Ranking the top 15 Super Bowl MVP snubs

If you win the Super Bowl, you’re probably happy enough about that to pass by the idea that your efforts in the biggest game (or games) of your life left you short of the game’s Most Valuable Player award, even when that omission is clearly unfair.

So, with Super Bowl LVI upon us in mere days, it’s time to recognize those players from Super Bowls past whose play on the field should have merited them the game’s greatest honor. Because a ring is the thing, but recognition is also important.

In preparation for this article, I did a little Twitter crowd-sourcing to see what our readers thought. The replies were fascinating, and while not all of these snubs made the cut, they all had legitimate arguments.

With that, here are our 15 most disconcerting Super Bowl MVP misses.

Super Bowl XXXI: Reggie White, DL, Green Bay Packers

(Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY Sports)

There’s no question that Packers return man Desmond Howard had a major effect for the Packers in their 35-21 win over the Patriots. Howard finished the day’s scoring with a 99-yard kick return in the third quarter, and he ended the game with four kick returns for 154 yards, and six punt returns for 90 yards.

But Howard wasn’t the most important player in that game. The most important player in that game was Reggie White, the all-timer who put up three sacks, and gave New England quarterback Drew Bledsoe no chance to breathe in the game. And it was what White did on the drive after Howard’s kick return made the score 35-21 that sealed the deal, with sacks of Bledsoe on two straight plays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=703Ks09zF5E

Super Bowls XLII and XLVI: Justin Tuck, DL, New York GIants

(Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

Giants quarterback Eli Manning was the MVP in both of the Giants’ Super Bowl upset wins over Bill Belichick’s Patriots, but should he have been? In XLII, when the Giants upset the heretofore undefeated Patriots, Manning completed 19 passes in 34 attempts for 255 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, three sacks, and a passer rating of 87.3. And in XLVI, Manning completed 30 of 40 passes for 296 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, three sacks, and a passer rating of 103.7.

Manning had killer throws in both games — the David Tyree helmet catch in XLII and the deep fade to Mario Manningham in XLVI — but Giants defensive lineman Justin Tuck had a legit MVP claim in both of those games.

Throughout his career, pressure up the middle was Tom Brady’s Kryptonite, and Tuck poked that bear for all it was worth in both games. In XLII, Tuck had two sacks, two quarterback hits, two tackles for loss, and he was the main man in the Giants’ NASCAR fronts that the Patriots just couldn’t figure out. In XLVI, Tuck started the scoring by forcing an intentional grounding penalty from Brady in the Patriots’ own end zone, and he finished that game with two more sacks, three quarterback hits, and three more tackles for loss.

Were it not for Tuck’s efforts in both of those close games, the Patriots could very well have won.

Super Bowl III: Matt Snell, RB, New York Jets

(Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

Jets quarterback Joe Namath won the Super Bowl III MVP award after his team upset the Colts, 16-7, but was the honor deserved? The Jets didn’t throw the ball once in the fourth quarter of the game, as the idea was to run clock and keep Johnny Unitas off the field once he replaced Earl Morrall, and Namath finished the game with 17 completions in 28 attempts for 206 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, two sacks, and a passer rating of 83.3.

You could argue that cornerback Randy Beverly, who had two of the Jets’ four interceptions, had an MVP case, but Matt Snell, the Jets’ star running back, was the real force of this game. Snell carried the ball 30 times for 121 yards and a touchdown against a Baltimore defense that had been the toast of the NFL before this game. Snell also caught four passes for 40 yards, and when the Jets needed to bleed the clock, Snell allowed them to do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nysindmDhFg

Super Bowl XLIX: Kam Chancellor, S, Seattle Seahawks

(Jim O’Connor-USA TODAY Sports)

After the Seahawks’ “Legion of Boom” defense poleaxed Peyton Manning’s high-flying Broncos in a 43-8 romp, it was decided that Seattle linebacker Malcolm Smith would be the game’s MVP. Understandable to a point, as Smith’s 69-yard pick-six took the first-half score to 22-0.

But anybody who really watched this game understood that safety Kam Chancellor, the LOB’s primary enforcer, was the most valuable man on the field. Perhaps Chancellor suffered from a case of box-score scouting, but he did have an interception of his own, he put up 10 tackles, and he completely eliminated any chance the Broncos had of throwing anything short and intermediate over the middle… because every time Wes Welker or anybody else tried a slant, there was Chancellor, ready to blow it up and reinforce the fact that those passes were Very Bad Ideas.

Super Bowl LIV: Chris Jones, DL, Kansas City Chiefs

(Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)

I’m not a latecomer to the idea that Jones, and not Patrick Mahomes, should have been the MVP in the Chiefs’ 31-20 win over the 49ers — I made that very argument the day after the game once I got a good eye on the game tape. It was pretty clear from the press box, and the tape just proved the theory true.

Thing is, you had to watch the game to get it. Jones was credited with no tackles, one assist, no sacks, no quarterback hits and three passes defensed in the game. But his presence was obvious. The three passes defensed were all Jimmy Garoppolo passes tipped at the line of scrimmage, and Jones’ pressure of Garoppolo led to Bashaud Breeland’s interception.

