Top Posts
Copyright 2021 - All Right Reserved
Home NFL Top 5 Super Bowls We Did Not Get
NFL

Top 5 Super Bowls We Did Not Get

by Scott Kacsmar
written by Scott Kacsmar
aaron rodgers green bay packers nfl quarterback

The best thing to say about Super Bowl LVIII is that it is, arguably, the best matchup the 2023 NFL season could have produced for the finale.

We get the defending champions with the best quarterback in the world against the most talented roster in the league in a rematch from 4 years ago. So no complaints here, nor from fans playing at the top NFL betting sites.

However, historically, there have been some seasons where we were flat-out robbed of a memorable Super Bowl and left with a dud because of an upset or a team just not delivering as it should have. So, instead of an instant classic, we got a lousy Super Bowl.

Criteria

We figured, “Hey, what better time to count down the top 5 Super Bowls we never got to watch?”. In choosing the list, we followed some criteria.

Keeping it realistic, we made sure every choice included a real Super Bowl team from that season and a team that lost in the Conference Championship Game. So, all of these hypothetical matchups were 1 win away (sometimes 1 snap away) from actually happening that year.

Sure, it could have been awesome to see the 2000 Ravens play a real offense like the 2000 Rams instead of the Giants, but those Rams had a lousy defense, turned the ball over too much and that’s why they were bounced in the wild-card round in New Orleans. It would have taken a lot for them to get to that Super Bowl to face that legendary Baltimore defense.

If the Super Bowl turned out great, we were hesitant to replace it with our hypothetical matchup. Sure, it would have been cool to see the 1990 49ers try for a 3-peat against the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV, but that ended up being an all-time great game with Scott Norwood missing a late field goal in a 20-19 final. Also, Steve Young probably would have started for Joe Montana, who was injured in that title game loss for the 49ers.

That was our third and final criterion. How much better would our hypothetical matchup have been over the real thing? In 2014, the Seahawks certainly lucked out in winning the NFC Championship Game against Green Bay in overtime, which included a late onside kick recovery. But if the Packers won that game and faced New England, would it have been as good of a Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers playing injured?

Super Bowl XLIX was an instant classic with the Malcolm Butler finish. So, we left that one out even if Rodgers going for ring No. 2 and a sweep of Tom Brady’s Patriots, who hadn’t won a ring since 2004, could have been very compelling.

But we think our top 5 is as good as it gets, and we will forever be sad we didn’t get any of these games.

5. Super Bowl VII (1972) – Miami Dolphins vs. Dallas Cowboys (Not Washington Redskins)

  • What We Got: Miami completed a perfect 17-0 season in a boring 14-7 win over the Washington Redskins.
  • What We Preferred: A rematch from Super Bowl VI a year earlier with Roger Staubach leading the Cowboys in a repeat bid against those 16-0 Dolphins.

Super Bowl rematches are so rare that we have only seen it happen once when the Cowboys and Bills met in back-to-back years in 1992 and 1993 with Dallas winning both games.

However, it could have happened in 1971-72 and Dallas could have won both times against Miami to pull off a repeat and deny the Dolphins a perfect season, as they were 16-0 going into that Super Bowl.

The Cowboys beat Miami 24-3 in Super Bowl VI, which fueled their run for that perfect season a year later.

What a superior game this could have been, as Roger Staubach could have made history in 1972.

Roger Staubach

He was a very efficient passer in leading the Cowboys to that 1971 Super Bowl win, but he missed most of 1972 for a separated shoulder. Craig Morton started all 14 games and the Cowboys finished 10-4. They split with the Redskins, who finished 11-3 and won the NFC East.

It is not a stretch to think Dallas could have won that division if Staubach was healthy.

In the divisional round in San Francisco, the Cowboys were down 28-13 going into the 4th quarter, which was a 3-score game back then. Staubach came off the bench to relieve Morton and led one of the best comebacks in playoff history in a 30-28 win.

