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Longest TD Runs In Super Bowl History

NFL Football Betting News

The big game, Super Bowl LV, is coming up this Sunday when the Kansas City Chiefs try to win back-to-back Lombardi Trophies against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With so many Super Bowl props on the board, let’s go through the history books and recall the five longest touchdown runs in Super Bowl history.

Here’s a fascinating fact to get started: There have been only 12 touchdown runs of over 10 yards in Super Bowl history, and only seven of at least 30 yards or more. There are two runs of over 30 yards that are not on this top five list: First, there is the 33-yard touchdown run by DeShaun Foster of the Carolina Panthers against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII in February of 2004 in Houston. Second, Thurman Thomas of the Buffalo Bills galloped for 31 yards in Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants in January of 1991 in Tampa. Let’s take an online betting look at the five longest touchdown runs in Super Bowl history.

Willie-Parker-runs-for-a-75-yard-score-one-of-the-longest-TD-runs-in-SB-history
Brian Bahr/Getty Images/AFP

Longest TD Runs In Super Bowl History

Willie Parker

75 Yards – Super Bowl XL, Pittsburgh Steelers

The run came against the Seattle Seahawks in Detroit, the first Super Bowl held in the Detroit metropolitan area since Super Bowl XVI between the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals in 1982. Parker helped the Steelers to a 21-10 victory over the Seahawks, giving the Steelers their fifth Super Bowl at the time. Pittsburgh later won a sixth Super Bowl in Super Bowl XLIII against the Arizona Cardinals. The Steelers are tied with the New England Patriots for the most Super Bowl victories of all time with six. The 49ers and Dallas Cowboys have five. The New York Giants and Green Bay Packers have four each.

Parker’s run was a big play in a defense-dominated game. The Steelers won even though quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s passer rating was just 22.6, the worst passer rating for a winning Super Bowl quarterback this century. The Pittsburgh defense held down the Seahawks’ potent offense and gave coach Bill Cowher a long-awaited Super Bowl victory. Cowher retired from coaching shortly thereafter.

Marcus Allen

74 Yards – Super Bowl XVIII, Los Angeles Raiders

This is the greatest and most famous run in Super Bowl history. Other future runs of 80 or more yards might go into the record books as longer runs, much as Parker’s 75-yard run officially is longer than Allen’s, but no Super Bowl touchdown run is ever likely to match this one for artistry and brilliance. Allen ran to his left but saw that the Washington Redskins had plugged up a gap. Rather than plow straight into the line or jog out of bounds to the left side for no gain, Allen circled around and reversed his field to the right.

He was almost 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, but he felt he could make a play… and he did. Allen found a running lane to the right side of the line, with the bunch of bodies clogging up the left half of the field. He got through that initial hole and into open space. He cut a diagonal path back to his left and no Washington defender came especially close to him. The Raiders had already been dominating the game, and that run was the punctuation mark on the franchise’s third Super Bowl title, the first and only one won in Los Angeles, where the team had moved from Oakland in 1982.

Timmy Smith

58 Yards – Super Bowl XXII, Washington Redskins

This run was part of the Redskins’ explosion after falling behind 10-0 early in the game. Washington scored 35 points in the second quarter – still a record for the most points in a quarter by any team in a Super Bowl game – and routed the Denver Broncos. Smith is the most anonymous running back to author a great play in Super Bowl history, with Willie Parker being a similarly obscure example.

While quarterback Doug Williams became the first Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl as a starter, Smith’s rushing performance caught everyone by surprise, including the Broncos. The Redskins won their second Super Bowl under head coach Joe Gibbs. This was the Redskins’ third Super Bowl appearance in six seasons, part of a decade of NFC dominance. The AFC didn’t win a single Super Bowl for 13 straight seasons, and this Washington championship came in the middle of that streak.

John Riggins

43 Yards – Super Bowl XVII, Washington Redskins

The most dramatic long touchdown run in Super Bowl history is this one. The Redskins trailed the Miami Dolphins early in the fourth quarter and had fourth and one at the Miami 43. Riggins broke through a hole and then shoved away a Dolphin defender who tried to drag him down from the side. “Riggo” romped 43 yards for an epic touchdown which electrified the Rose Bowl stadium in one of the most thrilling Super Bowl plays ever witnessed.

The Redskins held on in the final 10 minutes to beat the Dolphins, 27-17, and win the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl championship. Miami and Washington had met exactly 10 years earlier in Southern California for Super Bowl VII, but on that day, the Dolphins won to complete the only perfect season in the Super Bowl era of NFL history. A decade later, the Redskins struck back and finally captured the Lombardi Trophy.

Damien Williams

38 Yards – Super Bowl LIV, Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs had already rallied from a 20-10 deficit to take a 24-20 lead over the San Francisco 49ers, but they still had to finish Super Bowl LIV and make the final play they needed to win the game. Damien Williams could have chosen to fall down or kneel at the 1-yard line and make sure the 49ers never got the ball back, but his 38-yard touchdown run did put the Chiefs up by two scores.

That was relevant to some people in the sportsbook. It gave them the cushion which helped seal a Super Bowl title. The Chiefs had gone exactly 50 years between Super Bowl appearances, but they made their return count, as Andy Reid finally won a first Super Bowl after many losses in the conference championship game round of the playoffs, plus a loss with the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX to the New England Patriots.

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