The sixth quarterback to get the honour more than once is Patrick Mahomes, who received the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award on Thursday night.
Mahomes, though, was absent from Phoenix’s Symphony Hall for the league’s awards ceremony. He was practising at an unidentified location close for the Super Bowl on Sunday between his team, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Mahomes is, unsurprisingly, the favourite to win MVP of the Super Bowl. He just beats quarterback Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles (+125) in the odds, according to DraftKings, who has +120. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is listed next at +1200.
In the 56-year history of the game, quarterbacks have earned the Super Bowl MVP honour 31 times; thus, Kelce’s chances are only around 10 times larger than those of a quarterback.
Mahomes and Hurts this year were the best two quarterbacks in the league. With an NFL-high 5,250 passing yards, 41 touchdown passes, and only 12 interceptions, Mahomes had a career-high completion percentage of 67.1%. In his second year as the team’s starting quarterback, Hurts ran for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns while also throwing for 3,701 yards and 22 more.
Mahomes will join an exclusive group of athletes if he wins Sunday’s MVP award. The only players to win the MVP honours for the regular season and Super Bowl in the same year since Kurt Warner in the 1999 campaign are six different individuals.
Below are the six players who have previously won the MVP awards for both the regular season and Super Bowl in the same year. The Pro Football Hall of Fame includes each of these athletes.
1967 – Bart Starr, a quarterback with the Green Bay Packers
Starr was 32 years old and had been a member of the Packers for a decade at the time. For 2,257 yards and 14 touchdowns during the regular season, he completed a league-best 62.2% of his passes. In the first Super Bowl he oversaw, which was held in Los Angeles, the Packers defeated the Chiefs, 35-10. Starr’s 16 of his 23 attempts led to 250 yards and two scores.
The next year, after passing for 202 yards and a touchdown in a 33-14 victory against the Oakland Raiders, Starr once again took home the Super Bowl MVP trophy.
When Terry Bradshaw played quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the regular season, he threw for 2,915 yards and 28 touchdowns, earning him his first and only MVP title. He played even better during the playoffs, aiding the Pittsburgh Steelers in their 35-31 victory against the Dallas Cowboys, who were the reigning Super Bowl champions, to capture their third title in five years.
For a total of 318 yards and 4 touchdowns on 17 of Bradshaw’s 30 passes, the passer was successful. His 18-yard touchdown pass to Lynn Swann early in the fourth quarter gave the Steelers a 35-17 advantage. Despite the Cowboys scoring two more touchdowns in the last three minutes, it wasn’t enough.
When the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Los Angeles Rams 31-19 in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, the following year, Bradshaw was given the title of Super Bowl MVP once more. Bradshaw tossed for 309 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions on that specific day.
1989 saw the San Francisco 49ers’ Joe Montana as quarterback. The best quarterback in the NFL throughout the 1980s when Montana entered the 1989 season was Montana. The 49ers won three titles under his leadership throughout the decade, and he was a three-time Super Bowl MVP. On the other hand, he had never received it during the regular season.
When Montana won the MVP title in 1989, with 3521 passes completed for a career-high 70.2% accuracy and 26 touchdowns, everything had altered. The 49ers defeated the Denver Broncos 55-10 in the Super Bowl under his guidance. The team that has scored the most points ever in a Super Bowl win and by the widest margin ever. The results of Montana’s 22 of 29 attempts totaled 297 yards and 5 touchdowns.
The 49ers lost the NFC Championship game against the New York Giants 15-13, although Montana once again won the MVP award that year. In no subsequent Super Bowl did he take part.
Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith played in 1993.
In the regular season, Smith led the NFL in running for the third year in a row, gaining 1,486 yards and scoring nine touchdowns. He also had 57 receptions and became the first Dallas player to win MVP.
Smith’s 132 running yards and two touchdowns helped the Cowboys overcome the Buffalo Bills 30-13 in the next game to win their second consecutive Super Bowl. Eddie Murray then nailed a 20-yard field goal to complete the comeback.
Despite never receiving another MVP award during a regular season or Super Bowl, Smith ended his career with an NFL record 18,355 running yards and 164 rushing touchdowns.
1998 saw the San Francisco 49ers’ Steve Young at quarterback.
Young assumed control and took over as the NFL’s starting quarterback for the rest of the 1991 campaign after Montana was sidelined by an elbow injury. His first MVP award came in 1992, and he won a second one in 1996 after leading the league in completion percentage (70.3), tossing 35 touchdown passes, and completing passes for 3,969 yards.
At Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium for the Super Bowl, Young threw for 325 yards and a game-high six touchdowns to help the 49ers defeat the San Diego Chargers 49-26. The 49ers haven’t won a championship since that time.
1999 photo of St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner
This was one of the sports lore’s most unbelievable stories. Warner had played in just one NFL game prior to the 1999 season, and the Rams did not defend him during the expansion draught that year. Trent Green eventually made a comeback to the Rams after suffering an injury in a preseason game, where he was given the starting job.
With a 65.1% completion rate, 41 touchdown passes, and 4,353 passing yards, Warner, who was 28 at the time, went on to win the MVP award for the regular season. Warner completed 24 of 45 passes for 414 yards and two touchdowns against the Tennessee Titans in the Super Bowl, including the game-winning 73-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce with 1:54 remaining in the contest.
Warner once again won MVP honours two years later, this time with the Rams as heavy favourites to win the Super Bowl. The New England Patriots, on the other hand, defeated the St. Louis Rams 20-17 to win the first of their six Super Bowls.
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