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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.
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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.
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Chuck Noll is the Super Bowl’s winningest coach, having led the Pittsburgh Steelers to victory four times—in 1975, 1976, 1979, and 1980.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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Washington Redskin Timmy Smith accumulated 204 rushing yards—the most in a championship game—in the 1988 matchup against Denver.
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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.
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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.
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Rod Martin, with the Oakland Raiders, holds the Super Bowl record for most interceptions—three against Philadelphia in 1981.
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The Super Bowl’s longest field goal soared 54 yards, kicked by the Buffalo Bills’ Steve Christie against Dallas in 1994.
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Green Bay’s Brett Favre threw a record 81-yard pass completion to Antonio Freeman during the 1997 game against New England.
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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.
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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.
