Analysis
7/7/23
8 min read
7 Best Super Bowl Performances That Didn't Earn MVP
There has been a Super Bowl MVP selected after each of the 57 Super Bowls. Forty-eight players have earned the award and the immortality that goes along with it.
Sometimes the wrong player has been awarded the Super Bowl MVP. Quarterbacks have won the award 32 times (56 percent), but sometimes they win when a teammate is more deserving. On other occasions, it is the running back, wide receiver, defensive great or return man who gets the MVP from the more deserving quarterback.
Here are my choices for seven times the Super Bowl MVP went to the wrong player.
Top 7 'Almost' Super Bowl MVPs
7. Super Bowl XXV: Jeff Hostetler
Real MVP Winner: Ottis Anderson
Ottis Anderson ran the ball 24 times for 102 yards and a touchdown, but I was shocked then and now thinking he was the game's MVP.
Here are a few things to remember. The Buffalo Bills led the NFL in scoring in 1990 and scored 44 and 51 points in their two playoff wins to advance to the Super Bowl. The New York Giants were trying to become the first team to win a Super Bowl with a backup quarterback. Jeff Hostetler took over the reins in December after Phil Simms was injured.
The MVC (most valuable coach) was Giants defensive coordinator Bill Belichick, whose game plan kept Jim Kelly and his receivers smothered for most of the game. But the MVP was Hostetler. He completed 20 of 32 passes for 222 yards with a touchdown. He didn’t throw an interception.
The play he made that helped win the game the most came deep in Giants' territory late in the second quarter. Hostetler tripped on Anderson’s foot (he was chipping, trying to help Jumbo Elliott) as the great Bruce Smith attempted to tackle and strip the ball from him in the end zone.
Somehow, Hostetler held on to the ball, and the safety caused the score to reach 12-3 rather than 17-3 had he lost the ball. The Giants controlled the ball for more than 40 minutes and converted nine of 16 third downs, with Hostetler playing the maestro.
6. Super Bowl XLII: David Tyree
Real MVP Winner: Eli Manning
If all David Tyree had done in Super Bowl XLII was make the most difficult and greatest catch in Super Bowl history; it would have been enough in my book to award him MVP. But Tyree also caught a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to put the Giants on top 10-7.
Tyree’s helmet catch came on third-and-5 from the Giants' 44-yard line with 1:15 remaining in the game and the Giants down. It went for 32 yards and put the ball at the New England Patriots' 24-yard line with 59 seconds left in the game.
Before the play, Rodney Harrison tried to change the blitz after seeing the short Ellis Hobbs lined up against the 6-foot-5 Plaxico Burress. It was a matchup the Giants would take advantage of three plays after the helmet catch, as Burress scored the go-ahead touchdown with just 39 seconds left.
Belichick had done a marvelous job taking Burress out of the game until the touchdown in the final minute. Before that, Burress had exactly one catch for 14 yards. As for Manning, he deserves credit for a solid — if not spectacular — performance. However, there is no touchdown to Burress if Tyree fails to hold onto the ball with his helmet.
Without Tyree, the Patriots go undefeated through the regular and postseason. This time, the Giants quarterback won the SB MVP and didn’t deserve it as much as the unheralded wideout.
5. Super Bowl XXII: Timmy Smith
Real MVP Winner: Doug Williams
Washington won Super Bowl XXII by a whopping 42-10 score, so there wasn’t one play that determined the MVP. The Super Bowl MVP should have been the record-setting running back Smith, who ran the ball 22 times for 204 yards and a pair of touchdowns. His first touchdown came in the second quarter on a 58-yard run that turned a 14-10 lead to 21-10. Washington never looked back.
It's hard not to give the Super Bowl MVP to quarterback Williams, who threw for more than 300 yards in the first half alone. His passer rating for the game was 127.9. But there have been quarterbacks before and since Williams to play quarterback at that level.
Find another running back to do what Smith did in the Super Bowl. You can’t.
4. Super Bowl XXXI: Reggie White
Real MVP Winner: Desmond Howard
Bill Parcells’ Patriots were going up against the Green Bay Packers when, late in the third quarter, Curtis Martin ran for an 18-yard touchdown that cut the Patriots' deficit to 27-21.
