Super Bowl 55
When the New England Patriots upset the St. Louis Rams for Tom Brady's first Super Bowl victory in 2002, the
Rams were prevented from becoming the
second team to win consecutive odd-numbered or even-numbered Super Bowls (the Rams had won the Super Bowl two years earlier). The first team to
win consecutive even-numbered or odd-numbered Super Bowls was the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys
won Super Bowl 28 and Super Bowl 30.
Two years after their victory over the Rams, the Patriots became the second team to win consecutive even-numbered or consecutive odd-numbered Super Bowls
(Super Bowls 36 and 38). Thirteen years after their second Super Bowl victory, the Patriots also became the third team to win consecutive even-numbered or
odd-numbered Super Bowls (49 and 51). Two years after that, they defeated the Rams again (this time as the favorites) to become the first team to win three
consecutive odd-numbered or even-numbered Super Bowls.
After the 2020 season, the Patriots did not win a fourth consecutive odd-numbered Super Bowl as they didn't even make the playoffs. However, Brady did as
he won his seventh Super Bowl and scored his second
Super Bowl upset over an NFL team (Kansas City Chiefs) from the state of Missouri. (Brady's team was
the favorite in all eight Super Bowls in which the opponent was
not from Missouri.) His seven Super Bowls is a record for an NFL player. However, there are twenty players from the other three major professional sports with
more championships: six MLB players,
six NBA players, and
eight NHL players won at least eight
championships.
For example, MLB great Joe DiMaggio won nine championships and NBA legend Bill Russell won eleven championships. DiMaggio's nine championships came over
four "runs" (1936-1939, 1941, 1947, 1949-1951) and Russell's eleven championships came over three runs (1957, 1959-1966, 1968-1969). Which player has had
the most championship runs in major professional sports history? That would be Brady and the late MLB outfielder
Charlie Keller with six. Brady has had five one-year runs (including four in the odd-numbered Super Bowl string) and
one two-year run. Keller won six World Series rings ('39, '41, '43, '47, '49, '52) as a player, but
he only appeared in three World Series.
Russell played for the Boston Celtics and DiMaggio played for the New York Yankees. The Celtics are the
only NBA team to win championships in five consecutive odd-numbered seasons ('57, '59, '61, '63, '65) and five consecutive even-numbered seasons
('60, '62, '64, '66, '68). The Yankees are the only MLB team to win in four consecutive
odd-numbered or four consecutive even-numbered seasons. They did it twice: ('37, '39, '41, '43) and ('47, '49, '51, '53) as DiMaggio and Keller were a part of
both sets of Yankees teams. The Toronto Maple Leafs ('45, '47, ' 49, '51) are the only
NHL team to win the Stanley Cup in four consecutive odd-numbered or four consecutive even-numbered years. As I explained earlier, no NFL team has ever pulled this
feat off. Brady is the only player to win four consecutive odd-numbered or four consecutive even-numbered Super Bowls.
While Brady's great play was the main reason that the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl, the Buccaneers' defense also played an important role as they held the Kansas
City Chiefs to nine points. None of the 108 ESPN "experts"
predicted that the Chiefs would score
less than 20 points. Even though the Chiefs' low-scoring output surprised the "experts", the Chiefs' offensive woes in the game should not be a complete shock. Because the Chiefs won the Super Bowl the previous year
and scored 31 points, many people forget that they struggled offensively during their first six drives. In those six drives,
they scored only ten points against the San Francisco 49ers. They found their stride in the fourth quarter: they had 170 yards
from scrimmage and scored 21 points in their subsequent three drives.
Super Bowl 55 started similarly for the Chiefs. In their first seven drives, they scored
only nine points. In their next three drives, they had 182 yards from scrimmage. That was twelve more yards than their total on their final three non-kneel
down drives of Super Bowl 54. Yet, they scored a grand total of 0 points as the three drives were stalled inside the Buccaneers' 30-yard line.