Staubach got his 1st start of the season in the NFC Championship Game in Washington, but Dallas had no spark on offense, no running game, and the Cowboys lost 26-3 in a rout. Statistically, Washington wasn’t much better at all than Dallas that season, but the title game was one-sided and it sent the Redskins to the Super Bowl.

Washington wouldn’t win another playoff game until the 1982 season, a decade later.

Perfect Season

Anyone hoping for the Dolphins, who did play an easy schedule in 1972, to stumble at the finish line in the Super Bowl was left disappointed. You know the game was a bore when the only real highlight they still play is Miami kicker Garo Yepremian’s gaffe on a blocked field goal getting returned for a late touchdown to make it 14-7 instead of a most fitting 17-0 score to punctuate the team’s perfect 17-0 record.

We’ll never know if the Cowboys could have ended the only perfect season and repeated as champions that year. Instead, the 1972 Dolphins still with us pop their champagne each year when the final undefeated team loses.

4. Super Bowl LV (2020) – Kansas City Chiefs vs. Green Bay Packers (Not Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

  • What We Got: The 2nd-least competitive Super Bowl in the last 20 years as the Buccaneers routed the Chiefs 31-9, becoming the first team to win the Super Bowl in their home stadium.
  • What We Preferred: Patrick Mahomes’s Chiefs looking for a repeat championship against MVP Aaron Rodgers looking for ring No. 2 with the Packers.

It seems as though we are cursed to never see an NFL game with Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes as the starting quarterbacks.

We could have had back-to-back Super Bowls with that matchup in 2019-20, but the 2020 one is a bigger miss as the Packers were a better team that year, Rodgers was the MVP and it could have been a great game instead of the massive disappointment we got in Super Bowl LV between the Chiefs and Buccaneers.

But look at the timeline of how we keep missing out on Rodgers vs. Mahomes:

  • 2019: Mahomes missed the Week 8 matchup against Green Bay with a dislocated kneecap suffered a week earlier. The Chiefs reached the Super Bowl, but the Packers lost in the NFC Championship Game in San Francisco.
  • 2020: The Chiefs again reached the Super Bowl and the Packers again lost in the NFC Championship Game, but this time as a home favorite against Tampa Bay.
  • 2021: Rodgers missed the Week 9 matchup with COVID-19 as Jordan Love got his 1st NFL start in a 13-7 loss in Kansas City.
  • 2022: Now with the Jets, Rodgers missed the Week 4 matchup with the Chiefs after he tore his Achilles on opening night.

Make it 0-for-5, and that doesn’t even include the 2021 playoffs where both teams blew games at home in excruciating fashion.

Mahomes frustrated

However, Super Bowl LV was the big miss, as the Packers had such a great offense, the Chiefs did too, and it would have been an evenly matched Super Bowl given both teams were missing their Pro Bowl left tackle (David Bakhtiari and Eric Fisher) after they were injured late in the year.

Instead, Tampa Bay took advantage as the better defensive team and shut the Packers down in the red zone, leading to them kicking a field goal instead of trying for the game-tying touchdown in a 31-26 loss.

In the Super Bowl, the Chiefs faced a record 29 pass pressures with the reshuffled offensive line, never scored a touchdown, and the game was basically over early in the 3rd quarter as the Buccaneers got to celebrate the win in their home stadium, a Super Bowl first. The only real dud of a Super Bowl in the last 20 years outside of 2013 Broncos vs. Seahawks.

We may never see Rodgers vs. Mahomes in the NFL, and this was the biggest miss of them all as it would have been a battle for a 2nd Super Bowl ring and could really have changed the narrative.

Not to mention the way they could have helped their legacies by making sure Tom Brady never wins one with Tampa Bay.

Go figure, the Jets and Chiefs are not scheduled to meet in 2024 either. So, if they are ever going to face off, it will be in the AFC playoffs. Not quite the level of a Super Bowl.

