What is the name of the Super Bowl MVP trophy? How has won the most?
On February 8th, the New England Pariots and the Seattle Seahawks will fight for the Lombardi Trophy, but that’s not the only trophy up for grabs on Sunday.
It’s Super Bowl week from Santa Clara, California and on Sunday night there will be a new king of the NFL crowned. The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks will go head to head from Levi’s Stadium while someone from one of those teams will go down in history as the next Super Bowl MVP.
Rozelle Trophy dębuts in 1990
It’s an award that has been around since the first true “Super Bowl” back in 1967 when the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs and Bart Starr was named Super Bowl MVP. Starr and the Packers made it back to the Super Bowl in the next year and the Green Bay QB was named MVP of pro football’s biggest game for the second time in as many years.
From Super Bowl I in 1967 to 1989 the award was presented by SPORT magazine. SPORT usually gave the MVP of the big game a new car, usually a Chevrolet Corvette, or other General Motors automobiles. Things changed in 1990 when the NFL took over and created a trophy called the Pete Rozelle Trophy that was first handed out in Super Bowl XXV. The Super Bowl MVP would still get a car up until the 2015 season when Hyundai became the official automobile sponsor of the NFL. Since Super Bowl 50, no MVP of the game has received a new car.
The trophy was named after Pete Rozelle after he retired as commissioner of the NFL in 1989. Rozelle is credited for transforming the NFL into the most successful sport leagues in the world after his 29 year reign as commissioner of the NFL. He took over the league at just 33, and helped the league flourish from 12 to 28 team, struck previously unseen TV deals and created Monday Night Football in 1970. He was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985 while still on the job and as soon as he retired in November of 1989, the NFL named the Super Bowl MVP trophy after him as an homage.
The Super Bowl GOAT
Ottis Anderson was the first win the Pete Rozelle Trophy in 1990 when the New York Giants beat the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV. The Giants beat the Bills after Scott Norwood missed a last second field goal wide right. They ended up winning the game 20-19 and Anderson was named MVP after running for 102 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries.
Over the years, Tom Brady has won the most Pete Rozelle Trophies, being named the MVP of the Super Bowl in five of the seven Super Bowls that he has won. He won four as a New England Patriot, and one as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer. Deion Branch and Julian Edelman were named MVPs of the other two Super Bowl’s that Brady was a part of with New England, brining the Patriots Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP’s tally up to six.
Strangely enough, the Dallas Cowboys are the team with the most Super Bowl MVP awards although they have only five Super Bowl titles. They have seven Super Bowl MVPs because Chuck Howley was named MVP of Super Bowl V despite the Cowboys losing to the Baltimore Colts and also because they Harvey Martin and Randy White were named co-MVPs in Super Bowl XII when the Cowboys beat the Denver Broncos in 1978.
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