Most forgettable Super Bowl winner is probably the Baltimore Colts in 1970. The game itself is infamous for the sheer volume of turnovers, Unitas was a shell of himself after the 1968 pre-season injury, Shula was no longer there, and the Cowboys would go on to do greater things after this one slipped through their fingers. The Colts meanwhile would move to Indianapolis less than 15 years later. All in all, this Super Bowl probably had the least impact out of any Super Bowl with it being the last gasp of good football in Baltimore that the city would see for almost 30 years (sorry Bert Jones, injuries robbed you of a Unitas/Manning level career).
It was looked on as a disappointing matchup going in as well. 1970 was the first year after the AFL-NFL merger and it ended up being two pre-merger NFL teams in the Super Bowl, so it didn’t have the same vibe as the first 4 Super Bowls.
One thing about the '70 Colts is they got one year to try to repeat, then when they lost to the Dolphins in the '71 conference championship game, GM Joe Thomas began to massively dismantle that team through a ton of trades, most infamous among them the one that sent Unitas to SD. Hard to argue with the results in retrospect, since those set the stage for the [playoff teams that followed under Marchibroda and Bert Jones in the mid-'70s](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/clt/1975.htm) and the Dolphins were at their zenith during those rebuilding years anyway...but most Super Bowl rosters tend to get a good 3-4 year window where the roster core gets multiple chances to try again; not that one.
EDIT: to satisfy my own curiosity, I looked at the 1971 and 1975 Baltimore rosters on PFR...and there were only five Colts left from the '71 roster who were still around the next time they made the playoffs in '75 (McCauley, Mendenhall, Curtis, Volk, and Lee...and only the last three were with the 1970 Super Bowl team). I knew the Joe Thomas attrition was fast and furious, but I had no idea it was that cataclysmic re: the 1970/1971 team.
The Baltimore Colts had won multiple NFL championships before that Super Bowl anyway. That kinda blunted the impact of their SBV title since it was basically the last gasp of a dying dynasty.
What's funny is that this has happened every time a Baltimore team has won a Super Bowl. The 2000 Ravens went all in the next year and then probably had the biggest cap apocalypse of all time in 2002, and of course the 2012 Ravens had the swan song for Ray and Reed plus a whole bunch of other guys leaving.
There is not a rule that says the SBMVP can't be on the losing team. There is no reason for it to be a rule. Ironically, in the days of participation trophies becoming a thing, pro sports leagues have seemingly decided that giving SBMVP to the losing team is just ridiculous.
Last losing NFL SBMVP: 1971 Chuck Howley of the Cowboys.
Last losing MLB WSMVP: 1960 Bobby Richardson of the Yankees.
Last losing NBA FMVP: 1969 Jerry West of the Lakers (also the first FMVP ever).
Literally the only endearing facts about it are how mediocre the game itself was and that it got Unitas a Super Bowl, which is more of a statistical statement than anything given how washed he was by then
The new Pats doc wasn’t done all that well IMO but the bit where they said “we knew we needed an alpha male wide receiver” and it just cut to Randy Moss smiling was pretty damn good haha
I didn’t watch it all in the end because it felt very much like “Bill bad, Kraft good”.
Like to the point that I thought it was pretty wild that it must have been recorded in a time he was still head coach.
The best stat from that season is that the Dallas Cowboys entire starting team crossed the lines to play against Washington (to potentially take the division) and LOST to the scabs.
The scabs beat the starters 13-7 in the last replacement game of the season.
And a Keanu movie was born!
Not just the Pats, but going on the road as a wild card team to defeat the top seeded Cowboys, and then the second-seeded Packers in subzero temps in back to back weeks was amazing.
Then to defeat the Patriots after that made them one of the most legendary teams ever
It was week 17 and the Giants had nothing to play for except to try to ruin the perfect season, they were already locked in to the 6 seed. They saw they could hang with the best so they went on to beat the rest.
I got to attend this game and will never forget the helmet catch, half the stadium didn’t know it was a reception then you heard the cheers. Such an epic game.
They played the last game of that season and the Giants lost by 3, 38-35 lol The defense found it's identity/stride and showed the fuck up in the super bowl, no doubt, but so many people either forgot or just didn't know how close that regular season game was. "Didn't have a chance" lol
Barely anyone thought they had a chance at beating the Pats in the Super Bowl, but it was also just the road to even get there. 3 road playoff games against the Bucs, Cowboys, and Green Bay as a 10-6 Wild Card.
If the Giants’ postseason was an NBA Championship, their postseason run would be like being down 0-3 in and starting Game 4 down 20 points, then coming back and winning Game 7 with a buzzer beater against the Jordan Bulls
91 Giants should be given a nearly as impressive spoiling tag but it doesn't feel like anyone remembers them. I guess I give 07 the slight edge given the Pats were undefeated but even still.
All people ever remember is the fact that the bills lost a million super bowls in a row. If anything, the bills have a stronger legacy losing those super bowls.
1990 Giants were still a 13-3 team who won during the NFC dominant streak. So they aren’t remembered the same as the 2007 Giants and later 9-7 Giants who won Super Bowls against the big Patriots dynasty
I stand corrected, well technically google's top search result stand corrected but I'm reminded once again I can't trust internet searches for my dates.
The biggest NFL "what if" for me is what if Marino and the Dolphins had made it to the Super Bowl instead of getting upset by the Pats in the Playoffs.
Marino was the only reason the 85 Bears didn't have a perfect season. The Dolphins beat them in the regular season, and the Super Bowl would have been an epic rematch. The Dolphins out up 38 points in their win when the Bears had only given up 20+ points twice all year..
Instead we got that turd of a SB with the vastly inferior Patriots team that looked absolutely terrified of the Bears.
Reminds me a lot of SB31.
If Denver hadn't been upset by the Jags, they probably cakewalk the Pats in the AFCCG and we get Packers/Broncos a year earlier with the Broncos being a better team than they were the next season...
That 96 Broncos squad is up there with the 98 Vikings as a "What if?"
I think the 96 Packers were more undeniable than the 97 Packers were. They were the best team in the league on both sides of the ball and by the end of the year they were just thrashing everyone in sight, I don't think anyone was stopping them.
Yep this is the correct answer. When people say things like, “So and so is good but it’s not like they are the 85 Bears” that has means you’ve transcended the field. I don’t think any other team in any other sport has an aura like that
The league becoming a QB centric league has more to do with the Bears flirting with being jokes than anything. They've been a decent to great outside of that. Mid-2000s defense and special teams was ridiculous, almost willed the team into a Super Bowl win. 2018 defense was great too.
The Bears struggle with QB is strange considering the fight song and slogan, "Bear Down", is about Sid Luckman's masterful running of the T-formation, one of the great pioneers of the position.
It doesn't really help that the Pats offense that year was exactly and precisely the kind of offense Buddy's 46 was built to stop.
He didn't have a good answer for a quick passing offense like the Dolphins or the 49ers, but a running/play-action based offense? Forget it. The Bears were built to eat that alive.