3. Super Bowl LIII (2018) – Los Angeles Rams vs. Kansas City Chiefs (Not New England Patriots)

  • What We Got: Despite a betting total of 55.5 points, the Patriots beat the Rams in a 13-3 game, the fewest points ever scored by a winning team in the Super Bowl as New England ended its dynasty with a 6th Super Bowl championship.
  • What We Preferred: A rematch of 54-51 from Week 11 between the Rams and Chiefs that season, one of the greatest games in NFL history as it is the only time a team scored 50 points and lost a game.

Championship Sunday in the 2018 season was wild and memorable as both games went to overtime and both underdogs (Rams and Patriots) won.

We thought we’d get a good Super Bowl either way, but boy were we wrong.

On paper, Rams-Patriots was the worst choice of the 4 options as the thought of Jared Goff facing a Bill Belichick defense when Belichick was on fire that postseason sounded like a bad viewing experience.

Just never thought it’d be a 3-3 game in the 4th quarter before the Patriots pulled away. Goff threw a late interception, and the rest was history.

Goff dissapointed

This all could have been avoided if the home teams had done a better job in those title games. We said the games went to overtime, but at least on the NFC side, both teams had a possession. Drew Brees was intercepted and that set up the game-winning field goal for the Rams.

But in the AFC Championship Game, the Chiefs dropped 31 points after halftime in a wild comeback, the teams exchanged blows in the 4th quarter, and the Chiefs even led 28-24 with just over a minute left.

That’s when Dee Ford became an infamous name.

He lined up offsides by a hair on a play that would have resulted in a game-ending interception for the Patriots. Instead, they were given another life and drove for a go-ahead touchdown.

offside

A young Patrick Mahomes was able to answer with a field goal to force overtime despite only having 32 seconds to work with. As we learned a couple of years later, he can do that in 13 seconds too. Just ask Buffalo fans.

However, Buffalo fans will also tell you the sting of going to overtime in a game like this, losing the coin toss, and never seeing the ball again because the offense that got 1st possession ended the game with a touchdown drive.

That’s what the Patriots did to the Chiefs in 2018. That’s also what the Chiefs did to the Bills in 2021. Two great games with flawed endings where the other quarterback never got the ball in overtime and only half the team decided things.

Fortunately, these games helped change that rule in overtime for the postseason, but it should have been done after Super Bowl 51 between the Patriots and Falcons ended the same way.

In the end, this robbed us of a great Super Bowl.

Chiefs-Saints or Patriots-Saints would have been much better than Patriots-Rams too, but the most intriguing matchup would have been a rematch of Chiefs-Rams, the instant classic 54-51 game from earlier that season.

That game was a true spectacle.

Betting Milestone

The total was 63.5, the highest betting total for a game in NFL history, and they somehow still exceeded it by 41.5 points.

It was a thrilling back-and-forth game with plenty of great plays on both sides of the ball. The defenses even scored 3 touchdowns on turnovers. Mahomes threw for 478 yards and 6 touchdowns. Goff had 413 yards and 4 touchdowns.

It came down to the final drive and the Rams were able to intercept Mahomes, one of the very few times in his career a defense stopped him cold in the clutch like that.

Sure, a Super Bowl rematch likely never would have lived up to those lofty expectations. But it would have been a hell of a lot better than the 13-3 dud we got out of that season, which was a high-scoring one with plenty of great games. The Super Bowl could not have been any worse of a representation of that 2018 season.

But that’s not the 1st time the Patriots ruined a dream Super Bowl (scroll to the bottom).

2. Super Bowl XXXIII (1998) – Denver Broncos vs. Minnesota Vikings (Not Atlanta Falcons)

  • What We Got: The Broncos completed their repeat and John Elway retired after winning his first Super Bowl MVP award as he beat old coach Dan Reeves’ Falcons 34-19 in a one-sided game.
  • What We Preferred: Denver attempting to repeat against a 17-1 Minnesota team that broke the scoring record behind Randall Cunningham and rookie sensation Randy Moss.

