The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are set to play in Super Bowl LIX, a rematch of Super Bowl LVII. The Chiefs are -1.5 point favorites, but the two teams are relatively well matched, and it would not necessarily be surprising to see either team win.
Though the Super Bowl is meant to pit the two evenly matched great teams in a fight for the title, that's not always the case. In many Super Bowls prior, one team has been heavily favored over the other. In some of the most exciting of those matchups, the underdogs prevails, pulling off the upset defeating the favored rival on the grandest stage of them all.
Here are the five biggest upsets of all time:
Super Bowl XXXII - Broncos 31, Packers 24
The Green Bay Packers were favored by -11 points over the Denver Broncos. The Packers had just won a Super Bowl the year before while the John Elway and the Broncos looked to win his first Lombardi Trophy in the later phase of his career. Elway previously lost three Super Bowls in the 1980s, but willed his Broncos to victory with his "helicopter" run late in the game. Running back Terrell Davis also helped the Broncos finally get over the hump. Despite briefly leaving the game because of a migraine and impaired vision, Davis still rushed for 157 yards and three touchdowns.
Super Bowl XXXVI Patriots 20, Rams 17
Before the New England Patriots vaunted dynasty began, the Patriots were -14 point underdogs to the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams were the high-flying Greatest Show on Turf, an offense led by multiple Hall of Famers and MVPs in Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk. They had won the Super Bowl two years prior, and were expected to take home another, but were stifled by a Patriots defense that forced a pick-six and held them to 17 points. The defensive effort, combined with a young Brady and Adam Vinatieri coming through in the clutch, led to the upset that sparked a dynasty that lasted nearly two decades.
Super Bowl IV - Chiefs 23, Vikings 7
The Minnesota Vikings were -12 point favorites over the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth Super Bowl. Though an AFL team won the Super Bowl the year prior, the NFL was still widely viewed as the better league and many believed that victory was a "fluke." Minnesota was also the most dominant team during the regular season while the Chiefs failed to even win their division. Still, the Chiefs proved that notion wrong by upsetting the Vikings as their defense forcing six turnovers while Chiefs coach Hank Stram reminded his team to "Just keep matriculating the ball down the field, boys!"
2. Super Bowl XLII - Giants 17, Patriots 14
The New England Patriots were one game away from finishing with just the second undefeated season in NFL history, and only the New York Giants stood in their way. The Giants were -12 point underdogs to the Patriots, not just because the Patriots were viewed as one of the greatest teams in NFL history, but because they were only a wild-card team that had not won a playoff game in seven years before their postseason run. They even had the fewest Pro Bowlers of any Super Bowl champion!
When the Giants arrived, they stunned the world by limiting a historic Patriots offense to just 14 points. The Giants sacked Brady five times while Eli Manning came through in the clutch fourth quarter by leading two game winning touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. The most famous moment from the Super Bowl came when Giants wide receiver David Tyree hauled in the helmet catch during a Giants touchdown drive.
1. Super Bowl III - Jets 16, Colts 7
"The guarantee." The Baltimore Colts were -18 point favorites over the New York Jets heading into Super Bowl III, the second-largest spread in Super Bowl history. Heading into this Super Bowl, the NFL was viewed as superior to the AFL, the Jets' league. In the first two Super Bowls, the Green Bay Packers crushed their AFL opponents, maintaining that belief.
Super Bowl III changed it all. After getting tired of hearing that the Colts were favored, Jets quarterback Joe Namath famously guaranteed that the Jets would win. He followed through on his proclamation, as the Jets forced five turnovers en route to victory. That Super Bowl helped the AFL gain respect before the two leagues officially merged in 1970.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Biggest Upsets in Super Bowl History.
