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Super Bowl MVP: A Look at Iconic Performances

NFL Players Spend Their Entire Lives Dreaming Of the Super Bowl, but Only a Few Deliver Truly Iconic Performances

These Players Shine When the Lights Are Brighter

Not to alarm anybody, but Super Bowl LIX, aka the biggest football game and sporting event in every online betting fan’s calendar, is a mere three weeks away!

As we prepare for this weekend’s AFC and NFC title games, featuring the Buffalo Bills, who were conference favorites to make it to the Super Bowl as of last week, and the Kansas City Chiefs, plus the Washington Commanders and Philadelphia Eagles, respectively, and as we continue en route to this season’s Super Bowl, for which BetUS Sportsbook is already offering some killer early odds, I got to thinking for a second.

Super Bowl MVPs: History, Top Players and Betting Insights
The Pete Rozelle Trophy | Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images/AFP

If I were a football player and not a football writer with an affinity for making NFL picks and predictions, how much would it mean to score a Super Bowl MVP award?

Yes, it must be one of the coolest feelings in the world to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. That kind of feat automatically puts you in a different type of league, being a starter or a bench warmer. But what if, on top of being a part of a Super Bowl-winning roster, you also take home the game’s MVP award?

 

Listing off Super Bowl MVP Winners Through History

From bragging rights to cementing your status as one of the best players in the world’s biggest football game, winning the Super Bowl MVP award is as cool as cool can be.

While we wait for Super Bowl LIX, why not look back at some of the most important MVP-worthy performances throughout the game’s history and the players who won the award?

 

Most Super Bowl MVPs Won by a Player: Legends of the Game

Ready to go down the football memory lane and do a little SB MVP dissecting? Get your pen and notepad ready because your good old friend Danny is about to give you Super Bowl MVP 101.

Firstly, how has the winner of the Super Bowl’s MVP award been decided?

Simple.

A panel of 16 football writers and broadcasters, alongside fans voting through their preferred electronic device, decide who takes home the award. Split between 80% deciding power for the pros and 20% for the fans; everybody gets a say.

You could say it works out just like with the regular season MVP award, for which Buffalo’s Josh Allen looks like a shoo-in to win.

Secondly, can a player from any position win the award? Yes, of course. As long as they have playing time and a significant performance, anybody can win it. Quarterbacks usually have the best online betting odds to win, having won it already a staggering 33 times. But, but, a cornerback, a defensive tackle, and a kick/punt returner have all won once.

Thirdly, remember how I just mentioned quarterbacks have won the award 33 times? It’s easy to understand why the top Super Bowl MVPs are all passers.

Headlining the list with five wins in total, four with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tom Brady. Following Brady, with three wins each, his two closest competitors in the never-ending GOAT debate, San Francisco 49ers demi-God Joe Montana, and current face of the league, Kansas City Chiefs’ superstar Patrick Mahomes.

Closing out the list with two awards each, Hall of Famers Bart Starr with the Green Bay Packers, Terry Bradshaw with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the man, the myth, the legend, the other Manning brother, but the one who beat Brady in the Super Bowl twice, Eli Manning.

Besides Hall of Fame-worthy QBs, which other players have won the award? Well, does the name Jerry Rice ring a bell? Yes, the wide receiver that all other wide receivers in history look up to as their GOAT won it in 1989 at Super Bowl XXIII with the 49ers.

Fast forward five years, at Super Bowl XXVIII, Emmitt Smith, one of the league’s best running backs in history, won the award with 132 rushing yards and two touchdown performances against the Bills.

In 2019, Julian Edelman, one of Brady’s favorite targets in New England and a favorite for NFL prop betting fans back in the day, won the award in the team’s final Super Bowl win against the Los Angeles Rams, following a 141-receiving yards performance. For a game that ended with a 13-3 score, Edelman putting up close to 150 rec yards deserves all the pop it can get.

Defensively, players like Richard Dent, one of the most important players in the famed 1986 Chicago Bears’ “Monsters of the Midway” defense, won the award after leading the Bears to a 46-10 stomp over the Patriots in Super Bowl XX.

Ray Lewis, one of the most feared defenders in modern times and a favorite for football fans ever since joining the league, won the award with the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV in 2001.

Lastly, back in Super Bowl 50, Von Miller, linebacker for the Denver Broncos back then, now with Buffalo, became the last defensive player to date to win the award following a performance where he recorded six tackles, two and a half sacks, and two forced fumbles, leading to NFL stats experts deeming it one of the best personal defensive feats in the title game’s history.

 

Of course, having mentioned some of the most important players to have won the Super Bowl MVP award more than once, the question now is, who has the best Super Bowl MVP odds to win this season?

While we’re still a few days away from knowing which teams will be headlining Super Bowl LIX, if you want one final piece of advice from your friendly neighborhood sports writer/smack talker, aka, me, make sure you stay up to date and posted with BetUS Sportsbook’s Super Bowl LIX odds, including of course, those for MVP.

For example, if the Chiefs make it to the game and collect their third consecutive Lombardi Trophy in as many years, could we also be in for another Mahomes MVP win? Keep that in mind when making your Super Bowl MVP predictions for SB LIX.

He made it three last season, so why not go for four?

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