, It’s a subjective endeavor to rank the best Super Bowls ever played. Past “Big Games” have been surprisingly entertaining, horrific disappointments, and somewhere in between.

It’s nuanced. The argument could be made that the NFL has intentionally receded the game itself into the background to keep non-football fans tuned in and entertained.

So, which actual games were the best ever played? Let’s look in chronological order.

Super Bowl X – Steelers beat Cowboys 21-17

Defending champ Pittsburgh was a 7-point favorite over upstart Dallas. The Cowboys were retooling from the old guard that had epitomized Tom Landry’s team from the late-1960s to their first championship in Super Bowl VI. In the standings, Dallas was the fourth-best team in the NFC behind the LA Rams, Minnesota, and St. Louis.

But they dropped Minnesota on Roger Staubach’s Hail Mary to Drew Pearson, then blew out LA in the NFC Championship.

The Super Bowl was a back-and-forth battle. Dallas led 10-7 at the half. Pittsburgh took a late lead on a Terry Bradshaw to Lynn Swann 64-yard bomb. Staubach hit Percy Howard with a 34-yard TD pass late and got the ball back with under a minute left. From Pittsburgh’s 38-yard-line, Staubach tried two Hail Marys, the second of which was intercepted in the end zone as time ran out.

Super Bowl XIII – Steelers beat Cowboys 35-31

Dallas and Pittsburgh enjoyed the battle three years earlier and they decided to do it again. This time, Dallas was the defending champ having beaten Denver 27-10 in Super Bowl XII. They were on a collision course from Day 1.

Super Bowl XIII was even more of a rollercoaster than their previous matchup. The Steelers looked like they had the game in hand in the fourth quarter after a Franco Harris 22-yard TD run and a Bradshaw to Swann 18-yard connection gave them a 35-17 lead. Dallas scored twice to cut the lead to 35-31. Pittsburgh recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

Fairly or unfairly, the key is believed to have been veteran Cowboys tight end Jackie Smith’s third-quarter drop of a would-be tying touchdown pass from Staubach. Smith had carved out a Hall of Fame career with the Cardinals but is remembered (not in a good way) for this one play.

Super Bowl XXIII – 49ers beat Bengals 20-16

San Francisco was 6-5 after 11 games. They won four of their last five to finish at 10-6 and take the division. They blew out the Vikings and Bears by a combined score of 62-12 to reach Super Bowl XXIII for a rematch with the team they beat in Super Bowl XVI, Cincinnati.

Cincinnati had the 1988 MVP, quarterback Boomer Esiason, and a sensation at running back, Ickey Woods with his “Ickey Shuffle” touchdown celebration. Bengals head coach Sam Wyche was a disciple of 49ers head coach Bill Walsh going back to his days as a backup quarterback when Walsh was a Bengals assistant. He was the 49ers’ QB coach for the previous Super Bowl.

Esiason was awful completing 11 of 25 passes for 144 yards. San Francisco largely contained Woods, holding him to 79 yards rushing on 20 carries. Still, Cincinnati had a 16-13 lead with time running down. Starting on the ‘Niners’ 7-yard-line, Joe Montana marched his team 93 yards for the winning TD pass to John Taylor. Along the way, he spotted actor John Candy in the crowd and pointed it out to his teammates in the huddle, just to show that the nickname “Joe Cool” was real.

Super Bowl XXV, Giants beat Bills 20-19

Buffalo was expecting to play San Francisco as the 49ers went for their threepeat. They got the Giants instead. Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick had a deceptively simple game plan to stop Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, and the rest of the Bills’ high-powered offense that had just destroyed the Raiders in the AFC Championship Game. They resolved to keep the ball out of Kelly’s hands as much as possible by smothering the clock, letting Thomas get all the yards he wanted, and hammering their receivers to render them ineffectual late in the game.

Giants’ running back Ottis Anderson pounded for 102 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown. The strategy worked as Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal with time expiring to give the Giants the win.

Super Bowl XXXVI – Patriots beat Rams 20-17

This was Belichick and Tom Brady’s first Super Bowl. Early in the season, Belichick was worried about getting fired after starting the season 0-2 and nobody knew who or what a “Tom Brady” was. Starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe was seriously injured against the Jets and in came Brady.

St. Louis had won the Super Bowl two years earlier and their “Greatest Show on Turf” with Kurt Warner, Marshal Faulk, Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, et, al. was at its apex. The Rams were 14-point favorites.

The Patriots took a 17-3 lead into the fourth quarter before Warner engineered two touchdown scoring drives. Brady got the ball back with time running down, drove the Pats into field goal range and Adam Vinatieri kicked the game-winner.

Super Bowl XLII – Giants beat Patriots 17-14

The Patriots were going for their undefeated season and entered the game 12.5-point favorites over the Giants. Belichick had pushed the team all season, never taking his foot off the gas from training camp onward and they were exhausted by the time they got to Phoenix for the Super Bowl. Had the Giants been a team that would have bowed to them, they would have gotten through. But New York put up a fight in a 38-35 Week 17 loss and knew they could stay with New England.

The Giants played a near-flawless game and were occasionally lucky with David Tyree’s helmet catch on a desperation Eli Manning pass to keep their final scoring drive alive. Manning hit Plaxico Burress for the winning score to score one of the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history.

Super Bowl LI – Patriots beat Falcons 34-28

This was arguably New England’s most dominant team since its near-undefeated season. Early in the game, it looked like there would be the same result — an upset loss — only this would be a blowout.

Atlanta jumped out to a 28-3 lead with 8:31 left in the third quarter. Still, when Brady hit James White with a 5-yard TD with 2:06 remaining in the third, the Falcons from the coaching staff on down were clearly starting to sweat. With just under six minutes left in the game, Brady hit Danny Amendola for a 6-yard TD and converted the 2-point conversion to bring it to 28-20, a one-score game.

All Atlanta needed was one first down to seal the deal, but they couldn’t even get that. Brady got the ball back. White ran for a TD with 57 seconds left. Brady hit Amendola for the 2-point conversion to tie it. The Pats won on an overtime TD run by White without Atlanta even touching the ball.

Hoping for a Good Game Between KC and Philly

What makes a great Super Bowl? Is it a seesaw battle? A comeback? A monumental upset?

Hopefully, the Chiefs and Eagles will forge a memorable battle in Super Bowl LIX whether Kansas City completes its threepeat or not and the topics will be Saquon Barkley, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Andy Reid, and Jalen Hurts entertainingly and not because the game was non-competitive or outright bad.

So, what’s your prediction and will this be a great Super Bowl?

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