The Super Bowl typically includes the NFL’s two best teams, but the best teams don’t always win.
The favored team has won 37 of the first 58 Super Bowls, or 64 percent of the time. Going into Super Bowl LVIII, for instance, the San Francisco 49ers have been installed as 1.5-point favorites over the Kansas City Chiefs.
While there hasn’t been a Super Bowl point spread greater than 4.5 in the past 14 years, 14 Super Bowls have had point spreads in the double digits, with the heavily favored team winning nine times.
Coincidentally, the five that lost are listed below because, unfortunately, they were the best teams to lose the Super Bowl.
The teams listed below were selected based on their records, the point spreads, and their point differentials during the regular season.
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5. 1997 Green Bay Packers
The Packers (13-3) were the defending champions and had Brett Favre as their quarterback, coming off a regular season in which he was the co-NFL MVP along with Barry Sanders.
They were installed as 11-point Super Bowl XXXII favorites over the Denver Broncos (12-4), led by quarterback John Elway and All-Pro running back Terrell Davis, who rushed for 157 yards and three touchdowns to deny Green Bay a repeat championship.
4. 2001 St. Louis Rams
The St. Louis Rams (14-2), who won the championships two years earlier, were the “Greatest Show on Turf,” with a high-flying offense that included quarterback Kurt Warner, running back Marshall Faulk, and receiver Isaac Bruce.
In Super Bowl XXXVI, they played the New England Patriots, who were 14-point underdogs with a first-year starter at quarterback named Tom Brady. While they outgained the Patriots, 427-267, the Rams committed three turnovers, one a pick-six by Ty Law.
Adam Vinatieri’s 48-yard field goal with no time left sent the New England Patriots to their first Super Bowl title.
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3. 1969 Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings finished with a 12-2 record — winning 10 straight at one point — and had a top-ranked defense that featured the “Purple People Eaters,” the nickname given to their vaunted defensive line with Alan Page, Carl Eller, and Jim Marshall.
In Super Bowl IV, they were 12-point favorites against the Kansas City Chiefs (11-3), who’d finished second in the AFL West division, yet beat the Oakland Raiders in the AFL title game.
The Chiefs forced five turnovers and capitalized on them to score a 23-7 upset over the Vikings, who suffered their first of four Super Bowl defeats.
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2. 1968 Baltimore Colts
The Colts, coached by Don Shula, went 13-1 during the regular season and were 18-point favorites against the AFL champion New York Jets – still the largest point spread in Super Bowl history. Meanwhile, the Jets had gone 11-3 in what was considered the weaker AFL, squeaking by the Oakland Raiders in the AFL title game.
Jets quarterback Joe Namath made his famous guarantee and then backed it up on the field as the Jets shocked the Colts, 16-7, in Super Bowl III.
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1. 2007 New England Patriots
The 16-0 Patriots, whose point differential of +315 was the highest in NFL history, had an opportunity to be dubbed the “greatest team ever” and become the first team since the 1972 Dolphins to complete an undefeated season in the Super Bowl era.
They were 12-point favorites against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII. The Giants had gone 10-6 during the regular season, finished second in the NFC East and won their three playoff games by a combined 17 points.
But the Giants sacked Tom Brady five times and upset the Patriots on Eli Manning’s 13-yard TD pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds left for a 17-14 victory.