Super Bowl has history for underdogs like Burrow, Bengals
LOS ANGELES — Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow will attempt to add his name to the list of quarterbacks who have led teams to upset victories on the biggest stage in professional sports on Sunday.
Only he won’t consider it an upset.
While the label is often embraced, Burrow hasn’t particularly embraced the underdog mentality. When asked about the AFC championship game upset of the Chiefs, a team the Bengals also beat in the regular season, the former LSU star sounded almost offended at the notion they weren’t supposed to get to this point.
He believes the best team is indeed representing the AFC in the Super Bowl. Any suggestion of them being an underdog is an insinuation they don’t belong here.
“Yeah, I think we beat the second-best team in the AFC,” he said. “Twice.”
A win by the Bengals on Sunday may not rank among the most improbable. But it will certainly rank somewhere on that list.
Some Super Bowl upsets have been more memorable than others.
Joe Namath famously guaranteed victory before leading the Jets to a stunning win over the Baltimore Colts as an 18-point underdog in Super Bowl III.
Burrow’s Bengals are only getting four points, but there are similarities.
The Jets had experienced just one winning season before the Super Bowl championship, while the Bengals have been the butt of jokes for many years.
While Namath had his fur coat, Burrow has the shades, chain and turtleneck.
Namath is also just one of two players, along with Joe Montana, to win a consensus national title in college and a Super Bowl.
Burrow could join them, and then would be the first who also has a Heisman Trophy.
Both teams were also underdogs far before Super Bowl Sunday.
The Jets were from the AFL, which was seen as inferior at the time, making Namath’s guarantee even more jarring. Burrow was coming off a rookie season cut short by a serious knee injury that ended with a 4-11-1 record.
It’s one of the reasons they were as much as a 200-1 long shot at SuperBook back in August and September. They were even the biggest long shot in their own division, behind the Ravens, Browns and Steelers.
As the wins continued to mount, the odds plummeted.
Now they are just a win away from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, but they will have to defy the odds again.
Teams getting points have won the Super Bowl outright 19 times in the 55-year history of the game, which this year takes place at SoFi Stadium.
The Bengals don’t have to look far back for an underdog who was able to win the Super Bowl. It happened just last year when the Chiefs lost to the Buccaneers as a 3-point favorite.
Of course, the Bucs had Tom Brady. He wasn’t an underdog very often in his career, much less the Super Bowl. Brady was, however, a very stunning champion in his first appearance in the game.
After taking over during the season for an injured Drew Bledsoe and sneaking past the Raiders on a certain controversial play, Brady took the Patriots into the Super Bowl as a 14-point underdog against the “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams.
He led them back to New England with a Lombardi Trophy after guiding a game-winning field goal drive in the final minute. The rest is history.
He would go on to one of the greatest careers in NFL history, though Brady learned turnabout is fair play when he lost as a 12.5-point favorite to Eli Manning and the Giants when the Patriots were undefeated in the 2007 season.
Two current AFC West teams have also won Super Bowls as double-digit underdogs.
Kansas City opened a 16-0 lead over the Vikings and cruised to a 23-7 victory as a 12-point underdog in Super Bowl IV.
In a matchup of Hall of Fame quarterbacks, John Elway got his first Super Bowl win in his fourth try for the Broncos by knocking off the heavily favored Packers and Brett Favre in Super Bowl XXXII.
The longest winning streak by underdogs came between 2012 and 2016 when the favorite lost outright in five straight Super Bowls.
The streak started with a second Patriots loss to the Giants when New England was a 2.5-point favorite and lost 21-17. Then came the Ravens beating the 49ers as a 4.5-point underdog the following season.
Denver was a 2-point favorite when it got trounced 43-8 by the Seahawks, and the Patriots entered as a 1-point underdog in a 28-24 win over Seattle.
Denver completed the streak with a 24-10 win over the Panthers, who entered the game favored by 4.5.
Favorites have found their footing again in recent years, winning and covering three of four before last season’s upset.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.
Biggest Super Bowl upsets
Super Bowl III
Jets 16, Colts 7 — Joe Namath famously guaranteed victory for the AFL upstarts and followed through with a win as an 18-point underdog
Super Bowl XXXVI
Patriots 20, Rams 17 — The Patriots were as high as 60-to-1 during the season and playing with a backup quarterback named Tom Brady when they scored a 20-17 upset on a last-second field goal over the Rams, who were 14-point favorites.
Super Bowl XLII
Giants 17, Patriots 14 — Eli Manning hit Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds remaining to stun the 12-point favorites and ruin New England's undefeated season
Super Bowl IV
Chiefs 23, Vikings 7 — Apparently oddsmakers didn't learn the lesson from the year before as they installed the NFL's champion as a 12-point favorite over the AFL representative, which scored a second consecutive victory.
Super Bowl XXXII
Broncos 31, Packers 24 — John Elway was 0-3 in Super Bowls and was an 11.5-point underdog in his fourth, but outdueled fellow Hall of Famer Brett Favre for his first of back-to-back Super Bowl titles.
Adam Hill Review-Journal