The 1998 NFL season was a wild one as most of the elite teams were great on offense more than they were on defense.

That’s not too unusual, but the names and ages of the quarterbacks on those teams were. Vinny Testaverde (Jets) and Chris Chandler (Falcons) had career years a decade after they were drafted, and Randall Cunningham had a resurgence with the Vikings as a pocket passer many years after his prime as a scrambler with the Eagles.

Sure, the Broncos still started 13-0 and were looking to repeat as champions behind John Elway, but even Elway on his final legs was injured that year and 36-year-old backup Bubby Brister was 4-0 in his place with great stats.

Bubby Brister

Old quarterbacks were lighting it up, but with respect to what the 1998 Falcons did that year with Chandler and running back Jamal Anderson, the 1998 Vikings were simply better.

A 15-1 team coached by Denny Green, they helped Cunningham find his sweet spot as an older passing quarterback thanks to pairing up Cris Carter with an all-world rookie in wide receiver Randy Moss.

Moss was really an instant sensation with 95 yards and 2 touchdowns in his NFL debut. He finished with 17 touchdown catches, and the Vikings scored at least 24 points in every game that season including playoffs.


The only other team in NFL history to do that in 18 games is the 2018 Chiefs. Minnesota’s 556 points scored that year was a new record at the time.

This was a big-play passing offense with a strong running game too. The defense was adequate enough to win a championship, and it’s not like the Broncos were lights out on that side of the ball that year.

It sure felt like the Broncos and Vikings were on a collision course with 15-1 and 14-2 records between them.

Dirty Birds

However, those Dirty Bird Falcons had other ideas in mind for the NFC Championship Game in Minnesota. Despite the 14-2 record for Atlanta, the Falcons were an 11-point underdog. Maybe it wasn’t a good line, but the Vikings were up 20-7 early, and they had a chance to virtually put the game away with a 38-yard field goal that would have made it 30-20 with 2:07 left to play.

But after a perfect kicking season, veteran kicker Gary Anderson missed the 38-yard field goal to the shock of everyone. The Falcons marched down the field and tied the game with a touchdown, and Atlanta eventually won 30-27 in overtime when their kicker, Morten Andersen, made his 38-yard field goal.

Could the Vikings have still played better defense and won the game? Yes. Could they have driven for a game-winning field goal in multiple chances in overtime? Yes. But that doesn’t change the fact that an all-time great kicker having an all-time great season missed a 38-yard field goal indoors that would have sealed the deal.

That seemed to add to the Minnesota collapse too, as they just couldn’t believe he missed it.

So, instead of getting this amazing Super Bowl with a chance to see Randy Moss maybe earn a ring as a rookie and stop a Denver repeat, we had to watch a Falcons-Broncos snoozer where Atlanta’s only excitement was Tim Dwight returning a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown after the Falcons were already down 31-6 in the 4th quarter.

Of all the playoff heartbreak in Minnesota history, this still has to rank as the No. 1 moment. Instead of an epic Super Bowl with big plays galore, we were stuck with Chris Chandler throwing 3 interceptions to help an easy repeat for Denver.

1. Super Bowl XX (1985) – Chicago Bears vs. Miami Dolphins (Not New England Patriots)

  • What We Got: The 85 Bears completed their magical season in fitting fashion with a 46-10 rout of the outmatched Patriots.
  • What We Preferred: Standing in Chicago’s way from immortality is Dan Marino and the Dolphins, who were the only team to beat the Bears that year and the only team to score more than 28 points as Miami made it back to the Super Bowl after losing to the 49ers the year before.

With respect to the potential for offensive fireworks in our No. 2 matchup with the 1998 Broncos-Vikings, our top Super Bowl to never happen has to be when the 1985 Bears missed out on having to beat Dan Marino’s Dolphins, the only team that cracked the code on that defense all season.