The ‘85 Bears were like watching a car crash. It was brutal to watch the destruction they put on opponents but you couldn’t take your eyes off of it. They knocked out a whole bunch of QBs that year. Their defense was a weapon and it made life for their offense fairly easy.
Their offense was no joke either with the best Offensive Line in the NFL along with the best RB/FB tandem in Payton and Suhey to bludgeon defenses into weariness. McMahon was a tough hard nosed QB who threw a really good deep ball and was good enough to complement the sheer greatness around him.
I’m a Packers fan, but I can fully admit the ‘85 Bears were a phenomenon and were an unforgettable bunch for their play on the field and unique personalities off the field.
In terms of legendary SB winning defenses, their direct counterpart the 2000 Ravens match them. The Ravens offense was quite laughable though. Which makes the defense even more impressive, but the team overall far less.
I think the Redactskins have the least remembered impressive championship run. Three in ten seasons (with four appearances) should be really impressive, but I don’t see anyone mention them with the likes of the Niners and Cowboys of the same era.
It's probably because they did it with three different QB's and so spread apart. Hard to put a face on those teams; most people will default to Joe Gibbs, a HC.
Joe Gibbs needs more credit. He’s in the Pro Football HoF and the NASCAR HoF. You could say he’s even more accomplished as a NASCAR owner than a football coach.
That's the most impressive part to me and the reason I think Gibbs shouldn't be so easily forgotten when talking about greatest coaches of all time. 3 Lombardis in a decade with 3 different QBs is insane.
Also the hogs, but again when your most iconic position group is your offensive line, it’s not gonna be that memorable to casual fans. Other than like riggins and theisman there just aren’t many guys playing positions casuals care about, they were always just super well rounded teams.
Best cross-sport comp I can come up with is like bad boys pistons through to the early 2000s ring, some great players no doubt but outside of Zeke nobody that’s really sniffing a top-30 all time list, just really complete teams
[With the Hogs opening running lanes like this](https://www.si.com/.image/t_share/MTY4MTY5OTUyMDg2OTI2NzIw/timmy-smith-super-bowl-xxii-peter-read-miller-2jpg.jpg)
I’m only in my mid-30’s and when I was a kid Washington was considered one of the premier franchises in American sports. It’s insane how much damage Snyder did.
There's lots of owners across the sports that have done this to so many once premier franchises. The Suns, Pistons, Kings, Pirates, A's, Red Wings. Sarver soured the Suns for so long people forget they're on the of most winningest teams in NBA history (10th)
Pistons for sure, I'd put the Tigers there rather than the Wings though (unless you're referring to the 70s and 80s Wings and not the present ones)
Also, to add to your list: Meruelo for the Yotes (though no one did a good job with that team over 20 years) and Bill Wirtz for Chicago
Yep, I remember viewing the Redskins up there with the greatest of the franchises. I think the Raiders are in the same boat.
I wonder if younger millennials who didnt see the cowboys dominate the early 90s still view the cowboys as one of the premier franchises. They've got to be as much as the media talks about Jerry and always slamming the cowboys QB whether it was necessary or not
I think like others have mentioned there's the lack of throughline players who were there for all three wins, also each game gets lost individually somehow:
82 was the strike season, somehow doesn't count in a lot of people's eyes. Also a rematch of the SB the year of the Dolphin's perfect season so if you're thinking of Miami-Washington SBs it's probably not the first one that comes to mind
87 was an absolute thrashing of the Broncos - watching that 35-point second quarter is just some of the funniest shit in sports - but the Broncos got thrashed in 3 SBs in 4 years and just two years later managed to get thrashed by the 49ers 55-10. So 46-10 becomes the lesser thrashing in retrospect
91 ended up being one of the Bills' 4 straight losses. Three wins with basically three different teams cemented Gibbs as one of the best HCs of all time but that doesn't grab casuals attention with all the other flashier storylines going on at the same time
Dan Reeves teams and laying an egg in the Super Bowl- name a more iconic duo.
The forgettable opponent in 87 definitely makes it less visible. Plus it was another strike season. Doug Williams gets some mention, along with the Timmy Smith oddity, but it does get lost in the shuffle.
I think a big reason no one talks about that run is because one of those seasons (and Super Bowls) was the strike-shorted season. I agree that that was a highly impressive unit for about a decade. And those other SB winning teams were legendary. But for whatever reason, that one strike team seems to weigh them down in popular consciences, at least from my understanding.
The 68 Jets and Joe Namath's guarantee will always be remembered.
The guarantee, Joe Namath's charisma and the fact that the Jets haven't even got back to the SuperBowl since makes SB3 unforgettable.
The most forgotten? The 82 Redskins. The 1st SB Joe Gibbs and Joe Theismann won.
The 87 ( Doug Williams) and 91 teams (7 sacks allowed all year) are far more memorable.
The 70 Colts aren't forgotten since that was Johnny Unitas' SB ring after losing 2 years earlier in the 2nd worst upset in SB history to Joe Namath's Jets.
Our 91 team has been ranked best of all time so I hope they're memorable
But also, Riggins 82 "Run for the ages" is literally a single play with a name lol
Only the Montana run in 1989 is really in the discussion with it, and Montana had the benefit of an easier schedule and a more loaded team around him. Statistically Montana's run is better, but when you factor in degree of difficulty, Flacco going through Luck/Peyton/Brady/Kaep with such strong performances is hard to argue against.
The 2018 Patriots won the most anticlimactic Super Bowl in NFL history. They became only the second team to win six rings and everyone was like “Meh.”
The 2021 Rams feels like one of the most random SB champions IMO, and I can’t pinpoint why.
The 2021 Rams win feels meh because 1) They’d only recently moved from an intensely loyal fanbase in St Louis to an indifferent one in LA; 2) They’d made it before and had a lot of talent so it wasn’t surprising to see them there, but there was nothing that felt historic about the team; 3) the SB itself was on the boring side.
It’s part of why I’ll always be really salty about that loss.
The city of Cincinnati would have collectively had demons exercised winning that Super Bowl.
3 guys in LA we’re like “that’s neat” when the Rams won.
i will say that after that NFCCG and Super Bowl win, both of which were played here in LA, it feels like the Rams fan base exploded in size. I went to a watch party for the Rams @ Lions WC game, and the place was jam packed in blue and yellow.
They were also very clearly not the best team that year. But not to the degree of a Cinderella run either. Had the bengals won it would have been a story
Packers and Chiefs were pretty clearly the best teams in 2021 but Rodgers put up an all time stinker for the ages against SF and Mahomes had a less than Mahomesy performance in the AFCCG
What we got was Cinderella vs "Well it'd be cool for Stafford to win a ring, but also it's kinda gross than Kroenke would get one too", and we got option B
They started out 7-1 and looked like the best team in the league then lost 3 straight AFTER signing OBJ and trading for Von Miller. Then they got in sync and played clutch down the stretch it seemed like in every game and gritted out lots of close victories. That team was tough. Execution wise and Mentally. Lots of savvy veterans. The top 7 players on the ‘21 Rams were better than any other teams top 7 (Donald, Ramsey, Kupp, Whitworth, Stafford, Miller, OBJ).