Because of those 182 yards, the Chiefs actually outgained the Buccaneers in yards from scrimmage (350-340) for the game. The year before the Super Bowl, the
Chiefs were on the other end of a regular season game in which the team with more yards from scrimmage got blown out: they
defeated the Oakland Raiders by more than 30 points despite being outgained by over 70 yards.
The Buc's 22-point margin of victory (31-9) in Super Bowl 55 was the largest margin of victory in a Super Bowl for a team that was outgained in yards from scrimmage. The 22-point
margin was the exact same margin of victory the last time a team played the Super Bowl in its home market. In
Super Bowl XIX, the 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-16 at Stanford Stadium. (The
49ers outgained the Dolphins 537-314 in yards from scrimmage.)
The '84 49ers and '20 Buccaneers are two of thirteen Super Bowl-winning teams with 20+ point margins of
victory. Only three of the thirteen have happened in the last twenty Super Bowls. Tom Brady's former team (Patriots) won six Super Bowls in that span and none of
the Patriots teams were one of the three. The other two teams with 20+ point margins of victories were the '02 Buccaneers (they defeated the Raiders 48-21 in
Super Bowl 37) and the '13 Seattle Seahawks (they defeated the Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl 48).
Interestingly, all three teams were underdogs going into the game. None of
them were massive underdogs: the first Buccaneers team was a 4-point underdog, the Seahawks were a 2-point underdog, and the 2020 Buccaneers were
a 3-point underdog. The Buccaneers have played in only two Super Bowls. In both Super Bowls, they were underdogs and won the game by over 20 points! By comparison,
the Patriots won their six Super Bowls by a combined 29 points.
Despite playing in only two Super Bowls and having the lowest winning
percentage of all 32 NFL franchises, the Buccaneers have the fourth (!!) highest
combined Super Bowl point differential (+49) of any NFL franchise. Which franchise has the highest? That would be the Dallas Cowboys (+89). That point
differential hasn't changed in over twenty-five years. If it weren't for the 21 points that the Chiefs scored in the 4th quarter of the previous year's Super Bowl,
the 49ers (+85, 2nd place) would easily have the highest combined Super Bowl point differential.
The two-time champion Buccaneers remind me of another Florida major professional sports team: the two-time champion Miami Marlins. While the Buccaneers have the fourth-highest Super Bowl
point-differential despite having the lowest regular-season win-loss percentage of all 32 NFL franchises. the Marlins have the
highest postseason win-loss percentage of all
30 MLB franchises despite having the lowest
win-loss regular-season percentage. The Marlins have made just three trips to the playoffs in their 30-year history and won the World Series in two of those
three trips.
In their first World Series run (1997), they defeated the San Francisco Giants and the Atlanta Braves in the first two rounds even without having
home-field advantage. They then had home-field advantage for their World Series win against the Cleveland
Indians. In the process, they became the first MLB team to have home-field advantage in the final round of the playoffs after not having home-field
advantage in multiple rounds of the playoffs. The '20 Buccaneers became the first NFL team to do the same!
When was Super Bowl 55 "over"? I would argue that the game ended when the Buccaneers were up 14-6 late in the first half and reached the Chiefs' 24-yard line
on this pass interference call. The penalty put the Buccaneers in field-goal range and with 3 points,
the Buccaneers would be up 11 points. In the first 54 Super Bowls, there were forty-two instances in which a team went up by over 10 points. Out of those forty-two times,
only once did a team come back from the
11+ point deficit. That team would be the '16 Patriots, who came back from a 25-point deficit to win Super Bowl 51. (That Super Bowl win was the second in
the string of four consecutive odd-numbered Super Bowls won by Tom Brady.) Thus, the game was practically over with the pass interference call.
On that "game-ending" drive, the Buccaneers didn't just settle for a field goal. Antonio Brown scored this
touchdown with six seconds left to put the Buccaneers up 21-6. Brown's tenure with the Buccaneers ended the next season
in bizarre fashion.