These are the quarterbacks who, time and again, put up the biggest numbers in the biggest game. Eighteen quarterbacks have played in two or more Super Bowls. Our six Super Bowl legends have the top six Super Bowl passer ratings of all time. Not so coincidentally, these six QBs – the most prolific passers in Super Bowl history – have won nearly half of all the 39 Super Bowls ever played. They are a sterling 18-0 on football’s biggest stage. Bottom line: Great passers and clutch performers will lead you to victory each and every time. The career Super Bowl passer ratings of The Legends range from 99.9 to 127.8.

 

Games – 4 (XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV)

Wins – 4

MVPs – 3 (XVI, XIX, XXIV)

 

Overview: Montana is the undisputed king of Super Bowl quarterbacks. The Cold, Hard Football Facts say it all: Montana boasts the highest passer rating in Super Bowl history and has completed more passes for more yards and more TDs, while winning more Super Bowl MVP awards, than any quarterback in history.

 

The signature moment: Is there any other? In Super Bowl XXIII, the 49ers trailed the Bengals, 16-13, with just over three minutes remaining when they took over on their own 8-yard line. Legend has it that Montana broke the tension in the huddle by pointing out comedian John Candy, who was in the stands that day. The Cold, Hard Football Facts have it that he led the 49ers on an 11-play, 92-yard drive culminating in a 10-yard TD pass to John Taylor with 34 seconds to play. Montana passed for a then-Super Bowl record 357 yards with 2 TDs and 0 INTs. San Francisco won, 20-16.

 

Super Bowl	Comp.	Att.	Pct.	Yards	TDs	INTs	Rating	Result
XVI	14	22	63.6	157	1	0	100.0	W 26-21
XIX	24	35	68.6	331	3	0	127.2	W 38-16
XXIII	23	36	63.9	357	2	0	115.2	W 20-16
XXIV	22	29	75.9	297	5	0	147.6	W 55-10
TOTALS	83	122	68.0	1,142	11	0	127.8	4-0

 

***

 

Games – 2 (XV, XVII)

Wins – 2

MVPs – 1 (XV)

 

Overview: Plunkett won the 1970 Heisman Trophy at Stanford, but his NFL career was considered something of a bust before he became one of Al Davis’s prized reclamation products in 1979. He was virtually flawless in his two Super Bowl appearances. Plunkett backed up Dan Pastorini in 1980 but came off the bench in the sixth game of the season. He eventually led the Raiders to a 27-10 upset over Philadelphia in Super Bowl XV and was named the game’s MVP. The 1980 Raiders were the first wild-card team to win a Super Bowl and one of just three in history. He also guided the 1983 Raiders to a dominating 38-9 upset over Washington in Super Bowl XVIII. He joins Montana as the only quarterbacks to appear in more than one Super Bowl and never throw an INT. Cold, Hard Football Facts.com loyalists know about the importance of not throwing INTs in the playoffs.

 

Signature moment: Philly quarterback Ron Jaworski got most of the hype heading into Super Bowl XV. But Plunkett quickly stole the show. He threw two first-quarter TD passes. The second was an 80-yard hook-up with running back Kenny King, which stood as the longest play in Super Bowl history for many years.

 

Super Bowl	Comp.	Att.	Pct.	Yards	TDs	INTs	Rating	Result
XV	13	21	61.9	261	3	0	145.0	W 27-10
XVIII	16	25	64.0	172	1	0	97.4	W 38-9
TOTALS	29	46	63.0	433	4	0	122.8	2-0

 

***

 

Games – 4 (IX, X, XIII, XIV)

Wins – 4

MVPs – 2 (XIII, XIV)

Overview: Bradshaw was the No. 1 pick in the 1970 draft and came out of Louisiana Tech as the proverbial big-armed country quarterback. He was one of the most athletic players ever to take a snap from center. But he was prone to mistakes. He did not throw more than 18 TD passes in a season until his 9th year in the league, but he could rack up interceptions with the best of them, tossing 19, 22 and 25 INTs in three of those same eight years.

