Ghosts of Super Bowls Past

Despite my being a huge Bills' supporter and the traumatic memories that the team's four trips to the Super Bowl represent in my mind, I love the Super Bowl.  I love the fact that no matter what, you're guaranteed to remember at least one or two things from the game itself decades later, whether the game was a classic or not.  I like watching history unfold before my eyes and that's what the Super Bowl is to me.  The first Super Bowl I remember watching was Super Bowl XXIII in Miami with Joe Montana throwing a late touchdown to John Taylor to beat the underdog Bengals (I was rooting for the favorites out of spite after the Bengals had beaten the Bills in the AFC Championship game).  I've seen a stretch of NFC dominance (I caught the middle and end of the NFC's amazing 13 straight wins from XIX to XXXI) as well as a recent stretch of AFC superiority.  As it stands, if the Colts win today, the AFL/AFC will have caught the NFL/NFC at 22 Super Bowl titles each.  Strangely, the AFC won the 70's 8-2, the NFC won the 80's and 90's 8-2, and if the Colts win today the AFC will have won the 00's 8-2.  In any case, I got to thinking about the best Super BOwls I've ever szeen and wanted to rank them and hear your thoughts.  So with apologies to Super Bowls III, X, XIII, XIV, and XVII that I never saw, here are the 10 best Super Bowls in my opinion:

10. XXXIX: Patriots over Eagles (Jacksonville, FL): Trailing by 10 late, Donovan McNabb decides to milk the clock with a long TD drive late to draw within 3.  The next time Philly gets the ball, they have no timeouts and less than 30 seconds left and McNabb's 5th turnover of the game (2 were overturned by replay), mails New England a title in a game they really didn't look all that Super in.

9. XXX: Cowboys over Steelers (Tempe, AZ): A gutty performance by the heavy underdogs from Pittsburgh is undone by a late Neil O'Donnell pick that can only be described as the worst throw in pro football history.  Note: Dallas- Pittsburgh becomes the first and only three time Super Bowl matchup.

8. XXXVIII: Patriots over Panthers (Houston, TX): This was a weird game.  It was sloppy and scoreless until very late in the first half when a wild explosion of points in the last few minutes left it 14-10 at the break.  The third quarter was scoreless and then a wild fourth quarter kills my UNDER bet and costs me $110.  The Pats win on a last second field goal that was setup by John Kasay's kickoff that went out of bounds, leaving Brady with the lamest game winning drive in Super Bowl history.

7. XXIII: 49ers over Bengals (Miami, FL): A boring 3-3 first half gives way to a memorable kickoff return for a TD by Stanford Jennnings and two Montana TD passes in the 4th quarter as the 49ers come back to beat the Bengals and cement their place as the team of the 80's in the late, Bill Walsh's last game in the NFL.

6. XXXII: Broncos over Packers (San Diego, CA): This game was really exciting all the way through with both teams displaying stretches of dominance as two Hall of Fame QBs dueled for the world championship.  Brett Favre's last seconds drive to tie the game sputters around the 30 yard line and in the end, it was John Elway who finally stopped the NFC's 13 game winning streak and finally got the monkey off his back as well.

5. XXXVI: Patriots over Rams (New Orleans, LA): The heavily favored Rams come back from a 14 point deficit in the 4th quarter, only to see the Patriots drive down for the winning FG as time expires.  I'll never forget John Madden spending the whole game winning drive stating that Patriots (14 point dogs) would be wise to run out the clock and play for overtime.  Somewhere, Dick Jauron nodded in agreement.

4. XXXIV: Rams over Titans (Atlanta, GA): The Titans come back from a 16-0 deficit to tie the game, only to see Kurt Warner hit Isaac Bruce on a bomb to seemingly win the Super Bowl.  The late, Steve McNair engineers a dramatic drive that would have sent the game to overtime, but it stalls at the 1 yard line because of the greatest tackle in NFL history by LB, Mike Jones.

3. XLIII: Steelers over Cardinals (Tampa, FL): Trailing 20-7 in the 4th quarter, the Cardinals score 3 times in a row (including on a safety), culminating in Larry Fitzgerald's spectacular catch and carry to take the lead by 3 with about 2:30 to play.  Roethlisberger proceeds to exercise the demons of a horrible performance in Super Bowl XL with a game winning drive with seconds left that ends with an unbelievable tip toe TD catch by Santonio Holmes.

2. XLII: Giants over Patriots (Glendale, AZ): The Patriots quest for perfection is seemingly a reality when Brady hits Randy Moss for a TD pass late to take a 14-10 lead in a surprising defensive struggle.  David Tyree proceeds to make the greatest catch in NFL history on a 3rd and long play and Eli Manning hits Plaxico Burress for a TD with seconds left as the Giants pull off the stunning upset.  Following a season where the Patriots run up the score on every opponent with the rationale that they play a full 60 minutes every game, a dejected Bill Belichick slinks off the field before the final gun even sounds and hopefully cries in the locker room.

1. XXV: Giants over Bills (Tampa, FL):  Obviously the saddest moment of my childhood was Scott Norwood's missed FG that would have given the Bills a world championship, but the game itself was one of the most well-played, dramatic games ever played in any sport.  Neither team commits a turnover in a back and forth struggle that sees the Giants prevail 20-19, despite Thurman Thomas racking up nearly 200 all-purpose yards.  I'll always ask myself who the Bills' special teams player was that got called for holding before Buffalo's last drive (leaving Kelly to start at the 10 yard line).  The refs never did say.