Which Player Has Won the Most Super Bowl MVPs?
There’s only one thing better than winning the Super Bowl: Winning the Super Bowl MVP award. Being named the Most Valuable Player at the most important game in all of sports is about as good as it gets – except in 1971, when Dallas Cowboys LB Chuck Howley won the award despite his team losing Super Bowl V 16-13 to the Baltimore Colts (–2.5). Talk about a Super Bowl shock.
Howley was also one of only 10 defensive players to be named Super Bowl MVP. This award usually goes to the winning quarterback (31 times in 56 games thus far), and it will probably happen again this year at Super Bowl LVII, where Patrick Mahomes and No. 1 Kansas City will take on Jalen Hurts and No. 1 Philadelphia (–2.0) in Glendale on Sunday, February 12.
If Mahomes takes home the Pete Rozelle Trophy for the second time – he was named MVP when Kansas City beat San Francisco at Super Bowl LIV – he’ll join some very elite company. Only five men have won this award multiple times. Want to know which player has won the most Super Bowl MVPs? Let’s get to it.
Bart Starr (2)
If the Super Bowl had been around before ‘67, Bart Starr may have won the MVP more than twice. Starr was the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers at Super Bowls I and II, when they were still known as the AFL-NFL World Championship Game; he also won the NFL title with the Packers three times before that.
Granted, it was HB Paul Hornung (1961), LB Ray Nitschke (1962) and FB Jim Taylor (1965) who were named MVP for those three NFL Championship games. But the Super Bowl format helped put quarterbacks in the spotlight, and Starr lived up to his name at Super Bowls I and II, beating Kansas City (+14) and Oakland (+13.5) in some unusually high-scoring games for the time.
Terry Bradshaw (2)
Not only was Bradshaw one of the best quarterbacks of his era, he was also one of the most charismatic. Bradshaw continues to appear as a regular panelist on Fox NFL Sunday, a position he’s held since 1994, but before his television career, Bradshaw led the Pittsburgh Steelers to victory at Super Bowls IX, X, XIII and XIV.
It was those last two games where Bradshaw was named MVP. He was considered a decent quarterback before that, playing on a team renowned for its Steel Curtain defense (featuring Super Bowl IX MVP and Coca-Cola pitchman “Mean” Joe Greene) and the running of Super Bowl X MVP Franco Harris.
All that changed in 1978-79 when Bradshaw was voted First Team All-Pro and league MVP for the only time in his career. He was instrumental in Pittsburgh’s 35-31 win over the Dallas Cowboys (+3.5) at Super Bowl XIII, setting the record at the time with four touchdown passes; Bradshaw was less impressive the following year when they beat the Los Angeles Rams (+10.5) 31-19, but he was a beloved icon at this point, and the voters couldn’t help themselves.
Eli Manning (2)
Even today, Eli is considered the lesser of the two Manning brothers to play in the NFL – but you won’t find Peyton on this list. The younger Manning was named MVP for Super Bowls XLII and XLVI, both times leading the NFL betting underdog New York Giants to the pay window versus the mighty New England Patriots (more on them in a moment).
That first win was especially memorable, because it spoiled New England’s bid for a perfect season – they ended up 18-1 after losing 17-14 to New York as 12-point favourites. Manning and the Giants were 2.5-point dogs four years later when they won 21-17; he had only one TD pass in that contest, but it was at the end of yet another title-clinching drive for the G-Men.
Joe Montana (3)
The San Francisco 49ers were the gold standard in the 1980s, and Montana was their standard-bearer, navigating the Niners to four Super Bowls (XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV) and earning MVP honours in three of those; WR Jerry Rice prevented the sweep at Super Bowl XXIII.
The Montana-Rice combination was a potent one indeed. There were very few weaknesses on these San Francisco teams, and like Bradshaw, Montana wasn’t always their best player – DBs Ronnie Lott and Eric Wright played outsized roles for the Niners, as did RB Roger Craig. But Montana was the undisputed King of Football by the tail end of the decade, adding two league MVPs to his trophy case for good measure.
Tom Brady (5)
So, which player has won the most Super Bowl MVPs? You guessed it. Love him or hate him, Tom Brady is synonymous with the Super Bowl. He appeared in the Big Game on nine separate occasions for the aforementioned Patriots, winning six times, and he did it again for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Super Bowl LV, where they upset Mahomes and Kansas City 31-9 as 3-point underdogs at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
You almost need a separate MVP category for Brady. He’d be the first to tell you he’s not the most talented quarterback out there, but Brady did get to work for a mastermind head coach in Bill Belichick for all those years in New England – and another one in Bruce Arians when he made the move to Florida.
Brady has also been surrounded by some amazing players on both sides of the ball, including wideouts Deion Branch (Super Bowl XXXIX) and Julian Edelman (Super Bowl LIII), who were named Super Bowl MVP the two times Brady failed to add that trophy to the rings he won in New England. But would any of these players be champions today without Brady’s steady hand at the tiller? Belichick and the Patriots are still waiting for their first playoff victory since he left. It might be a while.
We all knew it, there was only ever going to be one answer to the question of which player has won the most Super Bowl MVPs. Tom Brady, we salute you.