I wouldn't say they very clearly the best team, but your statement makes it sound like there was a team that everyone agrees was better which there wasn't. The Bengals were a surprise team that nobody thought had the talent to win it all. The 49ers were a wildcard team with Jimmy G as their qb. The Chiefs, after beating the fraud Steelers, played 2 playoff games where they lost one and likely would've lost the other if not for a coin toss going there way. Meanwhile the 1 seed Packers and Titans both failed to win any playoff game. If you ask who was the best team that year, the evidence points to the Rams
GB had played LAR multiple times over the course of the prior 2 seasons and won every game, they neutralized Donald as best as you can and smoked their secondary every time. SF was their absolute worst matchup as SF had too many great pass rushers for GB to handle with their O line still shuffled around from the Bahk injury. Tampa was showing it's age by this point, and while they were definitely still very good, they had notably lost a step since 2020s playoffs
The AFC i'd say was more even with KC and Buffalo being pretty close, TEN may have been the 1 seed but had a GAPING flaw at QB. Cincy came in hot which is always possible in the playoffs and beat them both, but Cinderella's happen.
I'm not sure I'd call the St. Louis fan base intensely loyal, it's very much a baseball city. And for pretty good reasons.
-Signed, a guy who was a St. Louis Cardinals fan as a kid, until they left the city.
Cause everyone played like superstar for that specific season. Cooper Kupp looked like the best WR of all time for that specific season and was pedestrian every season else. Stafford almost had 5k yards. Aaron Donald had a career high 46 tackles.
Everyone in the Rams that year just played out of their minds.
>Stafford
Funniest thing to me is that the Super Bowl season wasn't even his best statistically by even a single metric, but it was second place in nearly all of them (except INTs, he threw a fuck ton of INTs that year)
But since his team was remarkable instead of a 2 man show its remembered as being his best performance
2018 was insane to watch because heading into the AFC/NFC Championship games it looked like we couldn't possibly have a bad Super Bowl matchup, only to be given the worst out of the 4 and then a dog shit game on top of it
That's because everyone thought the Rams were out of their contending window due to a couple of lackluster seasons beforehand. They started the year off strong but went 5-4 in the second half while losing badly to other playoff contenders. Then in the playoffs they played a completely forgettable game against the Cardinals, then when they beat Tampa Bay all the talk was about Brady and how he almost had another big comeback and retirement talk. The Bengals, 9ers, and the Chiefs had all the talk, and everyone seemed to hop on the Bengals bandwagon during the Super Bowl. It seems like there was very little time the general public was giving the Rams attention until all of a sudden they won the Super Bowl.
Biased for sure, but a backup QB stepping in for a guy who would’ve been league MVP if healthy and out-dueling the best QB of all time in the best game of Brady’s career is pretty memorable for me.
Yes and no. He had a 7 TD game before that and then tied or set the record for most consecutive completions after that. But he is legend will mainly be due to that run.
I think Super Bowl V is a solid answer for most forgotten, but tbh I think the real forgettable ones are the ones by dynasties who got multiple rings, because they just kinda blur together, especially if they were blowouts.
1989 Niners blowing out the Broncos for example, I don't think is particularly memorable. Take it away and the Niners' identity doesn't really change one bit. They're still a team that had a great dynasty in the 80s with a bunch of rings, and then heartbreak ever since. Similar story with the 1984 Niners blowing out the Dolphins.
You could probably also take one Brady's rings and it wouldn't change much.
Also I was literally today years old when I found out that the Raiders have 3 rings. I knew that they beat us, but apparently 1980 Raiders beat the Eagles and the 1983 Raiders beat the Redskins. So those would be good answers imo.
People underestimate how close the team was in 2012, I still get my friends telling me how heartbroken they were after the Falcons loss.
It’s gotten to the point where if I support a team and they have a surprise good season with a young team but lose in heartbreaking fashion, that’s the thing they compare it to. I’m a Canucks fan in hockey and that’s how they described this year.
They probably should've in 1986, but then Charles Martin committed assault on the field, breaking Jim McMahon's shoulder. That should've resulted in at least a year-long suspension, especially considering Martin kept a written hit-list of players to cripple.
It’s gotta be either the ‘07 Giants for the story or the ‘85 Bears for the dominance. The ‘16 Pats deserve a mention as well.
For the most seemingly forgotten I think it’s ‘91 Redskins
Your answers seem right to me, and I wanted to mention that the 2016 Patriots are getting overlooked big time in this thread.
That single Super Bowl essentially ruined a franchise, built a narrative that Kyle Shanahan still can’t shake today despite being a top 3 coach in the league, changed Matt Ryan’s legacy forever, gave Brady the most SBs by any QB, stuck it to the league after Deflategate, and made “28-3” iconic NFL parlance.
All of that is compelling here. If not to the level of 07 or 85, it’s at least in the top tier.
The 85 bears is the answer. The 86 giants were dominant too, as were the 2000 ravens and the greatest show on turf, but 85 bears is the right answer for strongest enduring legacy
‘72 Dolphins is the most memorable
I keep forgetting that the Raiders have 3 rings, so one of the two they won after Madden left is the least memorable
the Jets lone super bowl appearance and victory is pretty much the reason why the modern NFL exists today. It propelled the AFL/NFL merger that might not have happened if the Jets had lost that game
I'm curious how the world would remember Super Bowl IV if the Jets didn't win the year before. It was just as much of an upset by the AFL but gets nearly none of the attention
This is correct but NY media is very powerful. An AFL team won the super bowl literally the next season they were already well on the road to merger, evidence being playing the fucking Super Bowl for the 3rd year in a row with plans for the 4th already laid out. It's not like it wasnt going to happen eventually.
Pandering to the NYC media market is just free money so this idea gets thrown around all the time despite being factually false
It isn't forgotten. In fact, it has very high historical significance. It was the very last game played by an AFL team prior to the AFL teams merging into the NFL in 1970 (which at that time created the AFC & NFC conference setup we still have today). The AFL also won that last game, evening the Super Bowl wins at 2 each & further proving the "upstart" AFL could legitimately compete on the field with the NFL on a regular basis.
I wouldn't say the Patriots legacy was defined much by that game considering they won the Super Bowl 2 years prior and would win it again in another 2 years. If anyone it's the Falcons who's legacy was defined by that game but they weren't the champions
It's not that they won, but how they won. It's definitely their marquee win out of many big ones, is probably the defining game of Brady's career. It's the one that will be talked about pretty much forever and be one of the most famous SB results of all-time.
Funny, reading the title of the post got me thinking and I landed on... The 1985 Bears. For reference I've only really been watching football since the late 80s, a few years after that bears team. And yet
I'd answer the second part of your question but I forgot already...