“You’re at the point in the season where sacks don’t really count and they don’t matter,” Jones said after the game. “As long as you affect the game in any type of way, that’s what matters. As long as you can put your team in a position to go out there and make a stop, that’s what matters. Sacks, tackles, none of that matters.”

Jones’ performance should have mattered enough to the MVP voters, though.

Super Bowl VII: Manny Fernandez, DT, Miami Dolphins

(Darryl Norenberg-USA TODAY Sports)

The Miami Dolphins’ “No-Name Defense” of the early 1970s was one of the best in NFL history despite the lack of a defined “star.” Instead, it was a group of players who worked in perfect concert together. That was never more true than in the 1972 season, when the Dolphins became the only team in league history to go undefeated from start to finish.

In Super Bowl VII, Miami held Washington to 228 total yards, picked off three passes, and allowed a 50% completion rate. Safety Jake Scott won the game’s MVP award with two of those interceptions, and while that’s entirely fair, Scott may not have been the most important “No-Name” on the field that day.

Instead, it may have been defensive tackle Manny Fernandez, who racked up a sack and six solo tackles (unofficially, he’s been credited with as many as 17 tackles in the game), and completely demolished the Redskins’ offensive line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kogLdlw7Udc

Super Bowl XV: Rod Martin, LB, Oakland Raiders

(Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

How rare is it for a linebacker to pick off three passes in one professional football game? Since 1950, it’s happened just 19 times. Rarer still is the linebacker who has three interceptions in a Super Bowl. That’s happened precisely once, and Oakland Raiders linebacker Rod Martin did it against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV. Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett won the game’s MVP award after Oakland’s 27-10 win, and while Plunkett did throw three touchdown passes, he also completed just 13 of 21 passes overall for 261 yards.

Meanwhile, Martin had five solo tackles in addition to his three interceptions, and the Raiders scored 10 of their 27 points off his picks. When you are the only player ever to do something in a Super Bowl. and that mark is just about impossible to match, that’s MVP material.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckaadMLGeRk

Super Bowl IV: Willie Lanier, LB, Kansas City Chiefs

(Malcolm Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson won Super Bowl IV’s MVP award after his team beat the pants off the Minnesota Vikings, 23-7. And while Dawson did a nice job helping his offense matriculate the ball down the field, Kansas City’s defense was the real bully on the field in this game. In truth, Dawson completed just 12 of 17 passes for 142 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and the touchdown pass was a quick one to receiver Otis Taylor, who put forth a Herculean after-catch effort to get in the end zone.

Linebacker Willie Lanier, on the other hand, had no qualifiers regarding his ability to compete for the NVP award. Lanier had four solo tackles and a key interception, and he called all the shots for a defense that took the NFL-best Vikings and put their offense in a bag. One of the greatest players at his position in pro football history and a pioneer as well, Lanier should have been the MVP in this game.

Super Bowl XXXIX: Rodney Harrison, DB, New England Patriots

(Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports)

Super Bowl XXXIX marked the Patriots’ third NFL championship in a four-year stretch — the absolute pinnacle of the Bill Belichick dynasty. In New England’s 24-21 win over the Eagles, an opportunistic young quarterback named Tom Brady found receiver and game MVP Deion Branch 11 times on 12 targets for 133 yards. A nice game for Branch, but was it really MVP material?

Not when Patriots safety Rodney Harrison was on the same roster. Harrison terrorized Donovan McNabb and the entirely of Andy Reid’s usually high-octane offense with 10 solo tackles, a sack, a pass defensed, and two interceptions.

The first interception came late in a scoreless first quarter, and snuffed out an Eagles drive in New England territory, one play after cornerback Asante Samuel’s interception was wiped out by an illegal contact penalty on linebacker Roman Phifer. Harrison’s second interception came with 17 seconds left in the game, making the Patriots’ win a fait accompli.

Did Deion Branch have a good game in Super Bowl XXXIX? Sure. Did he have anywhere neat the transcendent performance Rodney Harrison did? Absolutely not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C1eUUBxwGY

Super Bowl XXXVI: Ty Law, CB, New England Patriots

(Glenn Osmundson/Providence Journal-USA TODAY NETWORK)

Speaking of Patriots defensive backs who have been snubbed for Super Bowl MVP awards, there’s the matter of one Tajuan E. Law, the cornerback who, in New England’s first Super Bowl win in franchise history, put his team on the board with the first touchdown of the game against the Greatest Show on Turf.

How? This 47-yard pick-six with 8:47 left in the first half.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHvSfHkn5JQ

Law nearly got another pick on a Kurt Warner end zone pass to Isaac Bruce, and for the game, he totaled seven solo tackles, a tackle for loss, and a pass defensed, as well as that crucial interception.

More important than the tackles were the nature of those tackles. Law and his Patriots defensive counterparts were exhorted by Bill Belichick to make every Rams skill-position player to make every positive gain (and every other play) hurt like hell with Belichick’s “bull’s-eye” game plan. It worked like a charm, and while Tom Brady walked away with the MVP award (he completed 16 of 27 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown), it could be said that Law ran away with the award that clearly should have been his.

