It’s Super Bowl week! Will Matthew Stafford and the Rams take home the title, or will Joe Burrow hoist the Lombardi Trophy? If it’s anything like the 2021 postseason to this point, it will be a wild ride. The Super Bowl has been around since 1967, and I love the statistical and historical side of the games as it pertains to -- what else? -- fantasy points.
But before I dive int that, here’s some cool Super Bowl facts you might not know:
A single ticket for admission to Super Bowl I between the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers cost fans as little as $6. What’s more, the game didn't sell out! The average cost of a ticket for the past five Super Bowl games is more than $5,000!
There's only been one player named Super Bowl MVP who didn't play on the winning team. That was Dallas Cowboys LB Chuck Howley in Super Bowl V. His team lost to the Baltimore Colts, 16-13. The fewest points scored by a team in a Super Bowl is three. The Miami Dolphins lost to the Cowboys 24-3 in Super Bowl VI, and the Los Angeles Rams lost to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots 13-3 loss in Super Bowl LIII.
There's never been a shutout in a Super Bowl.
In 1983, almost 106 million people watched the final episode of M*A*S*H, making it the most-watched television show in the history of America. That record was broken by Super Bowl XLIV, as 106.5 million viewers watched the New Orleans Saints defeat the Indianapolis Colts. Super Bowl XLIX is the most watched Super Bowl, as the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots played in front of a record 114.4 million viewers.
The host city never had its NFL team play in the first 54 Super Bowls. That’s over five decades, folks! However, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played on their home field at Raymond James Stadium in last year’s big game. Now, the Los Angeles Rams will technically be the “visiting” team against the Cincinnati Bengals on their home turf at SoFi Stadium.
Hey Arizona Cardinals fans, you’re hosting the next Super Bowl…
Super Bowl Sunday is the second-largest food consumption day in the United States, only behind Thanksgiving. That’s a lot of chicken wings, chips and guacamole!
Those are a few interesting Super Bowl facts you might not know.
Now for something even more interesting ... here's 56 fantasy facts for the Super Bowl!
QUARTERBACKS
1. Three players have scored 100-plus combined fantasy points in Super Bowls: Tom Brady (192.4), Jerry Rice (141.4) and Joe Montana (112.2). Roger Craig, who has scored 85 fantasy points in his three Super Bowl appearances, is a distant fourth.
2. The most fantasy points scored by a quarterback in a single Super Bowl game was Steve Young, who threw for 325 yards, rushed for 49 yards and threw six touchdowns in a win over the San Diego Chargers (Super Bowl XXIX). He finished with 41.9 points.
Gregory Payan/Associated Press
3. Brady has scored 20-plus fantasy points in four Super Bowls, the most in NFL history. He just missed the mark last season, scoring 19.8 fantasy points for the Buccaneers. Only four other players have done so more than twice, including Rice, Montana, Craig and Kurt Warner. Each of them has hit the 20-point mark three times.
4. Brady has thrown for 21 career touchdowns in Super Bowls, the most in NFL history. The only other signal-caller with double-digit touchdown passes is Montana (11).
5. Brady has played in more than twice as many Super Bowls (10) as Montana (4).
6. Brady set the Super Bowl record for the most passing yards in a single game with 505 in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII. That broke the record of 466 passing yards he set the previous season against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
7. Brady has thrown for 300-plus yards in four different Super Bowls, the most in NFL history. The only other player to hit the 300-yard passing mark more than twice is Warner, who reached that mark three times in his three Super Bowl appearances.
8. Brady has thrown for 3,039 yards in his 10 combined Super Bowls, the most in NFL history. Not only does he hold the record, but he has more than double the yardage of any other quarterback. Warner is second in Super Bowl passing yards with 1,156.
9. Brady attempted 62 passes in Super Bowl LI, the most ever in a Super Bowl.
10. Another Patriots signal-caller, Tony Eason attempted just six passes in Super Bowl XX in a loss to the Chicago Bears. That's the fewest ever by a starting quarterback in the championship game. Eason was benched in favor of Steve Grogan after failing to complete his first six passes while being sacked three times and losing a fumble.
11. Despite playing in 10 Super Bowls, Brady has thrown just six interceptions. John Elway (8), Jim Kelly (7) and Craig Morton (7) have all thrown more in Super Bowls.
12. Morton completed 4-of-15 passes for 39 yards and threw four interceptions on his way to a 0.0 passer rating against the Cowboys in Super Bowl XII. That's the worst passer rating ever recorded by a starting quarterback in a Super Bowl contest.