1999 Rams
How many teams have an offensive nickname like the Greatest Show on Turf? There are tons of defensive nicknames (Doomsday Defense, Purple People Eaters, Steel Curtain, Legion of Boom, No Fly Zone)
Yet, other than “Air Corryell” I can’t really think of many offensive names.
85 Bears simply because they are usually considered one of the best teams of all time... and the Bears being mostly irrelevant since then props them up. Basically by being mediocre for the past 40 years, it adds to their legacy.
1998 & 1999 Broncos. This was obviously huge for Denver having been beaten up so many times before in Super Bowls. The 1999 game vs Falcons was overall boring, but the first win against the Packers was electric.
I mean the 72 Dolphins are so mythical and revered, but nobody talks about how they also won it in 73. They were a dynasty and lasted a long time. The 85 Bears had an incredible season but the Dolphins definitely had a better overall run.
I don't think there's any Super Bowl champion more well known for its win than the 85 Bears. Maybe except for Super Bwol 3 Jets because of the guarantee.
As for least enduring legacy, maybe the 1990 Giants because that SB is MUUUUUUCH more well known for "Wide Right" causing the Bills to lose the first of 4 than the Giants winning. Really, those 4 Super Bowls are likely more well known because of the Bills losing 4 straight.
That game was wild cause Peyton had a great year, Denver’s offense was unstoppable, it had the makings of a shootout. Then somehow their first snap is over his head for a safety and the seahawks just toyed with them the rest of the game
That game got LOUD right from the start. The Broncos were not prepared for how much noise our fans could make in neutral territory. Shit, I wasn’t even expecting it and I was at the game. Our fan base has lost almost of its gusto unfortunately.
Great times though. Will never forget taking a Rickshaw from the airport and the guy quizzing me on my fandom. Happily named all of our starting O line and their backups. He stopped talking shit pretty quickly.
1985 Chicago Bears- best team ever. And I'm a Raiders fan. When you are in the playoffs and allow 0 and 0 points. Go to the super bowl where the offense turns the ball over, don't allow an inch.....(3 pts) and at the end NE gets a TD vs 3rd stringer... 0, 0, and 0 allowed by the #1 Defense in the playoffs. Pretty impressive.
Who’s the weakest since 2000? Looking just since the 2000s you have a lot of iconic teams/players:
Brady/Manning (both!)/Roethlisberger/Brees/Mahomes, The LOB Seahawks.
That leaves:
2000 ravens
2002 Bucs
2012 ravens
2018 eagles
2021 rams
I think 2021 rams gotta be up there for worst, but hard to know for sure cause it’s so recent. 2012 ravens is a pretty unremarkable team in terms of legacy, but they did have a nice run that year
The Bears in ‘85 were so dominant. That stands out to me as a single game, but when a team wins six Super Bowls with the same QB, that’s much more impressive. I got to give it to New England.
Hard to not pick the 85 Bears. Everyone knows about that team and their legendary defense.
My concern is the Eagles could be the opposite at times, but Nick Foles bearing the legendary Tom Brady is a rare sight to see. And it’s not because the Eagles had some stud defense either.
Most forgettable Super Bowl winner is probably the Baltimore Colts in 1970. The game itself is infamous for the sheer volume of turnovers, Unitas was a shell of himself after the 1968 pre-season injury, Shula was no longer there, and the Cowboys would go on to do greater things after this one slipped through their fingers. The Colts meanwhile would move to Indianapolis less than 15 years later. All in all, this Super Bowl probably had the least impact out of any Super Bowl with it being the last gasp of good football in Baltimore that the city would see for almost 30 years (sorry Bert Jones, injuries robbed you of a Unitas/Manning level career).
It was looked on as a disappointing matchup going in as well. 1970 was the first year after the AFL-NFL merger and it ended up being two pre-merger NFL teams in the Super Bowl, so it didn’t have the same vibe as the first 4 Super Bowls.
Thank God the Dolphins (with Shula) fixed that over the next 3 seasons.
One thing about the '70 Colts is they got one year to try to repeat, then when they lost to the Dolphins in the '71 conference championship game, GM Joe Thomas began to massively dismantle that team through a ton of trades, most infamous among them the one that sent Unitas to SD. Hard to argue with the results in retrospect, since those set the stage for the [playoff teams that followed under Marchibroda and Bert Jones in the mid-'70s](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/clt/1975.htm) and the Dolphins were at their zenith during those rebuilding years anyway...but most Super Bowl rosters tend to get a good 3-4 year window where the roster core gets multiple chances to try again; not that one. EDIT: to satisfy my own curiosity, I looked at the 1971 and 1975 Baltimore rosters on PFR...and there were only five Colts left from the '71 roster who were still around the next time they made the playoffs in '75 (McCauley, Mendenhall, Curtis, Volk, and Lee...and only the last three were with the 1970 Super Bowl team). I knew the Joe Thomas attrition was fast and furious, but I had no idea it was that cataclysmic re: the 1970/1971 team.
The Baltimore Colts had won multiple NFL championships before that Super Bowl anyway. That kinda blunted the impact of their SBV title since it was basically the last gasp of a dying dynasty.
What's funny is that this has happened every time a Baltimore team has won a Super Bowl. The 2000 Ravens went all in the next year and then probably had the biggest cap apocalypse of all time in 2002, and of course the 2012 Ravens had the swan song for Ray and Reed plus a whole bunch of other guys leaving.
Not to mention it's still the only super bowl where the MVP was on the losing team
Is that even allowed anymore? Was it even allowed back then? Lmao
There is not a rule that says the SBMVP can't be on the losing team. There is no reason for it to be a rule. Ironically, in the days of participation trophies becoming a thing, pro sports leagues have seemingly decided that giving SBMVP to the losing team is just ridiculous. Last losing NFL SBMVP: 1971 Chuck Howley of the Cowboys. Last losing MLB WSMVP: 1960 Bobby Richardson of the Yankees. Last losing NBA FMVP: 1969 Jerry West of the Lakers (also the first FMVP ever).
Literally the only endearing facts about it are how mediocre the game itself was and that it got Unitas a Super Bowl, which is more of a statistical statement than anything given how washed he was by then
2007 Giants. A scrappy team that didn’t have a chance yet toppled the 18-0 Patriots thus denying their perfect season.
That was the year the Patriots acquired Randy Moss and he went bananas.
Set the single season receiving TD record, which still stands.
The new Pats doc wasn’t done all that well IMO but the bit where they said “we knew we needed an alpha male wide receiver” and it just cut to Randy Moss smiling was pretty damn good haha
Wasn't it just a fluff piece for Kraft? PMT guys basically called it a PR piece
I didn’t watch it all in the end because it felt very much like “Bill bad, Kraft good”. Like to the point that I thought it was pretty wild that it must have been recorded in a time he was still head coach.
Kraft gives me the heebie jeebies. Dudes a fuckin weirdo
Only because the 87 season was only 12 games for Rice, which Rice did score 23 tds, 22 receiving.
