My Favorite Super Bowl Memories: 6-10

I wanted to share some of my favorite Super Bowl memories. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive post on the greatest Super Bowl plays of all-time. I’m not old enough to have seen them all. My life as a football fan has also been defined to a degree by the Patriots being a Super Bowl staple. While any objective fan would have some of their best plays as part of the greatest moments in Super Bowl history, this is only a subjective list of my favorite memories. I didn’t enjoy the memories they have provided. This post will take place over two parts. Let’s get started.

10. Don Beebe chases down Leon Lett (Super Bowl XXVII)

This was the first Super Bowl I remember watching. It was a total blowout as the Cowboys won their third title. With the game well out of hand in the second half, Leon Lett looked like he was going to score easily on a fumble recovery, but Bills receiver Don Beebe never quit on the play and chased him down. It had to have been an awful day for Beebe. His team was losing its third straight Super Bowl in embarrassing fashion, but it always stuck with me how he kept playing hard to the finish. Beebe lost a fourth Super Bowl a year later with the Bills but finally got his championship with the Packers a few years later.

9. Tracy Porter’s pick six (Super Bowl XLIV)

Seeing a downtrodden franchise finally break through with a Super Bowl win gives me hope as a Jets fan, and Tracy Porter’s pick six of Peyton Manning helped seal a championship for the downtrodden Saints. I can’t embed this video so you’ll have to click to view it, but I love the angle of Porter pointing right into the camera as he’s going in for the score.

8. Steve Young gets the monkey off his back (Super Bowl XXIX)

Steve Young was one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game, but he hadn’t been able to break out of Joe Montana’s shadow in San Francisco. Montana delivered four Super Bowl wins, a couple of which came with Young as his backup. The 49ers had been successful with Young as their quarterback but fell short in the Playoffs until the 1994-95 season. Young capped off his brilliant season with a 6 touchdown Super Bowl against the Chargers.

As the clock was winding down, Young shared this iconic moment with his teammates signifying that he finally got the proverbial monkey off his back.

7. The Superdome goes dark (Super Bowl XLVII)

The game between the Ravens and the 49ers looked to be in uneventful blowout territory early in the second half. Then the lights went out in the Superdome. With the score 28-6 in the third quarter, the lights went out, leading to a 34 minute delay. The stoppage in play seemed to totally shift momentum as the 49ers came storming back. San Francisco rallied to cut the lead to 34-29 and drove the ball to the Baltimore 5 yard line with under 2:00 left, but a Ravens goal line stand helped them seal their second championship. Had the 49ers scored, the power outage would have undoubtedly been a source of contention in Baltimore forever. It also led to one of the great broadcasting moments in Super Bowl history. There’s comedy, and then there’s Steve Tasker being forced to carry the show on a moment’s notice through a long and unexpected delay.

6. James Harrison’s return (Super Bowl XLIII)

James Harrison isn’t the first name that would come to mind when you think about explosive open field runners, but this was one of the most spectacular returns you’ll ever see.