Top Super Bowl Plays
Check out ESPN.com's ranking of the best players in Super Bowl history. Today, we unveil Nos. 10-1, led by a quarterback who has three Super Bowl MVP awards and four Super Bowl titles.
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There was a time not long ago when it was a given that the Super Bowl would be a blowout. Lopsided results for America’s biggest game were so common that the whole thing became like a bad joke from an early ‘90s stand up. “What’s the deal with airline food? I’d rather watch a Cowboys/Bills Super Bowl with my mother-in-law!” From 1984 to 1995, 10 of the 12 Super Bowls were decided by a margin of 13 or greater. Look at some of these scores: 38-9, 46-10, 55-10, 52-17. Honestly, 52 to 17? What a horrible game for the casual fan.
But around that time—around the turn of the century—the Big Game started to tighten up. Perhaps as a reflection of the salary cap era that began in 1994, teams seemed more even and, as a result, Super Bowls became a hell of a lot more entertaining. The Patriots won* three championships in four years each by a margin of only three points. We’ve had the Giants win by three. The Steelers win by four. The Giants again by four. The Ravens by three. And, of course, last year’s goal line interception which ended with New England winning in the waning moments by four.
That interception, undoubtedly one of the most exciting, dramatic, there-aren’t-enough-adjectives-to-describe moments in sports history...was not the best Super Bowl play ever. Honestly, it wasn’t even the best one in the last eight years. That distinction probably goes to a play where David Tyree pinned a football against his helmet after a miracle heave from Eli Manning to upset the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
That’s how great these games have been lately.
We’ve had so many remarkable moments recently that we had to break them down—with a little assistance from several NFL players and celebrity fans. These are the most Immortal Super Bowl Moments of the Millennium.
With this year’s Super Bowl just days away and Tom Brady back in the big game competing for yet another championship, there has been a lot of reflection on his past. One memory that Brady does not enjoy discussing is Super Bowl XLII.
Many will remember Super Bowl XLII as the ‘Giant Upset’ due to the fact that the New York Giants took down the undefeated New England Patriots in one of the biggest upsets in sports history. The game also included one of the greatest catches in Super Bowl history.
David Tyree’s improbable helmet catch on the game-winning drive was recently ranked No. 1 among plays in Super Bowl history by NFL Films.
The catch only tells half the story.
The play, which was a third-and-5, also included the eventual Super Bowl MVP, Eli Manning, escaping three Patriots defenders to avoid the sack and heaving the ball down the field in Tyree’s direction. The play came at a pivotal point in the game with the Giants trailing by four late in the fourth quarter.
Four years later, the Giants would beat Tom Brady and the Patriots again. Although not quite as iconic, Mario Manningham made a catch that was just as clutch as Tyree’s catch. Manningham’s catch ranked No. 10 on the list giving the Giants two plays in the top 10 on NFL Films’ list.
Top 100 Super Bowl Plays
Tyree’s catch is one of the first things people think about when they remember Super Bowl XLII. It’s no surprise that Tyree’s catch ranks No. 1, although Pittsburgh Steelers fans may argue that it might not even be the greatest catch in Super Bowl history.