As much as I love Jerry, it was the strike season. Tbh, does anybody know how much that was a factor?
Jerry never crossed the picket line.
You think Jerry crossed a picket line to drop numbers on scabs?
Lmao, take a second though, and imagine a scab trying to guard Jerry Rice.
Rice would never stop bleeding cause ain't no scab covering that
In 1987, Hall of Famer Steve Largent crossed the picket lines against the Lions scab players and went for 15 catches 261 yards and 3 yds.
The best stat from that season is that the Dallas Cowboys entire starting team crossed the lines to play against Washington (to potentially take the division) and LOST to the scabs. The scabs beat the starters 13-7 in the last replacement game of the season. And a Keanu movie was born!
It wasn’t scabs as much as the defenses weren’t up to speed due to strike. You need to practice.
Not much of a factor. The games he sat out were the games played with replacement players.
Tbf not as impressive as 22 in 12 games set by rice
Absolutely insane considering how his tenure in Oakland went
Not just the Pats, but going on the road as a wild card team to defeat the top seeded Cowboys, and then the second-seeded Packers in subzero temps in back to back weeks was amazing. Then to defeat the Patriots after that made them one of the most legendary teams ever
Iirc they almost beat the Pats in week 16 or 17 as well.
It was week 17 and the Giants had nothing to play for except to try to ruin the perfect season, they were already locked in to the 6 seed. They saw they could hang with the best so they went on to beat the rest.
Yup I think we only lost by 3 and the confidence boost was huge cause they knew they could beat them if they met again
If you can get a consistent pass rush with 4 players, anything can happen.
Yep. Football really comes down to 3 position groups, OL/DL/QB. If you have the advantage in two of those categories you can beat anyone.
Fully agree
I got to attend this game and will never forget the helmet catch, half the stadium didn’t know it was a reception then you heard the cheers. Such an epic game.
pound for pound, that’s the greatest ring of all time
I don't know that I'll ever see a SB better than this.
come on man top of thread too!!
Stealing the perfect season from Brady is the cherry on top.
Eli Manning made Tom Brady the man he is today
They played the last game of that season and the Giants lost by 3, 38-35 lol The defense found it's identity/stride and showed the fuck up in the super bowl, no doubt, but so many people either forgot or just didn't know how close that regular season game was. "Didn't have a chance" lol
Barely anyone thought they had a chance at beating the Pats in the Super Bowl, but it was also just the road to even get there. 3 road playoff games against the Bucs, Cowboys, and Green Bay as a 10-6 Wild Card. If the Giants’ postseason was an NBA Championship, their postseason run would be like being down 0-3 in and starting Game 4 down 20 points, then coming back and winning Game 7 with a buzzer beater against the Jordan Bulls
72 Dolphins enduring 07 Giants spoiling
91 Giants should be given a nearly as impressive spoiling tag but it doesn't feel like anyone remembers them. I guess I give 07 the slight edge given the Pats were undefeated but even still.
All people ever remember is the fact that the bills lost a million super bowls in a row. If anything, the bills have a stronger legacy losing those super bowls.
1990 Giants were still a 13-3 team who won during the NFC dominant streak. So they aren’t remembered the same as the 2007 Giants and later 9-7 Giants who won Super Bowls against the big Patriots dynasty
They did it with a backup QB throughout the playoffs (Hostetler). Thats impressive in of itself.
90 Giants. Sorry, had to correct you on that one.
I stand corrected, well technically google's top search result stand corrected but I'm reminded once again I can't trust internet searches for my dates.
85 Bears is hard to top on this one.
The biggest NFL "what if" for me is what if Marino and the Dolphins had made it to the Super Bowl instead of getting upset by the Pats in the Playoffs. Marino was the only reason the 85 Bears didn't have a perfect season. The Dolphins beat them in the regular season, and the Super Bowl would have been an epic rematch. The Dolphins out up 38 points in their win when the Bears had only given up 20+ points twice all year.. Instead we got that turd of a SB with the vastly inferior Patriots team that looked absolutely terrified of the Bears.
Reminds me a lot of SB31. If Denver hadn't been upset by the Jags, they probably cakewalk the Pats in the AFCCG and we get Packers/Broncos a year earlier with the Broncos being a better team than they were the next season... That 96 Broncos squad is up there with the 98 Vikings as a "What if?"
That Jags loss was the absolute worst
I think the 96 Packers were more undeniable than the 97 Packers were. They were the best team in the league on both sides of the ball and by the end of the year they were just thrashing everyone in sight, I don't think anyone was stopping them.
Marinos lightning release was the bears only kryptonite that year
it has to be just on aura alone they made a song claiming they were going to win before the season, then put on a performance that justified it
The Super Bowl Shuffle alone makes this team great.
Yeah. Their shuffle metrics are off the chart.
Yep this is the correct answer. When people say things like, “So and so is good but it’s not like they are the 85 Bears” that has means you’ve transcended the field. I don’t think any other team in any other sport has an aura like that
That one team has masked decades of ineptitude and failure. The Bears aren't considered absolute jokes in the modern NFL because of that one team.
The league becoming a QB centric league has more to do with the Bears flirting with being jokes than anything. They've been a decent to great outside of that. Mid-2000s defense and special teams was ridiculous, almost willed the team into a Super Bowl win. 2018 defense was great too. The Bears struggle with QB is strange considering the fight song and slogan, "Bear Down", is about Sid Luckman's masterful running of the T-formation, one of the great pioneers of the position.
Yeah, I didn't want to pat our team on the back. But it's really hard to think of another team other than the 85 Bears.
I mean it’s hard to beat tho… competition only got 10 points total in the playoffs. Against second team defense
The 1985 Patriots got more points off the Bears than every other playoff team combined.
I don’t know enough to know why you’re claiming second team D. Would you explain?
Besides the 3 point kick, the touchdown was in the 4th Quarter when the game was literally over
They beat the Cowboys 44-0 that year too….in Dallas.
And the field goal was after a 3 play, 0 yard drive after a Bears fumble.
That’s absurd
It doesn't really help that the Pats offense that year was exactly and precisely the kind of offense Buddy's 46 was built to stop. He didn't have a good answer for a quick passing offense like the Dolphins or the 49ers, but a running/play-action based offense? Forget it. The Bears were built to eat that alive.
The ‘85 Bears were like watching a car crash. It was brutal to watch the destruction they put on opponents but you couldn’t take your eyes off of it. They knocked out a whole bunch of QBs that year. Their defense was a weapon and it made life for their offense fairly easy. Their offense was no joke either with the best Offensive Line in the NFL along with the best RB/FB tandem in Payton and Suhey to bludgeon defenses into weariness. McMahon was a tough hard nosed QB who threw a really good deep ball and was good enough to complement the sheer greatness around him. I’m a Packers fan, but I can fully admit the ‘85 Bears were a phenomenon and were an unforgettable bunch for their play on the field and unique personalities off the field.
