Arizona Premiere Sports

Every sports fan has got their favorite Super Bowl moments and Super Bowl games.  Many will be biased because their favorite team was probably involved.  This list is compiled as objectively as can be by a 49er fan.  The criteria for the list are as follows: the game had to have significance OR was a thriller down to the end OR included something no other Super Bowl game had.  Feel free to add your favorites or comment on ours.

So if the captains would please meet at mid field we’ll flip the coin and get this thing going:

1. Super Bowl I – Packers vs. Chiefs. May not have been a nail biter, may not have been that great of a game competitively speaking, but it was the first.  It got the whole ball rolling.  At that time the game was billed as the NFL/AFL Championship Game and didn’t even sell out the L.A. Colliseum.  By the way, the Packers won 35-10.

2. Super Bowl III – Colts vs. Jets. Again, not necessarily the most competitive game but significant due to Joe Namath’s bold prediction, the fact the Jets were 19 point underdogs, and it was the first Super Bowl victory for the AFL.  A huge step forward and an impetus for the NFL/AFL merger.

3. Super Bowl VII – Redskins vs. Dolphins. Fairly tight score, Dolphins 14-7, but the true importance of this game was that it was the crowning jewel to the Dolphins perfect season.  Still not matched.

4. Super Bowl XXXVI – Rams vs. Patriots. Nail biters get a heavy nod in this list.  The Patriots have been involved in a lot of them. But this was the first of their three Super Bowl victories, won on a last second Adam Viniatieri field goal.  And who says field goal kickers don’t matter?

5. Super Bowl XXIII – 49ers vs. Bengals. I told you I was biased.  But this was really the only close Super Bowl victory the 49ers had.  And it exhibited Joe Montana at his coolest best.  Hitting John Taylor for the game winning touchdown with only 39 seconds left, culminating an 89 yard drive was quintessential Joe.

6. Super Bowl X – Cowboys vs. Steelers. The two of the NFL in the 70’s met for the first time.  This was the first Super Bowl I remember watching.  And it was a great one.  Hard fought, lots of exciting plays and two of the greatest catches not only in Super Bowl history but in the entire history of the NFL executed by Lynn Swann.

7. Super Bowl V – Cowboys vs. Colts. Kind of a sloppy game really (11 turnovers committed by the two teams) but that’s part of what makes it interesting. That and the fact that this one was also decided by a last second field goal by Jim O’Brien.

8. Super Bowl XLII – Giants vs. Patriots. Sad because I wanted to witness another perfect season.  On the list because of that very fact, it was a nail biter, and it laid witness to one of the luckiest catches in Super Bowl history by David Tyree that kept the drive alive and allowed Eli Manning to hit Plaxico Burress for the game winning touchdown.

9. Super Bowl XXII – Packers vs. Broncos. This one is on the list because a.) it was a good competitive game and b.) because Elway finally won one.  It was almost as if he willed his team to win.  That and that fact that FINALLY Elway had a big time running back (Terrell Davis) to complement him.

10. Super Bowl XIII- Cowboys vs. Steelers. The rematch. And it didn’t let anyone down.  This was a high scoring aerial assault. Swann and Stallworth were at their best and Roger the Dodger was still able to make things happen.  Had Jackie Smith not dropped that pass in the end zone the outcome might have been different.   But the Steelers were great. Pure and simple.