13. Morton's -6.44 points is the fewest by a starting quarterback in a Super Bowl.
14. In five Super Bowl appearances as a member of the Denver Broncos, Elway posted just three touchdown passes and had eight interceptions. However, he did rush for four touchdowns including one in four of his five championship games overall.
15. No quarterback has more combined rushing yards in the Super Bowl than Montana (105). Elway is second on the list with 86 rushing yards. If you’re wondering, Brady has recorded a mere 28 rushing yards despite his 10 Super Bowl appearances.
16. The quarterback with the most rushing yards in a Super Bowl game is Steve McNair. He rushed for 64 yards against the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV.
Andy Hayt/SI
17. Phil Simms completed 22 of 25 passes against the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI, which was good for an 88.0 completion percentage. That's the highest in a Super Bowl in NFL history. He also had a Super Bowl-best 150.9 passer rating in that game.
18. Drew Brees, who had an 82.1 completion percentage in Super Bowl XLIV, is the only other field general with a completion percentage over 80 (min. 10 pass attempts).
19. Super Bowl 50. That is the fewest points scored by a winning quarterback in the big game. He finished 13 of 23 with 141 passing yards, no touchdowns and one interception. Von Miller was the game’s MVP.
20. While sacks weren’t an official NFL statistic until 1978, Roger Staubach was sacked seven times in the Cowboys’ Super Bowl X loss to the Steelers on Jan. 18, 1976. Since 1978, the most times a quarterback has been sacked in a Super Bowl is six, and it’s happened twice: Cam Newton in Super Bowl 50 and Joe Theismann Super Bowl XVIII.
21. Jim Kelly threw 58 pass attempts and finished with a ridiculous 30 incompletions against the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XXVI, the most ever in NFL history. No other quarterback has thrown more than 25 incompletions in a single Super Bowl.
22. Nick Foles is the lone player in NFL history to throw a touchdown pass and catch a touchdown pass in the same Super Bowl. His catch was on a 1-yard pass from Trey Burton (known as the “The Philly Special”) against the Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
RUNNING BACKS
23. Only two non-quarterbacks have scored more than 40 fantasy points in a Super Bowl. One was Jerry Rice, who scored 43.9 points in Super Bowl XXIX. The other was … James White! He had 14 catches, 139 total yards, three touchdowns and a Super Bowl record 47.9 points in the Patriots’ 34-28 comeback win over the Falcons.
24. White also holds the record for the most receptions by a running back in a Super Bowl game (Super Bowl LI - 14). Another Patriots running back, Shane Vereen, ranks second on the list. He had 11 catches against the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.
25. Roger Craig has scored the most fantasy points (85) in Super Bowls among running backs. He had 20 catches, 410 total yards and four touchdowns in his three contests.
26. Thurman Thomas put up 30 fantasy points in Super Bowl XXV, which is the most by a running back in a loss in Super Bowl history. He appeared in four Super Bowls during his career, racking up 20 catches, 348 scrimmage yards and four touchdowns.
27. The lone running back to score more career touchdowns in the Super Bowl than Thomas is Emmitt Smith. He had five total touchdowns in his three appearances.
Neil Leifer/SI
28. Franco Harris compiled a combined 354 career rushing yards in four Super Bowls as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the most in NFL history. He’s the only runner with more than 300 career yards on the ground playing on the NFL's grandest stage.
29. The next closest running back in terms of career Super Bowl rushing yards is Larry Csonka (297). Emmitt Smith ranks third all-time with 289 rushing yards in Super Bowls.
30. Smith is the lone player to score multiple rushing touchdowns in multiple Super Bowl games (2). In his three career appearances in the big game, all wins for the Cowboys, he recorded 11 catches, over 300 scrimmage yards and five rushing touchdowns.
31. Smith, Csonka and Terrell Davis are the only running backs in Super Bowl history to rush for 100-plus yards in multiple Super Bowls. The Hall of Famers each did it twice.
32. Davis is the only player in Super Bowl history to ever rush for three touchdowns in a single game. He accomplished that versus the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII.
33. Super Bowl than any running back in NFL history, putting up 204 yards against the Broncos in Super Bowl XXII.
34. Super Bowl contest. He only rushed for 602 yards in his entire NFL career.
35. The next closest player to Smith’s 204 yards is Marcus Allen, who had 191 rushing yards for the Los Angeles Raiders in the Super Bowl XVIII victory over Washington.
36. Smith’s 204 rushing yards is tied for the sixth-most all-time in Super Bowl games. The six backs ahead of him are Hall of Famers: Harris (354), Csonka (297), Emmitt Smith (289), Terrell Davis (259), John Riggins (230) and Thurman Thomas (204).
