Super Bowl LX concluded on Sunday. The Gatorade bath was given to the head coach, a running back won Super Bowl MVP and Seattle won their second Lombardi trophy, preventing a team that rode an easy schedule from winning their seventh. Behind a very entertaining and unique halftime show by music artist Bad Bunny, it was a very fun watch.
But it wasn’t enough. . .
After the game finished, I thought about where I would rank it in my opinion based on entertainment from start to finish versus Super Bowls since 2000. From XXXIV to LX, here are the ten best ranked from snoozefest to box office.
HM: LVII- Kansas City Chiefs vs Philadelphia Eagles
While last year’s Super Bowl LIX saw the Eagles dismantle the Chiefs in a 34-point blowout (because let’s be real, 40-6 was the actual score, not 40-22) to end their three-peat hopes, their first meeting in LVII was a heavyweight classic.
It was a pure shootout where the largest lead was just 10 points. Jalen Hurts was spectacular in his first big-stage appearance, but the difference-maker was a controversial late holding call that allowed Mahomes to bleed the clock. Harrison Butker’s field goal with eight seconds left secured the 38-35 win.
10: 50 – Carolina Panthers vs Denver Broncos
This entire season felt like a cinematic “last dance” for Peyton Manning. The Panthers arrived as a 15-1 juggernaut led by MVP Cam Newton, having just crushed Arizona 49-15 in the NFC Championship. But they ran into the “No Fly Zone” defense.
Denver’s defense was the only reason they were even in the postseason, overcoming Manning’s 17 interceptions that year. Von Miller’s two strip-sacks of Newton defined the game. With 12 combined sacks and a 24-10 finish, this was the ultimate proof that defenses truly do win championships.
This Super Bowl made this list not only because it was entertaining, but it has significance to me. The entire Broncos season, all culminating into winning the team’s third Lombardi is a season I will never forget.
9: XLVI: New York Giants vs New England Patriots
Manning versus Brady part two wasn’t quite as electric as part one in 2007, but it still was cinema, nonetheless. The Giants were looking to get the best of a Brady led Patriots team once again, who were seeking their fourth Lombardi in team history.
The Giants entered as the ultimate underdogs with a 9-7 record—the worst ever for an eventual champion. After New England scored 17 unanswered points, Eli Manning stayed calm. The game peaked with a 9-play, 88-yard drive, ending in Ahmad Bradshaw accidentally falling into the end zone for the winning score with 57 seconds left. It solidified Eli as the only man who could consistently solve the Brady and Belichick puzzle.
8: LVI – Los Angeles Rams vs Cincinnati Bengals
Prior to the 2026 playoffs, Patrick Mahomes has been to seven consecutive AFC Championship games. He’s won all but two, with one to Tom Brady on his way to winning Super Bowl LIII, and the other to Joe Burrow. Burrow led the Bengals to the team’s first Super Bowl since 1989, where they lost to the San Francisco 49ers, who also beat them in 1982.
Facing a Rams team that had mortgaged their entire future for a “win now” window, the Bengals took a late 20-16 lead. It wasn’t the highest-scoring game, but the tension was suffocating. Matthew Stafford finally justified his trade by finding Cooper Kupp for the go-ahead TD with 1:25 left, and Aaron Donald cemented his “Greatest of All Time” status by forcing the game-ending incompletion.
7: XLV – Pittsburgh Steelers vs Green Bay Packers
An absolute clash of titans involving two of the league’s most storied franchises. Aaron Rodgers, leading the first-ever NFC 6-seed to reach the Super Bowl, came out swinging with three touchdown passes. Despite a furious Steelers comeback led by Ben Roethlisberger, Green Bay’s defense forced a late turnover-on-downs to secure a 31-25 victory, ending Pittsburgh’s quest for a seventh Lombardi.
6: XLVII – Baltimore Ravens vs San Francisco 49ers
This game was trending toward a blowout until the lights literally went out. The “Harbaugh Bowl” featured brothers John and Jim coaching against each other, and for the first half, John’s Ravens dominated. Jacoby Jones opened the second half with a record-breaking 108-yard kickoff return to put Baltimore up 28–6.
Then came the “Blackout.” A 34-minute power outage in the Superdome completely shifted the momentum. When the lights came back on, Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers caught fire, scoring 17 unanswered points in just over four minutes. The game came down to a legendary goal-line stand by the Ravens defense, punctuated by a controversial uncalled holding play on 4th-and-goal. Baltimore held on for a 34–31 win, sending Ray Lewis into retirement with one last ring.
5: XLIX New England Patriots vs Seattle Seahawks
This was a tactical masterpiece. Down 10 points in the fourth quarter against the “Legion of Boom,” Tom Brady threw two clinical touchdowns to take a 28-24 lead. After Jermaine Kearse made a circus catch to put Seattle on the 1-yard line, the world waited for Marshawn Lynch to run it in. Instead, Malcolm Butler made the most famous interception in NFL history, snatching a dynasty out of the air.
4: XLIII – Pittsburgh Steelers vs Arizona Cardinals
Widely considered the most visually stunning Super Bowl. James Harrison’s 100-yard pick-six to end the first half was a 14-point swing that made every viewer at home leap out of their chair. After Larry Fitzgerald took a 64-yarder to the house to give the Cardinals a late lead, Santonio Holmes made the “Toe-Tap” catch in the corner of the end zone with 35 seconds left. It was a heartbreaking end for Kurt Warner’s underdog Cardinals, but truly absolute cinema.
3: LI – New England Patriots vs Atlanta Falcons
The “28-3” game. It started as a blowout, with Robert Alford’s pick-six making it look like the Patriots’ dynasty was finally dead. Then, the greatest collapse in sports history unfolded. Brady led five straight scoring drives, Julian Edelman made a catch that defied the laws of gravity, and the Patriots forced the first-ever Super Bowl overtime. Atlanta was gassed, James White punched it in, and the 34-28 comeback win became the stuff of nightmares for Falcons fans.
2: LII – Philadelphia Eagles vs New England Patriots
Super Bowl 52 had it all. It had buildup leading to the game, it had history, and it had action. Could the Eagles, who made it this far after narrowly beating Atlanta and dismantling the Vikings, defeat the “Evil Empire,” without their starting QB, Carson Wentz, who was injured. Brady was back in his second consecutive Super Bowl after the miraculous comeback against the Falcons.
Without their MVP-caliber starter Carson Wentz, the Eagles relied on Nick Foles to out-duel Tom Brady. This gave us the “Philly Special,” where a backup QB caught a touchdown on 4th down. Despite Brady throwing for over 500 yards, Brandon Graham’s strip-sack in the final minutes was the plot twist that sealed Philly’s first-ever Super Bowl win, 41-33. From start to finish, it was the most entertaining “back-and-forth” game of the 21st century.
The defining moment of this Super Bowl, the Brandon Graham sack, was perfectly captured. Al Michael’s on the call with Chris Collinsworth’s “uh-oh” as Brady loses the ball. The line “Derek Barnett comes away with it” as in pans to Brady sitting on the ground. What a moment in a mountain of a game.
1: XLII – New York Giants vs New England Patriots
David vs. Goliath in its purest form. The 18-0 Patriots were looking for immortality; the 10-6 Giants were looking for a miracle. A low-scoring defensive slugfest exploded in the fourth quarter. It featured the “Helmet Catch” by David Tyree, which I think is arguably the greatest play in NFL history, and ended with Plaxico Burress catching the game-winner with 35 seconds left. It didn’t just crown a champion, but it preserved the 1972 Dolphins’ perfect season record and proved that the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
