On Sunday, the Chiefs will try to win their third title in three seasons. Experience, iron defense, Patrick Mahomes… so many ingredients that make double reigning champions the favorites of this meeting. But beware, Philadelphia could create the surprise. It would not be the first, nor the last in the history of this great match. The Eagles have even done so. And it was not so long ago.
Before switching to the Super Bowl Lix, let's go back to the history of the biggest surprises of this meeting. If Tom Brady was very successful during this high mass, he also sometimes found himself on the wrong side.
1. Super Bowl XLII – New York Giants 17 – 14 New England Patriots (2007)
It had to be the perfect season. That of the ultimate coronation for Tom Brady. It was ultimately the greatest surprise in the history of this match.
After three titles stamped “Defense” in the early 2000s, the Patriots and their quarterback succeeded in 2007 to renew themselves to become the best attack in the League. The Massachussetts launcher walks on the water is notably benefiting from the arrival of Randy Moss. The recipient captures 23 of the 50 touchdowns launched by Brady and the Patriots machine is unstoppable. Result, 16 regular season wins for no defeat. The playoffs are just as convincing with successes against Jaguars and Chargers. The Super Bowl should only be a formality and New England is ready to join the Dolphins of 1972 as the only victorious team of the Super Bowl by being undefeated in the regular season.
It was without counting the band to Eli Manning: the Giants. They are there by surprise. After no victory in playoffs in 2005 and 2006, no one awaits them at this level. They will however beat in the background, Tampa Bay, Dallas and Green Bay. All outside each time. Despite everything, very few observers give dear to their skin as this Super Bowl approaches. New England is even seen winner by more than 10 points. The fall will only be harder.
The defense of Tom Cochlin is impeccable and limits the offensive armada of the patriots to 14 points. David Tyree's “Helmet Catch” will do the rest to bring this encounter into legend. If New York will again replay a bad turn to Bill Belichick and his family in 2011, it is this match of the 2007 season which will remain as one of the most significant moments in the history of the NFL.
2. Super Bowl III – New York Jets 16 – 7 Baltimore Colts (1968)
You have to go back to several decades to find one of the biggest surprises in the history of the Super Bowl. The 1968 season to be exact. At the time, the AFL and the NFL had just agreed to merge, but the teams from the National Football League were considered to be superior. The Green Bay Packers won the first two games between the winners of these two leagues. In 1968, the jets found themselves victorious from the AFL to everyone's surprise by defeating the raiders during the AFL Championship. Faced with them, stands the franchise of the Baltimore Colts, considered one of the best in the country.
The team is led by John Unitas, triple MVP, and Don Shula, then elected three times as the best coach of the League. Enough to make the favorite of 18 points before the meeting (the most gap recorded by the bookmakers in the history of the Super Bowl).
However, jets are not worried. They are even rather confident to the point where their quarterback, Joe Namath guarantees victory. The future Hall of Famer holds his word during the meeting and allows New York to win this 16-7 meeting against all odds. This match remains today the one and only victory of the jets in a super bowl, but the context around this meeting makes this success even more impressive.
3. Super Bowl LII – Philadelphia Eagles 41 – 33 New England Patriots (2017)
Difficult to imagine losing a super bowl when you launch 505 yards, 3 touchdowns and 0 interception. And yet, this is what Tom Brady lived during this February 2018 meeting. At the time, the Patriots tackled this meeting as reigning champions. Tom Brady has just won his third MVP title of the regular season and everything suggests that New England is on the way to a new double, after that of the early 2000s.
Especially since in front, the Eagles also deliver a great regular season, but have just lost their master to play, Carson Wentz, at the end of the regular season. Philadelphia succeeds in maintaining the course with Nick Foles at the helm, but we do not know how the one who has not even played 40 games will react as a holder since his arrival in the League in 2012. It is clear that the Lights were not too bright for Foles. He delivers a capitalized performance symbolized by a reception of Touchdown that will remain in history. Philadelphia then won the first Super Bowl in its almost general stupor history.
4. Super Bowl XXXIV-Saint-Louis Rams 23-16 Tennessee Titans (1999)
This is not so much the match as all the season. Before the meeting, the Rams are even favorites (7 points) against the Titans. But to realize the huge surprise that represents the presence of Saint Louis during this Super Bowl, you have to go back a few months, at the start of the season. At that time, the Rams have been in Saint-Louis for 4 seasons. And since their move from Los Angeles, they have displayed a poor balance sheet of 22 victories for 42 defeats. No one has them as favorites for the title. Even less when their holder quarterback, Trent Green is injured and the leaders call Kurt Warner, an AFL launcher, at the head of this attack. RAMs are 200 against 1 in bookmakers.
A few months later no one laughs at the one who filled the supermarket bags a short time ago. Kurt Warner has just been elected MVP of the League and above all, he is one of the figures of the “Greatest Show on Turf”. This title will thus reward a fantastic team that will have made America dream with the quality of its show, but also from its unexpected character only a few weeks earlier.
5. Super Bowl XXXVI – New England Patriots 17 – 14 Saint Louis Rams (2001)
With 7 rings won, Tom Brady could not only be on the side of the losers in this top 5. He is the one who creates surprise here. It must be said that no one is waiting for the patriots at this level at the start of the season. The franchise comes from a season to only 5 wins for 11 defeats and has just chained two consecutive places in AFC East. So when the holder quarterback, Drew Bledsoe is injured and gives way to a drafted player in the 6th round a year earlier, we are far from suspecting that one of the largest sports dynasties is being born. Michigan's launcher stands out as a holder, brings his team to playoffs, eliminates raiders, not without a controversy (the famous Tuck Rule Game) and rises in the final by beating the Steelers against all expectations.
There, the Patriots face Saint-Louis and his attack of madness. The Rams were champions two years earlier and did not slow down the pace. However, it is indeed the young Tom Brady, well helped by his defense and Adam Viniati, who will finish MVP of this meeting after a final drive remained in legend. Tom Brady and these patriots will then offer many memorable moments over the years, but he is certainly the one that no one had seen coming.