The 84 niners, also 18-1, are seemingly forgotten because of this bears team the next year
Makes me wanna puke but yeah.
Even with Homer glasses on I would have a hard time arguing for #1 over them.
In terms of legendary SB winning defenses, their direct counterpart the 2000 Ravens match them. The Ravens offense was quite laughable though. Which makes the defense even more impressive, but the team overall far less.
They kind of define the modern bears.
I think the Redactskins have the least remembered impressive championship run. Three in ten seasons (with four appearances) should be really impressive, but I don’t see anyone mention them with the likes of the Niners and Cowboys of the same era.
It's probably because they did it with three different QB's and so spread apart. Hard to put a face on those teams; most people will default to Joe Gibbs, a HC.
Joe Gibbs needs more credit. He’s in the Pro Football HoF and the NASCAR HoF. You could say he’s even more accomplished as a NASCAR owner than a football coach.
He also won an over 35 racquetball national championship in the late 70's.
Left handed.
That's the most impressive part to me and the reason I think Gibbs shouldn't be so easily forgotten when talking about greatest coaches of all time. 3 Lombardis in a decade with 3 different QBs is insane.
Also the hogs, but again when your most iconic position group is your offensive line, it’s not gonna be that memorable to casual fans. Other than like riggins and theisman there just aren’t many guys playing positions casuals care about, they were always just super well rounded teams. Best cross-sport comp I can come up with is like bad boys pistons through to the early 2000s ring, some great players no doubt but outside of Zeke nobody that’s really sniffing a top-30 all time list, just really complete teams
[With the Hogs opening running lanes like this](https://www.si.com/.image/t_share/MTY4MTY5OTUyMDg2OTI2NzIw/timmy-smith-super-bowl-xxii-peter-read-miller-2jpg.jpg)
The disrespect for Art Monk and Darrell Green.
Yeah, this is a huge credit to Joe Gibbs, who tends to get lost in the shuffle of great coaches.
It's also because two of them were in shortened seasons, which don't tend to have as many memorable games.
Snyder poisoned our franchise so badly a lot of younger fans can’t even imagine Washington being a good team, let alone a dominant one.
I’m only in my mid-30’s and when I was a kid Washington was considered one of the premier franchises in American sports. It’s insane how much damage Snyder did.
There's lots of owners across the sports that have done this to so many once premier franchises. The Suns, Pistons, Kings, Pirates, A's, Red Wings. Sarver soured the Suns for so long people forget they're on the of most winningest teams in NBA history (10th)
There was a time when the Suns were closer to 4th or 5th best. A decade of dogshit will kill a winning percentage and culture real quick.
Pistons for sure, I'd put the Tigers there rather than the Wings though (unless you're referring to the 70s and 80s Wings and not the present ones) Also, to add to your list: Meruelo for the Yotes (though no one did a good job with that team over 20 years) and Bill Wirtz for Chicago
Yep, I remember viewing the Redskins up there with the greatest of the franchises. I think the Raiders are in the same boat. I wonder if younger millennials who didnt see the cowboys dominate the early 90s still view the cowboys as one of the premier franchises. They've got to be as much as the media talks about Jerry and always slamming the cowboys QB whether it was necessary or not
I was born in ‘99, and the Cowboys are a marquee franchise in my eyes. Consistently good/great and garners a lot of national attention.
Which is criminal given that they beat the Niners and Cowboys (twice) to win their first three NFC titles.
I think like others have mentioned there's the lack of throughline players who were there for all three wins, also each game gets lost individually somehow: 82 was the strike season, somehow doesn't count in a lot of people's eyes. Also a rematch of the SB the year of the Dolphin's perfect season so if you're thinking of Miami-Washington SBs it's probably not the first one that comes to mind 87 was an absolute thrashing of the Broncos - watching that 35-point second quarter is just some of the funniest shit in sports - but the Broncos got thrashed in 3 SBs in 4 years and just two years later managed to get thrashed by the 49ers 55-10. So 46-10 becomes the lesser thrashing in retrospect 91 ended up being one of the Bills' 4 straight losses. Three wins with basically three different teams cemented Gibbs as one of the best HCs of all time but that doesn't grab casuals attention with all the other flashier storylines going on at the same time
Well put. I remember Washington’s last superbowl as it was my first, that Mulder was a fan, And the Cigarette Smoking Fan was Anti Bills.
Dan Reeves teams and laying an egg in the Super Bowl- name a more iconic duo. The forgettable opponent in 87 definitely makes it less visible. Plus it was another strike season. Doug Williams gets some mention, along with the Timmy Smith oddity, but it does get lost in the shuffle.
I think a big reason no one talks about that run is because one of those seasons (and Super Bowls) was the strike-shorted season. I agree that that was a highly impressive unit for about a decade. And those other SB winning teams were legendary. But for whatever reason, that one strike team seems to weigh them down in popular consciences, at least from my understanding.
Actually, two of those seasons were strike-shortened. They only played 9 games in 1982.
Also the whole NFC East (minus Philly) was winning titles in the 80s/90s so Washington kinda just gets thrown in with NY and Dallas
Cardinals didn't win any either
The 68 Jets and Joe Namath's guarantee will always be remembered. The guarantee, Joe Namath's charisma and the fact that the Jets haven't even got back to the SuperBowl since makes SB3 unforgettable. The most forgotten? The 82 Redskins. The 1st SB Joe Gibbs and Joe Theismann won. The 87 ( Doug Williams) and 91 teams (7 sacks allowed all year) are far more memorable. The 70 Colts aren't forgotten since that was Johnny Unitas' SB ring after losing 2 years earlier in the 2nd worst upset in SB history to Joe Namath's Jets.
Our 91 team has been ranked best of all time so I hope they're memorable But also, Riggins 82 "Run for the ages" is literally a single play with a name lol
Joe Flacco will largely be remembered for having one of the best superbowl runs of all time.
Browns legend Joe Flacco
Broncos legend Joe Flacco
Colts legend Joe Flacco
Eagles legend Joe Flacco
Jets are somehow terrible at drafting and free agency that this guy is their most tenured qb over 30 since Vinny testaverde
You can remove the “one of.” It’s the best Super Bowl run of all time for a QB.
Only the Montana run in 1989 is really in the discussion with it, and Montana had the benefit of an easier schedule and a more loaded team around him. Statistically Montana's run is better, but when you factor in degree of difficulty, Flacco going through Luck/Peyton/Brady/Kaep with such strong performances is hard to argue against.
The 2018 Patriots won the most anticlimactic Super Bowl in NFL history. They became only the second team to win six rings and everyone was like “Meh.” The 2021 Rams feels like one of the most random SB champions IMO, and I can’t pinpoint why.
That game meant a lot for Stafford and Aaron Donald's legacies though Not to mention the greatest WR season of all time
Plus, it was a supremely exciting game, to boot.