At that point, it was anyone’s game. Adam Vinatieri kicked off to Desmond Howard. Howard ran it back 99 yards for a touchdown. The Packers made a 2-point conversion. Suddenly, it was Green Bay, 35-21.
After a 5-yard gain, Drew Bledsoe was sacked on second down by the great Reggie White for an 8-yard loss. On the next play, White sacked Bledsoe again for a 6-yard loss. White was like a baseball pitcher getting a lockdown inning after his team's dramatic home run. In the fourth quarter, White picked up his third sack of the second half.
Not saying that Howard wasn’t a game-changer. I am saying White, the “Minister of Defense,” played a lot more downs than the punt-and-kickoff return man Howard. White was the focal point of the best defense in the NFL that season. I would have given him the Super Bowl MVP.
3. Super Bowl XI: Clarence Davis
Real MVP Winner: Fred Biletnikoff
Oakland was the dominant team in 1976, going 16-1, including the Super Bowl. The Raiders' only regular-season defeat was a 48-17 loss to the Patriots. That was avenged in the playoffs when they defeated New England, 24-21. Of course, Oakland’s victory occurred because referee Ben Dreith threw a flag on Pats DT Ray “Sugar Bear” Hamilton on a third-and-18 play late in the game.
Hamilton picked up an unsportsmanlike conduct call that would put Oakland in a position to score the winning touchdown.
After just getting by the Patriots, Oakland beat the depleted two-time defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Championship Game (both running backs Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier were out because of injuries). The Raiders then came out strong in Super Bowl XI against the Minnesota Vikings. By halftime, Oakland led 16-0, but it might as well have been 40-0.
The Snake — Ken Stabler — completed 12 of 19 passes for 180 yards with a touchdown. No player on the Oakland defense had more than one sack or interception. Willie Brown’s 75-yard interception return was nice, but it made the score 32-7. The MVP was running back Clarence Davis. Davis ran the ball 16 times for 137 yards.
Biletnikoff caught four passes for 79 yards. He made a 17-yard reception in the first half that brought the ball just 2 yards from a touchdown. He made a 48-yard reception in the second half that brought the ball just 1 yard from a touchdown.
Davis, mostly remembered for his catch in the “Sea of Hands” playoff game in 1974, ran 11 times for 86 yards in the first half of Super Bowl XI. He ran five times for 55 yards in the second half. He had runs of 35, 20, 18, 16 and 13 yards. The Super Bowl MVP award should have gone to Davis.
2. Super Bowl LVI: Aaron Donald
Real MVP Winner: Cooper Kupp
Aaron Donald should have been the MVP of Super Bowl LVI. Yes, Cooper Kupp had two touchdowns, and his stat line (10 targets, eight receptions, 92 yards) had much to do with the Los Angeles Rams beating the Cincinnati Bengals.
But Donald was the most valuable. He played 58 defensive snaps in the Super Bowl. He was terrific throughout (seven pressures, three hits, four hurries, two sacks). His last two snaps won the game.
On third-and-1 from midfield with 48 seconds left, Donald made a sensational tackle on RB Samaje Perine, refusing to let Perine fall forward for a first down. Then on fourth-and-1, it was Donald’s pressure on Joe Burrow that forced an incomplete pass that put the ring on Donald’s finger. And Kupp’s finger. Two great choices. I would have gone with Donald.
1. Super Bowl LI: James White
Real MVP Winner: Tom Brady
This Super Bowl saw the Patriots complete the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, beating the Atlanta Falcons in overtime, 34-28. They did so despite trailing 28-3 midway through the third quarter.
There was a player who scored on a 2-point conversion in the fourth quarter that brought the Patriots to 28-20. That same player scored the touchdown that tied the score, 28-28, and that same player scored the winning touchdown in overtime. That same player was targeted 16 times and had 14 catches for 110 yards. Did I mention he rushed for 29 yards and had three total touchdowns?
James White gets lost in history. He scored 20 points against the Falcons, all after halftime. He should have been awarded the Super Bowl MVP.
Elliott Kalb has been known in the sports television industry as "Mr. Stats" for more than 35 years. He is a 13-time Sports Emmy winner as a writer, researcher and producer. Follow him on Twitter @MrStats50.
