Best of the Super Bowl

by Carol Davis

The Super Bowl, the pinnacle of each professional football season, celebrates the best of that year’s best. With Super Bowl XXXVI approaching Feb. 3 in New Orleans, American Profile looks at what some Super Bowl teams and players achieved during the championship’s 35-year history.

Green Bay’s Max McGee scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history. McGee caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Bart Starr just 8:37 into Super Bowl I against the Kansas City Chiefs in 1967. Green Bay won 35-10.
Chuck Noll is the Super Bowl’s winningest coach, having led the Pittsburgh Steelers to victory four times—in 1975, 1976, 1979, and 1980.
Mike Lodish, who retired last year, played in six Super Bowl games, more than any other player. He appeared in four with the Buffalo Bills (1991-94) and two with the Denver Broncos (1998-99).
Jerry Rice, as a San Francisco 49er, scored the most points in Super Bowl history. He scored 42 points—seven touchdowns—in just three games: against San Diego (3) in 1995, against Denver (3) in 1990, and versus Cincinnati in 1989.
Denver Bronco Terrell Davis also is the only player to score three rushing touchdowns in a single championship game. Davis achieved this feat in the stunning upset over Green Bay in Super Bowl XXXII in 1998.
Washington Redskin Timmy Smith accumulated 204 rushing yards—the most in a championship game—in the 1988 matchup against Denver.
San Francisco quarterback Steve Young holds the record for most touchdown passes—six—thrown in a Super Bowl. It was against San Diego in 1995.
Reggie White, as a Green Bay Packer, was a quarterback’s nightmare during 1997’s Super Bowl against the New England Patriots when he sacked Drew Bledsoe three times—the most in any championship game.
Rod Martin, with the Oakland Raiders, holds the Super Bowl record for most interceptions—three against Philadelphia in 1981.
The Super Bowl’s longest field goal soared 54 yards, kicked by the Buffalo Bills’ Steve Christie against Dallas in 1994.
Green Bay’s Brett Favre threw a record 81-yard pass completion to Antonio Freeman during the 1997 game against New England.
Dallas and San Francisco both hold the record—five—for most Super Bowl wins. Dallas claimed the championship in 1972, 1978, 1993-94, and 1996. San Francisco won in 1982, 1985, 1989-90, and 1995.
Cincinnati Bengal Lee Johnson kicked the longest punt, 63 yards, in the 1989 Super Bowl versus San Francisco.
The record for the most punts in a Super Bowl goes to the New York Giants, who kicked 11 in last year’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Retired Denver Bronco quarterback John Elway is the greatest, says Carol Davis, American Profile’s national editor.

first appeared: 1/27/2002