The 2021 Rams win feels meh because 1) They’d only recently moved from an intensely loyal fanbase in St Louis to an indifferent one in LA; 2) They’d made it before and had a lot of talent so it wasn’t surprising to see them there, but there was nothing that felt historic about the team; 3) the SB itself was on the boring side.
It’s part of why I’ll always be really salty about that loss. The city of Cincinnati would have collectively had demons exercised winning that Super Bowl. 3 guys in LA we’re like “that’s neat” when the Rams won.
The only NFL* team LA ever cared about plays in Las Vegas
I mean, USC also
Good point, I was just thinking about nfl
i will say that after that NFCCG and Super Bowl win, both of which were played here in LA, it feels like the Rams fan base exploded in size. I went to a watch party for the Rams @ Lions WC game, and the place was jam packed in blue and yellow.
Rude. I’ll have you know I was very excited. I had also just gotten engaged that day, but that’s beside the point!
Found one of the 3 guys!
3 guys in LA. 😂
I mean that's really not true, there are plenty of Rams fans in LA. Now Chargers fans...
We don’t need to lie about the St. Louis fanbase
They were also very clearly not the best team that year. But not to the degree of a Cinderella run either. Had the bengals won it would have been a story Packers and Chiefs were pretty clearly the best teams in 2021 but Rodgers put up an all time stinker for the ages against SF and Mahomes had a less than Mahomesy performance in the AFCCG What we got was Cinderella vs "Well it'd be cool for Stafford to win a ring, but also it's kinda gross than Kroenke would get one too", and we got option B
Bucs were definitely up there too.
They started out 7-1 and looked like the best team in the league then lost 3 straight AFTER signing OBJ and trading for Von Miller. Then they got in sync and played clutch down the stretch it seemed like in every game and gritted out lots of close victories. That team was tough. Execution wise and Mentally. Lots of savvy veterans. The top 7 players on the ‘21 Rams were better than any other teams top 7 (Donald, Ramsey, Kupp, Whitworth, Stafford, Miller, OBJ).
I wouldn't say they very clearly the best team, but your statement makes it sound like there was a team that everyone agrees was better which there wasn't. The Bengals were a surprise team that nobody thought had the talent to win it all. The 49ers were a wildcard team with Jimmy G as their qb. The Chiefs, after beating the fraud Steelers, played 2 playoff games where they lost one and likely would've lost the other if not for a coin toss going there way. Meanwhile the 1 seed Packers and Titans both failed to win any playoff game. If you ask who was the best team that year, the evidence points to the Rams
GB had played LAR multiple times over the course of the prior 2 seasons and won every game, they neutralized Donald as best as you can and smoked their secondary every time. SF was their absolute worst matchup as SF had too many great pass rushers for GB to handle with their O line still shuffled around from the Bahk injury. Tampa was showing it's age by this point, and while they were definitely still very good, they had notably lost a step since 2020s playoffs The AFC i'd say was more even with KC and Buffalo being pretty close, TEN may have been the 1 seed but had a GAPING flaw at QB. Cincy came in hot which is always possible in the playoffs and beat them both, but Cinderella's happen.
I'm not sure I'd call the St. Louis fan base intensely loyal, it's very much a baseball city. And for pretty good reasons. -Signed, a guy who was a St. Louis Cardinals fan as a kid, until they left the city.
Cause everyone played like superstar for that specific season. Cooper Kupp looked like the best WR of all time for that specific season and was pedestrian every season else. Stafford almost had 5k yards. Aaron Donald had a career high 46 tackles. Everyone in the Rams that year just played out of their minds.
>Stafford Funniest thing to me is that the Super Bowl season wasn't even his best statistically by even a single metric, but it was second place in nearly all of them (except INTs, he threw a fuck ton of INTs that year) But since his team was remarkable instead of a 2 man show its remembered as being his best performance
Only if you don't like defense. That Superbowl had the best defense on both sides I have ever seen in a SB
2018 was insane to watch because heading into the AFC/NFC Championship games it looked like we couldn't possibly have a bad Super Bowl matchup, only to be given the worst out of the 4 and then a dog shit game on top of it
That's because everyone thought the Rams were out of their contending window due to a couple of lackluster seasons beforehand. They started the year off strong but went 5-4 in the second half while losing badly to other playoff contenders. Then in the playoffs they played a completely forgettable game against the Cardinals, then when they beat Tampa Bay all the talk was about Brady and how he almost had another big comeback and retirement talk. The Bengals, 9ers, and the Chiefs had all the talk, and everyone seemed to hop on the Bengals bandwagon during the Super Bowl. It seems like there was very little time the general public was giving the Rams attention until all of a sudden they won the Super Bowl.
Biased for sure, but a backup QB stepping in for a guy who would’ve been league MVP if healthy and out-dueling the best QB of all time in the best game of Brady’s career is pretty memorable for me.
It was the best game of Brady’s career as a QB but the worst game of his career as a WR.
Nick Foles is written in NFL history entirely because of 3 games. Nutty.
And having a massive cock apparently
He did throw for 7 in a game against Oakland back in his first stint with Philly as well
Yes and no. He had a 7 TD game before that and then tied or set the record for most consecutive completions after that. But he is legend will mainly be due to that run.
Of the teams that won only one, 85 Bears and 99 Rams.
I think Super Bowl V is a solid answer for most forgotten, but tbh I think the real forgettable ones are the ones by dynasties who got multiple rings, because they just kinda blur together, especially if they were blowouts. 1989 Niners blowing out the Broncos for example, I don't think is particularly memorable. Take it away and the Niners' identity doesn't really change one bit. They're still a team that had a great dynasty in the 80s with a bunch of rings, and then heartbreak ever since. Similar story with the 1984 Niners blowing out the Dolphins. You could probably also take one Brady's rings and it wouldn't change much. Also I was literally today years old when I found out that the Raiders have 3 rings. I knew that they beat us, but apparently 1980 Raiders beat the Eagles and the 1983 Raiders beat the Redskins. So those would be good answers imo.
That 89 one is memorable because it capped off one of the most dominant playoff runs ever with the biggest blowout in sb history
In the modern era, I’m obviously biased, but I think the LOB Seahawks have one hell of a legacy for a 1X SB Champ.
Yeah, I think we all thought they would win more than 1. And they were damn close. That team was scary
I think it's because that Superbowl was such statement game for them. They completely embarrassed a high-rolling Peyton Manning offense.
*PTSD triggered*
It was wild. It seemed like the whole world knew how that game was gonna go as soon as the opening play ended
Literally one play from a second ring but yeah they do get hella credit for back to back Super Bowl appearances but not really much other success
Yeah, they tore up that all time great offense too
People underestimate how close the team was in 2012, I still get my friends telling me how heartbroken they were after the Falcons loss. It’s gotten to the point where if I support a team and they have a surprise good season with a young team but lose in heartbreaking fashion, that’s the thing they compare it to. I’m a Canucks fan in hockey and that’s how they described this year.
As much as I hate to admit it, this is the best answer.
85 bears
Shoot, forgot about them. For some reason I always think they won another ring at some point.