What an unbelievable matchup that could have been, not to mention a possible narrative changer if Marino ended up winning a Super Bowl in his 3rd season.

dan-marino

When the teams met in Week 13 that year, it was the highest-rated Monday Night Football game in history to this day. Of all the TVs that were turned on that night, 46% of them were watching the 12-0 Bears go into Miami with many members of those 1972 Dolphins in the building to see if the current Dolphins would preserve their mark of perfection from the most serious challenger yet.

Marino passed for 270 yards and 3 touchdowns as Miami scored 31 points by halftime, the most points the Bears allowed in any full game that season. Marino’s quick release was a huge advantage as he was much harder to pressure and blitz than the average quarterback. Miami went on to win 38-24, handing the Bears their only loss in the 1985 season.


That epic game sure felt like it could have been a Super Bowl preview with the season the Bears were having, and while Marino’s numbers were not as historic as they were in 1984, he still was leading a top team to the No. 2 seed.

However, leave it up to an underdog team from New England to ruin things in the playoffs.

The 1985 Patriots were a No. 5 seed and became the first team in NFL history to win 3 straight road games to advance to the Super Bowl. They upset the No. 4 seed (Jets), No. 1 seed (Raiders), and were a 5.5-point underdog in Miami in the AFC Championship. The Patriots had not won in Miami since the 1960s, losing a 30-27 game in Miami in Week 15 that year.

But with Marino hoping to go to back-to-back Super Bowls, the game ended up being a disaster from the first snap when the Dolphins fumbled. They ended up losing 4 fumbles that day, and Marino threw 2 interceptions in a shocking 31-14 loss as the Patriots rushed for 255 yards.

The dream Super Bowl was dead, replaced by a nightmare matchup with a 10-point spread that feels laughable now.

Instead of seeing Marino against that legendary defense again, we watched the Patriots bench starter Tony Eason, who had the deer in the headlights look after he took 3 sacks and completed none of his 6 passes.

You know the game was a total dud and never competitive when the only moment that anyone talks about is the Bears giving William “The Refrigerator” Perry a 1-yard touchdown run instead of letting the legendary Walter Payton score a Super Bowl touchdown. Fun fact: That was also the first NFL prop for a Super Bowl!

Perry 1 yard-touchdown

We’ll never know if the Dolphins could have pulled off an incredible sweep of an all-time great defense, or if that defense would have cemented its legacy by shutting down the best young quarterback in the game and an all-time great in Marino.

These are the Super Bowls we’ll never get to see beyond our dreams.

scotty kacsmar author todays lines

Scott Kacsmar's bread and butter is NFL football picks. He has published work at many sports websites and blogs including NBC Sports, ESPN Insider, FiveThirtyEight, Bookmakers Review and of course Today's Lines. Scott hails from Pittsburgh and has a love-hate relationship with the Pirates.

You may also like

Florida’s AFC Pressure Test: Dolphins Face the Chiefs...

Florida NFL Teams Slump: Buccaneers, Jaguars and Dolphins...

Chiefs New-Look Offense Makes Patrick Mahomes Even More...

NFL Week 1 Recap: Cowboys Stunned, Bills Escape...

NFL Week 1 Late Games Odds: Vikings, Eagles...

Super Bowl LX Rematch: Can Drake Maye and...

NFL Week 1 Odds 2026: 5 Matchups Where...

Patrick Mahomes Week 1 Return Puts Chiefs Betting...

Fernando Mendoza Betting Value Looms Over Raiders vs...

Ty Simpson’s Rams Debut Raises New Matthew Stafford...

Leave a Comment

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

USEFUL LINKS

LATEST ARTICLES

MLB Playoff Betting Odds: Yankees-Rays, White Sox-Guardians and Padres-Brewers Game 1 Picks
NCAA Football Odds: WKU-NMSU & North Texas-Tulsa Picks
NHL Best Bets: Flyers-Penguins and Kings-Avalanche Picks
College Football Week 5 Odds: 3 Best Bets to Watch

@2026 – Today’s Lines All Right Reserved.

Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin Youtube Email