Super Bowl XXV: Thurman Thomas, RB, Buffalo Bills

(Anne Ryan-USA TODAY Sports)

Speaking of Bill Belichick Super Bowl game plans against explosive offenses, there was the one he put together as the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator in Super Bowl XXV. The idea against the Buffalo Bills’ killer “K-Gun” no-huddle offense was to let running back Thurman Thomas have a big day at the expense of quarterback Jim Kelly, and Kelly’s awesome cadre of receivers — which included TWO future Hall-of-Famers in James Lofton and Andre Reed.

The plan did not go over well with New York’s defenders at first.

“I thought it was a collective brain fart, like, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’” linebacker Carl Banks said a year later, via Michael Eisen of nyfootball.net. “I think because we were a team that prided itself defensively on not giving up hundred-yard rushers, not even giving up 100-yard games for a total offensive rush stat. But he said it, we are all in an uproar, and we’re thinking Bill is just conceding that Thurman is just this good of a football player that we won’t be able to stop him. And then he reeled us back in and kinda gave us a method to the madness.”

Well, had Bills kicker Scott Norwood not gone Wide Right with his 47-yard field goal attempt at the end of the game, the Bills would have won, 22-20, and Carl Banks’ original “brain fart” impression may have been accurate. Because Thomas, a Hall-of-Famer himself, didn’t need Belichick’s help to be great — he had 320 total touches in the 1990 regular season alone for 1,829 yards and 13 touchdowns. In the Super Bowl, Thomas ran 15 times for 135 yards and a touchdown, adding five catches for 55 yards.

Giants running back Ottis Anderson was the game’s MVP, but Thomas did a lot more, and he shouldn’t have been debited because his kicker missed the most important field goal of his life. Belichick’s game plan is now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but it was very nearly one of his biggest coaching mistakes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSP2BDEsXDU

Super Bowl XI: Clarence Davis, HB, Oakland Raiders

(Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY Sports)

Super Bowl XI on January 9, 1977 pitted two desperate teams against each other. The Oakland Raiders had lost six of the previous eight conference and league championship games, both in the AFL and NFL, and each time to the eventual Super Bowl winner. The Minnesota Vikings had lost three of the last seven Super Bowls, each time to a team that had beaten the Raiders in the league and conference championship games.

As it turned out, the game was as one-sided as any Super Bowl had been, as the Raiders leveled the Vikings, 32-14, for their first Lombardi Trophy. Raiders receiver Fred Biletnikoff won the MVP award with a four-catch game for 79 yards, but what about running back Clarence Davis, who racked up 137 yards on just 16 carries?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQc_fWWM8kc

Biletnikoff had a great game, but the Raiders set a Super Bowl record with 266 rushing yards, and Davis was the prime mover, along with Oakland’s amazing offensive line.

Super Bowl XXVIII: James Washington, DB, Dallas Cowboys

(James D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports)

Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith won the MVP award in Dallas’ second-straight Super Bowl win over the Buffalo Bills, but as impressive as Smith’s game was — he had 30 carries for 132 yards and two touchdowns in a 30-13 rout — it was Cowboys defensive back James Washington who had one of the best Super Bowl performances ever, and certainly worthy of the MVP.

Washington had 11 solo tackles, intercepted a Jim Kelly pass, and got the rare fumble trifecta — a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and a recovery return for a touchdown. The Bills had a 13-6 lead before Washington’s 48-yard return score in the second quarter, and the Cowboys never trailed after that play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weKIxqC7gbA

Super Bowl XXXVII: Dwight Smith, CB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

(JACK GRUBER-Imagn Content Services, LLC)

Safety Dexter Jackson picked off two Rich Gannon passes in the Bucs’ 48-21 demolition of the Raiders, which gave Jackson the MVP award. All good, except for one thing: Cornerback Dwight Smith had two interceptions of his own, and he returned both for touchdowns. Yes, both pick-sixes were in the second half when the game was already a laugher, and both of Jackson’s were in the first half when it wasn’t, but that’s not Smith’s fault. At the very least, Smith and Jackson could have shared the MVP award, as Cowboys defenders Harvey Banks Martin and Randy White did in Super Bowl XII.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUeXYQojlqw

Super Bowl LV: Shaquil Barrett, EDGE, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

(Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)

Tom Brady picked up his fifth Super Bowl MVP award, and his first and only with the Buccaneers, who beat Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, 31-9. Brady was his usually efficient self with 21 completions in 29 attempts for 201 yards and three touchdowns, but given the greatness of Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles’ game plan, it would seem more fitting that a Tampa Bay defender picked up the MVP.

Right after the game, my Touchdown Wire colleague Mark Schofield argued that it should have been edge defender Shaquil Barrett, and I’m inclined to agree. Yes, Barrett pressured Mahomes ceaselessly and in critical situations against a Chiefs offensive line that had been completely stripped by injuries, but value is value, and there were few players more valuable in that game than Barrett.

1

1

1

1