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February 3, 2008

Super Bowl stats

Some miscellaneous numbers about the Super Bowl:

Super shares
Each member of the winning team today will get $78,000; each member of the losing club gets $40,000. Those are the same amounts as last year; for Super Bowls I-XI, winning players received $15,000 each, losing players $7,500 each.

Trophy details
The Vince Lombardi Trophy, named for the legendary Green Bay coach before Super Bowl V, is a sterling silver trophy crafted by Tiffany & Co. (does it come in the robin's egg blue box??). The football on top is regulation-sized. The trophy stands 20.75 inches tall, weighs 107.3 ounces (roughly 6.7 pounds) and is valued at around $25,000.

Super standings
Only one team, the San Francisco 49ers, has appeared in the Super Bowl more than once without losing; the 49ers are 5-0 in the big game. Buffalo and Minnesota have each played four title games and lost each one; Cincinnati and Philadelphia are each 0-2.

Super Bowl MVPs
The MVP trophy has been awarded overwhelmingly to the game's winning quarterback: in 41 previous Super Bowls, a quarterback has been chosen as the most valuable player 21 times, including for each of the first four: Green Bay's Bart Starr won twice, followed by the Jets' Joe Namath and Kansas City's Len Dawson.

The award has gone to a defensive player eight times, but for seven games: for Super Bowl XII, Dallas defensive linemen Randy White and Harvey Martin shared the award. That is the only time the award has been shared.

Most appearances
Defensive tackle Mike Lodish holds the record, playing in six Super Bowls -- four with the Bills, all of which he of course lost, and two with the Broncos (XXXII and XXXIII), both of which he won.

Tedy Bruschi will become the 14th player to appear in five Super Bowls, joining Marv Fleming (Green Bay, Miami), Larry Cole (Dallas), Cliff Harris (Dallas), Charles Haley (San Francisco, Dallas), D.D. Lewis (Dallas), Preston Pearson (Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Dallas), Charlie Waters (Dallas), Rayfield Wright (Dallas), Cornelius Bennett (Buffalo, Atlanta), John Elway (Denver), Glenn Parker (Buffalo, Giants), Bill Romanowski (San Francisco, Denver, Oakland), Adam Vinatieri (New England, Indianapolis).

Quarterback numbers
Playing in his fourth Super Bowl, Tom Brady has a chance to move into the record books today. Currently, Brady is 71-for-108 (65.7 percent) in his three title game appearances; his boyhood idol, Joe Montana, holds the record with 83 completions in four games. Buffalo's Jim Kelly had 81 completions in four games, and Denver's John Elway had 76 in five.

Brady already holds the record for completions in one Super Bowl, when he had 32 against Carolina in 2003.

Coin toss curse?
The team that won the coin toss in the last four Super Bowls -- the Bears, Seahawks, Eagles and Panthers -- all went on to lose the game. Overall, the team that wins the coin toss is 19-22.

Band of brothers
With Eli Manning's Giants advancing to the Super Bowl one year after big brother Peyton won the title with the Colts, they are the 18th set of brothers to play in the championship game.

Who's old?
Believe it or not, Patriots linebacker Junior Seau, who celebrated his 39th birthday on Jan. 19, is not the oldest player to play in the Super Bowl. He's not even in the top five. Rams punter Mike Horan, Oakland kicker George Blanda and Jerry Rice, then with Oakland, were all over the age of 40 during a Super Bowl appearance. Horan was two days shy of his 41st birthday when St. Louis edged Tennessee in Super Bowl XXXIV.

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 5:00 PM | Permalink