Discover the most thrilling Super Bowls in NFL history with our countdown of the top 10 games of all time. From upsets to shootouts, relive the glory of football’s biggest stage. We also will include some that are outside of the Top 10. Start your free trial with Fubo and don’t miss out on the Super Bowl this upcoming season. It could be legendary.
From Upsets to Shootouts: The Best and Most Legendary Super Bowls of All Time
The Super Bowl is the most popular sporting event in the United States, watched by more people than any other sporting event across all four major sports. In the most recent Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles 115.1 million people watched, making it the most watched telecast in history.
It hasn’t mattered what decade, every Super Bowl has its exciting storylines that the world latches onto and tunes in to see. Whether it’s last-second plays, exciting comebacks or blown leads, nothing beats the Super Bowl. Below is a countdown of the best Super Bowls of all time.
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Our Top 10 Super Bowls of All Time: Ranking the Most Epic Games in NFL History
No. 10: Super Bowl XXXIV: St. Louis Rams 23, Tennessee Titans 26
This game did not look like it would come down to the wire. The Titans had different ideas to make this a Super Bowl no one would forget. With their famed “Greatest Show on Turf” offense, the Rams held a 16-0 lead late in the third quarter. Even with Kurt Warner throwing for 414 yards and Isaac Bruce catching six passes for 162 yards, the Titans hung around long enough to claw back. They even tied the game on a 43-yard Al Del Greco field goal with 2:12 to play.
One play later, Warner hit Bruce for a 73-yard touchdown. Tennessee drove right back down the field and was at the Rams 10-yard line with six seconds to go. With Titans quarterback Steve McNair throwing to Kevin Dyson over the middle, he was grabbed and fell to the ground just one yard short of the end zone.
No. 9: Super Bowl XLII: Pittsburgh Steelers 27, Arizona Cardinals 23
Coming into this game many thought it would be the perfect bookend to Kurt Warner’s Hall of Fame career, but it turned out two iconic plays by Pittsburgh Steelers players had a different idea.
While Pittsburgh led 17-7 at one point, Warner rallied the Cardinals back and he hit Larry Fitzgerald for a 64-yard touchdown with 2:37 to go to give Arizona a 23-20 lead. However, the Steelers weren’t done. Ben Roethlisberger led them back down the field, and with 35 seconds left, he found Santonio Holmes in the back corner of the end zone. Holmes reached out of bounds for the ball while somehow keeping his toes just inside the white lines.
8: Super Bowl LII: Philadelphia Eagles 41, New England Patriots 33
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady made his name by playing the best in the biggest games. While he didn’t disappoint, it was Eagles backup quarterback Nick Foles who had the best game of his career. Foles threw for 373 yards and three touchdowns and Brady a Super Bowl record 505 passing yards.
Part of what makes this game so iconic is a play that is remembered as “The Philly Special”. Late in the first half, it was a direct snap to running back Corey Clement, who pitched the ball to tight end Trey Burton, who then threw a one-yard touchdown pass to Foles for a 22-12 lead. New England clawed its way back, even taking the lead with 9:22 left, but a touchdown pass to Zach Ertz with 2:21 gave the Eagles the lead again. A strip sack by defensive end Brandon Graham two plays later got the Eagles the ball back and allowed them to add a field goal to seal the win.
7: Super Bowl XXIII: San Francisco 49ers 20, Cincinnati Bengals 16
Joe Montana already had two Super Bowl rings and the 49ers were the Team of the 1980s, but this is the game that cemented their dynasty and turned Montana into “Joe Cool” to cement his place in history as one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history.
Montana threw for 357 yards in the game, but he didn’t throw his first touchdown pass until early in the fourth quarter to Jerry Rice tied the game at 13. The Bengals defense, though, continued to hold and Jim Breech’s 40-yard field goal gave Cincinnati a 16-13 lead with 3:20 to go. When the 49ers trotted back onto the field at their own eight-yard line with 3:10 on the clock. That was the start of an 11-play, 92-yard drive that ended with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Montana to John Taylor with 34 seconds remaining to give the 49ers the win.
6. Super Bowl III: New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7
This is the game that put the Super Bowl on the map and turned it into what it is today. Jets quarterback Joe Namath infamously guaranteed the win. Namath threw for 206 yards — mostly to George Sauer, who caught eight passes for 133 yards — and Matt Snell ran 30 times for 121 yards for the only Jets touchdown of the game. It was the Jets defense against the Colts that really made Namath’s famous words a reality. The New York defense came within 3:19 of getting a shutout. The Jets chased Baltimore quarterback Earl Morrall from the game by picking him off three times.
The win also led to one of the most iconic photos in sports history with Namath jogging toward the tunnel to the locker room, wagging his index finger in the air.
5. Super Bowl LI: New England Patriots 31, Atlanta Falcons 28 (OT)
It’s enough to say that this Super Bowl is the only one that has ever gone to overtime. Tom Brady, once again bringing his team back from the brink, rallied the Patriots down 28-3 going into halftime to ultimately get the team a 34-28 win in the Super Bowl. However, it is debatable whether is was a great comeback or a giant choke job by the Falcons.
In overtime, Brady and the Pats drove 75 yards, capped by running back James White stretching the ball across the goal line for the touchdown. With the amazing come-from-behind victory, the Patriots earned their fifth Super Bowl title in franchise history. Brady completed 43 of 62 passes for 466 yards and two touchdowns. In the process, he set single-game Super Bowl records for completions, attempts and passing yards.