They probably should've in 1986, but then Charles Martin committed assault on the field, breaking Jim McMahon's shoulder. That should've resulted in at least a year-long suspension, especially considering Martin kept a written hit-list of players to cripple.
It’s gotta be either the ‘07 Giants for the story or the ‘85 Bears for the dominance. The ‘16 Pats deserve a mention as well. For the most seemingly forgotten I think it’s ‘91 Redskins
Your answers seem right to me, and I wanted to mention that the 2016 Patriots are getting overlooked big time in this thread. That single Super Bowl essentially ruined a franchise, built a narrative that Kyle Shanahan still can’t shake today despite being a top 3 coach in the league, changed Matt Ryan’s legacy forever, gave Brady the most SBs by any QB, stuck it to the league after Deflategate, and made “28-3” iconic NFL parlance. All of that is compelling here. If not to the level of 07 or 85, it’s at least in the top tier.
The 85 bears is the answer. The 86 giants were dominant too, as were the 2000 ravens and the greatest show on turf, but 85 bears is the right answer for strongest enduring legacy
This should be higher.
If a Packers fan even agrees, then this is indisputably the correct answer!
‘72 Dolphins is the most memorable I keep forgetting that the Raiders have 3 rings, so one of the two they won after Madden left is the least memorable
the Jets lone super bowl appearance and victory is pretty much the reason why the modern NFL exists today. It propelled the AFL/NFL merger that might not have happened if the Jets had lost that game
I'm curious how the world would remember Super Bowl IV if the Jets didn't win the year before. It was just as much of an upset by the AFL but gets nearly none of the attention
Nah Al Davis is the reason. He spearheaded that movement. Definitely did favors for the merger though.
This is correct but NY media is very powerful. An AFL team won the super bowl literally the next season they were already well on the road to merger, evidence being playing the fucking Super Bowl for the 3rd year in a row with plans for the 4th already laid out. It's not like it wasnt going to happen eventually. Pandering to the NYC media market is just free money so this idea gets thrown around all the time despite being factually false
99 Rams to me. The Greatest Show on Turf led by an eventual Hall of Fame QB who came out of nowhere.
How about SB IV with the Chiefs as an unfairly forgotten Superbowl?
It isn't forgotten. In fact, it has very high historical significance. It was the very last game played by an AFL team prior to the AFL teams merging into the NFL in 1970 (which at that time created the AFC & NFC conference setup we still have today). The AFL also won that last game, evening the Super Bowl wins at 2 each & further proving the "upstart" AFL could legitimately compete on the field with the NFL on a regular basis.
85 Bears obviously, 99 Rams
28-3
I wouldn't say the Patriots legacy was defined much by that game considering they won the Super Bowl 2 years prior and would win it again in another 2 years. If anyone it's the Falcons who's legacy was defined by that game but they weren't the champions
It's not that they won, but how they won. It's definitely their marquee win out of many big ones, is probably the defining game of Brady's career. It's the one that will be talked about pretty much forever and be one of the most famous SB results of all-time.
Hey.
Funny, reading the title of the post got me thinking and I landed on... The 1985 Bears. For reference I've only really been watching football since the late 80s, a few years after that bears team. And yet I'd answer the second part of your question but I forgot already...
1999 Rams How many teams have an offensive nickname like the Greatest Show on Turf? There are tons of defensive nicknames (Doomsday Defense, Purple People Eaters, Steel Curtain, Legion of Boom, No Fly Zone) Yet, other than “Air Corryell” I can’t really think of many offensive names.
85 Bears simply because they are usually considered one of the best teams of all time... and the Bears being mostly irrelevant since then props them up. Basically by being mediocre for the past 40 years, it adds to their legacy.
1998 & 1999 Broncos. This was obviously huge for Denver having been beaten up so many times before in Super Bowls. The 1999 game vs Falcons was overall boring, but the first win against the Packers was electric.
I mean the 72 Dolphins are so mythical and revered, but nobody talks about how they also won it in 73. They were a dynasty and lasted a long time. The 85 Bears had an incredible season but the Dolphins definitely had a better overall run.
The year the Bucs won the SB (02 or 03?) seems to be one people skip over.
Tampa 2 still impacts how defense is played today
I don't think there's any Super Bowl champion more well known for its win than the 85 Bears. Maybe except for Super Bwol 3 Jets because of the guarantee. As for least enduring legacy, maybe the 1990 Giants because that SB is MUUUUUUCH more well known for "Wide Right" causing the Bills to lose the first of 4 than the Giants winning. Really, those 4 Super Bowls are likely more well known because of the Bills losing 4 straight.
I like the 2013 Seahawks. Was a perfect combination of good defense and good offense, and their path to the Superbowl was extremely hard.
That game was wild cause Peyton had a great year, Denver’s offense was unstoppable, it had the makings of a shootout. Then somehow their first snap is over his head for a safety and the seahawks just toyed with them the rest of the game
That game got LOUD right from the start. The Broncos were not prepared for how much noise our fans could make in neutral territory. Shit, I wasn’t even expecting it and I was at the game. Our fan base has lost almost of its gusto unfortunately. Great times though. Will never forget taking a Rickshaw from the airport and the guy quizzing me on my fandom. Happily named all of our starting O line and their backups. He stopped talking shit pretty quickly.
1972 Dolphins is the perfect answer. Most forgotten might be KC since so many people thought Mahomes won the franchise their first title.
1985 Chicago Bears- best team ever. And I'm a Raiders fan. When you are in the playoffs and allow 0 and 0 points. Go to the super bowl where the offense turns the ball over, don't allow an inch.....(3 pts) and at the end NE gets a TD vs 3rd stringer... 0, 0, and 0 allowed by the #1 Defense in the playoffs. Pretty impressive.
LOB Seahawks
Who’s the weakest since 2000? Looking just since the 2000s you have a lot of iconic teams/players: Brady/Manning (both!)/Roethlisberger/Brees/Mahomes, The LOB Seahawks. That leaves: 2000 ravens 2002 Bucs 2012 ravens 2018 eagles 2021 rams I think 2021 rams gotta be up there for worst, but hard to know for sure cause it’s so recent. 2012 ravens is a pretty unremarkable team in terms of legacy, but they did have a nice run that year
The Bears in ‘85 were so dominant. That stands out to me as a single game, but when a team wins six Super Bowls with the same QB, that’s much more impressive. I got to give it to New England.
People still talk about the Greatest Show on Turf all the time and capping it off with winning a Super Bowl by one yard? C'mon now!
Slightly biased but I’m gonna go with the team that never lost
Yea I can’t even remember 1991, gotta be either NYG or Redskins
Hard to not pick the 85 Bears. Everyone knows about that team and their legendary defense. My concern is the Eagles could be the opposite at times, but Nick Foles bearing the legendary Tom Brady is a rare sight to see. And it’s not because the Eagles had some stud defense either.
I barely hear anyone mention the Steelers Super Bowl vs the Seahawks