37. All those running backs played in multiple Super Bowl games. Smith played in one.
38. The top 15 performances among running backs in terms of the most rushing yards in a Super Bowl game includes just three players from the last 20 years. Michael Pittman (124 yards - Super Bowl XXXVII), Dominic Rhodes (113 yards – Super Bowl XLI) and Thomas Jones (112 yards – Super Bowl XLI) all rank in the top 15.
39. Just one of those performances, Pittman’s 124 rushing yards, ranks in the top 10. The other nine performances were all in 1997 or later. None of the top four rushing performances in terms of yardage on the ground have come in the past 30 seasons.
40. The Super Bowl record for the longest rush came in Super Bowl XL, when Willie Parker busted a 75-yard touchdown run versus the Seattle Seahawks. His 13.5 fantasy points on that run is the most recorded on a single rushing play in Super Bowl history.
WIDE RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS
41. Jerry Rice had 589 career receiving yards in Super Bowls, the most in NFL history. The next closest receiver is Lynn Swann, with 364 yards. That's 225 fewer yards.
42. Rice ranks second behind Brady in fantasy points scored in combined Super Bowls. He’s just 51 points behind Brady … think about that. Brady has played in six more Super Bowls and he’s a quarterback, yet he has only outscored Rice by 51 points!
Peter Read Miller/SI
43. Rice scored 39 or more fantasy points in each of his first three Super Bowl games. In all, he averaged 35.4 fantasy points in his four big-game appearances.
44. Wide receivers have scored 30-plus fantasy points in a Super Bowl seven times in 55 games. Rice did it three times. The other four wide receivers on this list are Ricky Sanders (39.9 points), Larry Fitzgerald (31.7), Antonio Freeman (31.6) and Deion Branch (30.3).
45. Julian Edelman and Swann are the only other players to hit that mark in multiple Super Bowls, doing it twice.
46. Rice posted 215 receiving yards in Super Bowl XXIII, the most ever in a Super Bowl. It's the lone 200-plus receiving yard performance in the biggest game in NFL history.
47. Since 2000, just one wideout has topped 150 receiving yards in a single Super Bowl game. That is Danny Amendola, who had 152 against the Eagles in Super Bowl LII.
48. Rice also leads all wideouts in combined Super Bowl catches with 33. Andre Reed, who was part of four Super Bowl teams in Buffalo, finishing with a combined 27 catches.
49. Five different Patriots wideouts are among the top seven receivers in combined Super Bowl receptions. Wes Welker (26) is third, Deion Branch (24) and Julian Edelman (24) are tied for fourth, Amendola (21) is sixth and Troy Brown (16) is tied for seventh.
50. The record for the most catches by a wide receiver in a single Super Bowl game is held by the late, great Demaryius Thomas, who had 13 catches in Super Bowl XLVIII.
51. The single game record for the most receiving yards per catch among Super Bowl wideouts (minimum three catches) is 35. That was set by Muhsin Muhammad, who had 140 yards through the air on four catches against the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
52. Rob Gronkowski has the most combined receptions (29), receiving yards (364), touchdowns (5) and fantasy points (95.4) among tight ends in Super Bowl history. The future Hall of Famer also has more Super Bowl appearances (5) than any tight end.
53. The tight ends who rank second at the position with four appearances are Don Warren, Pete Metzelaars, Keith McKeller and Randy Grossman. Those players have scored a combined 48.4 fantasy points, or 47 fewer points than Gronkowski alone.
54. The tight end who has scored the most fantasy points in a single Super Bowl game is Dan Ross. He put up 11 catches for 104 yards with two touchdowns and finished with an impressive 33.4 fantasy points for the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XVI.
55. Ross and Gronkowski are the only tight ends to score two touchdowns in a single Super Bowl game. However, Gronkowski is the lone player at the position to do it twice. The big man found the end zone twice in both Super Bowl LII and Super Bowl LV.
56. Trey Burton's touchdown pass to Nick Foles, which will forever be known as the "Philly Special," was not the first time a non-quarterback threw a touchdown pass in a Super Bowl. Fullback Robert Newhouse, running back Lawrence McCutcheon and wide receiver Antwaan Randle El have also thrown a touchdown pass in the big game.
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Michael Fabiano is an award-winning fantasy football analyst on Sports Illustrated and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) Hall of Fame. Click here to read all his articles here on SI Fantasy. You can follow Michael on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for your late breaking fantasy news and the best analysis in the business!