4. Super Bowl XXV: New York Giants 20, Buffalo Bills 19
The Buffalo Bills looked nearly unstoppable thanks to their no-huddle offense. That included a 51-3 win against the Raiders in the AFC Championship Game. However, head coach Bill Parcells and his then-defensive coordinator Bill Belichick came up with the perfect plan to stop Buffalo. The Giants ran a conservative, run-based offense so they could keep the ball out of the Bills’ hands. On defense, they pounded the Bills receivers, hitting them often at the line of scrimmage to disrupt the timing of their passing attack.
It all worked and the Giants held onto the ball for 40:33. Bills quarterback Jim Kelly threw for only 212 yards. Yet the game still came down to a 47-yard field goal attempt by Bills kicker Scott Norwood with eight seconds. That attempt infamously sailed wide right.
3. Super Bowl XLIX: New England Patriots 28, Seattle Seahawks 24
It’s a decision that is still talked about today and likely will be for decades to come. With 26 seconds left and the Seahawks down by four points with the ball at the 1-yard line, the entire world was expecting quarterback Russell Wilson to hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch, who had 24 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown in the game. He was the ultimate power runner. Instead, head coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrel Bevell made the most shocking play call in Super Bowl history — a quick pass to the right to Ricardo Lockette on an inside slant. Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler read it and stepped in front of Lockette to pick off Wilson’s pass and end the game.
Seattle was the reigning Super Bowl Champion and began the fourth quarter with a 24-14 lead. However, Tom Brady brought them back. He threw his third and fourth touchdown passes of the game in the final eight minutes, including a 3-yarder to Julian Edelman with 2:02 remaining to give the Patriots the lead, one they ultimately kept.
2. Super Bowl XIII: Pittsburgh Steelers 35, Dallas Cowboys 31
This Super Bowl may have been the biggest All-Star game in NFL history. It featured 26 future Hall of Famers, including 18 players (11 Steelers and seven Cowboys). Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw threw for 318 yards and four touchdowns. His top receivers, Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, combined for 10 catches and 239 yards. Roger Staubach threw three touchdown passes for the Cowboys. Running back Tony Dorsett had 140 total yards.
The Steelers began the fourth quarter with a 14-point lead and even began to celebrate on the sidelines, up 35-17 with fewer than seven minutes left to play. But the Cowboys weren’t done. They scored on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Staubach to Billy Joe DuPree with 2:27 remaining, then recovered the onside kick and scored again on a 4-yard Butch Johnson touchdown run with 22 seconds to play. However, the Steelers recovered the next onside kick to win the Super Bowl.
1. Super Bowl XLII: New York Giants 17, New England Patriots 14
The drama in this game is unmatched. The Giants entered the 2007 playoffs with no playoff expectations, especially as a wild-card team. No one was giving them a chance against an 18-0 Patriots team trying to complete the NFL’s second undefeated season ever and seeking New England’s fourth Super Bowl championship in seven years.
Eli Manning, not Tom Brady, delivered the game-winning drive in the final minutes. He did it with one of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history, literally pulling himself out of the grasp of two Patriots defenders and heaving the ball 32 yards downfield to fourth receiver David Tyree, who made a leaping, one-handed catch by pinning the ball against his helmet. Manning finished the drive by hitting Plaxico Burress for a game-winning touchdown pass with 35 seconds remaining for what many consider the most improbable Super Bowl upset of all time.
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Honorable Mentions
Super Bowl XXXVI: New England Patriots 20, St. Louis Rams 17
This Super Bowl began the legend that is Tom Brady. This game was supposed to be all about Kurt Warner and St. Louis’ “Greatest Show on Turf.” The Rams offense was electric with Warner throwing for 365 yards and St. Louis out-gaining the Patriots 427 yards to 267. However, thanks to three Rams turnovers, New England held an improbable 17-3 lead as the fourth quarter began. However, the Rams got back into it and tied the game at 17-17.
Starting at the Patriots’ own 17 with 1:21 to go, Brady, who was then a first-year starter and just 24 years old, calmly completed five passes for 53 yards to get New England into field goal range. Kicker Adam Vinatieri launched a 48-yard field goal as time expired to give Brady his first Super Bowl ring.
Super Bowl XXXII: Denver Broncos 31, Green Bay Packers 24
It was John Elway’s heart and hustle that made this game so special and helped him get his first Super Bowl win. The Broncos erased two decades of frustration. The Broncos had been 0-4 in the Super Bowl and Elway had been 0-3 in the Super Bowl.
Denver running back Terrell Davis rushed for 157 yards against one of the NFL’s best defenses, and the Denver defense forced three turnovers and used an array of blitzes to throw Packers quarterback Brett Favre off his stride. Davis’ one-yard touchdown run with 1:45 remaining broke a 24-24 tie.
Super Bowl X: Pittsburgh Steelers 21, Dallas Cowboys 17
The Steelers were able to win their second straight Super Bowl, but it was a dogfight. Terry Bradshaw’s 64-yard touchdown pass to Lynn Swann and Glen Edwards’ interception on the last play of the game gave the Steelers a 21-17 win over the Dallas Cowboys. Swann, with four receptions for 161 yards, was the game’s MVP.
The game pitted the glitzy offensive attack of the Dallas Cowboys against a grinding running attack and the famous Steel Curtain defense. Cowboys kicker Roy Gerela missed his second field goal of the game in the second half, and Cowboys safety Cliff Harris mockingly patted him on the helmet. That set off linebacker Jack Lambert, who sent Harris to the ground and lit a fire under the Steelers.
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