It is the most wonderful time of the year and I am not talking about Christmas, I’m talking about Super Bowl season. This past week there has been so much buzz about the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots upcoming game on Sunday. The Patriots pulled off a spectacular comeback at the end of the game against the Jaguars and their electric defense, especially their secondary. While the Eagles steamrolled over the Minnesota Vikings who won their previous game in a shocking upset against the New Orleans Saints.
As we approach the big game this Sunday and think about how huge this matchup is going to be we are going to take a walk down memory lane and think about the best of Super Bowls past.
10. Super Bowl XLVII (Baltimore Ravens vs. San Francisco 49ers)
During the ending moments of halftime, there was a power outage in the New Orleans Superdome. Both teams were removed from the field and play was suspended for 34 minutes while the electricity was fixed. This was regarded as a momentum booster for the 49ers who rallied from a 28-6 deficit to make the game closer.
9. Super Bowl XXV (Buffalo Bills vs. New York Giants)
Around this time in 1991, the Persian Gulf War made Americans very patriotic and proud of their heritage. Whitney Houston delivered a beautiful rendition of the national anthem that would turn into a top-20 single.
Check out the performance here.
8. Super Bowl XXV (Buffalo Bills vs. New York Giants)
In super bowl XXV, the Bills missed what would have been a game-winning field goal in the final seconds. This kick went wide right despite him making hitting more than 70% of his kicks that season. The Bills made the Super Bowl four consecutive times, all of them losses.
This Super Bowl was a battle of the defenses, the Rams led at halftime 9-0 from three field goals. In the third quarter, St. Louis scored their first touchdown with Tennessee coming back to score 16 consecutive points. After Kurt Warner completed a 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce the Rams regained the lead. With six seconds remaining Mike Jones tackled Kevin Dyson one yard short of the goal line to prevent a game-tying touchdown.
Bills star running back Thurman Thomas couldn’t find his helmet that was misplaced during the National Anthem. The Bills ran two plays with the backup running back and this set the tone for the rest of the game as the Bills found it hard to come back and ultimately lost the game.
5. Super Bowl VII (Miami Dolphins vs. Washington Redskins)
This game was pretty mediocre being a low score game, however, the reason why this makes the list as a top Super Bowl moment is the Miami Dolphins being the first NFL team to have an undefeated season. To this day, no team has been able to do replicate that feat. They weren’t invited to the White House since Richard Nixon was a Redskins fan, however, President Obama invited them back in 2013.
4. Super Bowl XLIII (Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Arizona Cardinals)
This game made the Steelers the first team to win six Super Bowls and the second victory in four years. This game was pivotal for the Cardinals franchise as they hadn’t won a title since 1947, the longest championship drought in the league. Aside from Santonio Holmes scoring a 6-yard game-winning touchdown with 35 seconds left, one of the biggest moments in the game was linebacker James Harrison recording a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown.
3. Super Bowl 50 (Denver Broncos vs. Charlotte North Carolina)
The third best Super Bowl moment would have to be Beyonce Knowles stellar performance during Super Bowl 50. Coldplay headlined the halftime show but it was Beyonce and Bruno Mars who stole the show and outshined the Coldplay. Amid some racial tension and injustices across the United States, Beyonce made a political statement. Coming out in her Black Panther-inspired garb, performing her song Formation mixed with Bruno Mars’ song Uptown Funk. Beyonce left her mark on Super Bowl 50 with her charisma, impeccable dance moves, perfect vocals and most importantly turning the biggest sports event into a political statement.
2. Super Bowl XLII (New York Giants vs. New England Patriots)
The Giants defeated the Patriots 17-14 on February 3rd, 2008 in Glendale, Arizona. This game is highly regarded as one of the biggest upsets in sports history. The Patriots were favored to win coming off of a perfect regular season. the Giants had a 10-6 record and would be the first NFC Wild Card team to win a Super Bowl. With time running out, Eli Manning was just barely able to escape the New England pass rush, then heaved a desperation pass downfield which was caught by receiver David Tyree. Tyree used his helmet to control the ball and maintain possession.
1. Super Bowl XLIX (New England vs. Seattle)
This game can go down in history as some of the WORST play calling in the history of the NFL! Seattle called a pass play on second and goal from the 1-yard line with 26 seconds left in the game and one timeout. This was not a smart call considering the proximity to the end zone anyway but it was even worse when you have a running back known as “Beast Mode” who had 1,306 rushing yards that season. Marshawn Lynch would have probably won the game for the Seattle Seahawks, however, the play was correctly read by Malcolm Butler and intercepted. Thus, resulting in a heartbreaking loss and another Patriots Super Bowl win.
Super Bowl LII is this Sunday at 6:30 PM in Minneapolis.