 

But in the bright lights of the Super Bowl, he became that gunslinging southern QB Pittsburgh fans had expected back in 1970. He completed just 58.3 percent of his Super Bowl pass attempts, but Bradshaw is the only QB to average more than 10 yards per attempt (11.1 YPA) during his Super Bowl appearances.

 

His long-bomb aerial assault in the biggest game of the year is the sole reason why his two top targets, Lynn Swann (pictured here making one of his spectacular Super Bowl catches) and John Stallworth, are both in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Both had regular-season receiving numbers that simply do not warrant the sport’s top individual honor. But paired with Bradshaw, they caught one Super Bowl deep ball after another. Bradshaw was the first QB to toss four TD passes in a single game (Super Bowl XIII, a 35-31 win over Dallas) and his 318 yards in that game, at the end of his 9th year in the league, were a personal best at the time.

 

It was a remarkable transformation for a QB whose best moments early in his career had come when he handed the ball off to Franco Harris. In Super Bowl IX, for example, Pittsburgh’s first championship, the Steelers attempted just 14 passes and rushed the ball a record 57 times as Harris earned MVP honors.

Signature moment: The Steelers held a 15-10 lead over Dallas with just over three minutes to play in Super Bowl X when Bradshaw connected on a 64-yard TD pass to Swann that put the game out of reach. Pittsburgh held on for a 21-17 win. The game-winning bomb was a portent of things to come. In Super Bowls XIII and XIV, Bradshaw proved the greatest big-game, big-play passer in football history, as he threw TD tosses of 28, 75, 7, 18, 47 and 73 yards. His 9 Super Bowl TD passes averaged 36.1 yards.

Games – 3 (XXVII, XXVIII, XXX)

Wins – 3

MVPs – 1 (XXVII)

 

Overview: Aikman, a 2006 Hall of Fame finalist, doesn’t finish high on the career lists in most major passing categories. And he played on a team whose most famous player was Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher. Loudmouth wideout Michael Irvin, meanwhile (a fellow 2006 Hall of Fame nominee), did his fair share to steal headlines. But Aikman proved he was much more than a role player, and earned Hall of Fame consideration, on Super Bowl Sunday. He completed a record 70 percent of his Super Bowl pass attempts and was picked off just once in three games. While opposing QBs in the Super Bowl (Jim Kelly of Buffalo twice and Neil O’Donnell of Pittsburgh) melted down on game day, Aikman was a rock of stability for a team otherwise known for its wild antics on and off the field.

 

Signature moment: Aikman proved he was a big-time player in his very first Super Bowl appearance (XXVII, a 52-17 win over Buffalo), the first of Dallas’s three titles of the 1990s. He passed for 273 yards and 4 TDs with no INTs and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

 

Super Bowl	Comp.	Att.	Pct.	Yards	TDs	INTs	Rating	Result
XXVII	22	30	73.3	273	4	0	140.7	W 52-17
XXVIII	19	27	70.4	207	0	1	77.2	W 30-13
XXX	15	23	65.2	209	1	0	108.8	W 27-17
TOTALS	56	80	70.0	689	5	1	111.9	3-0

 

***

 

Games – 2 (I, II)

Wins – 2

MVPs – 2

 

Overview: The only thing keeping Bart Starr from the top of the all-time Super Bowl quarterback list is his moment in history. Starr was simply born too early. He won three NFL titles before the invention of the Super Bowl, and then won the first two Super Bowls and was the MVP of both. Starr played in six NFL championship games in an eight-year period and was a dominant performer in the big games. His postseason passer rating of 104.8 remains No. 1 all time – better than Montana, Bradshaw, Aikman and a slew of other legendary modern QBs. And remember, Starr played in an era dominated by defense when current pass interference rules did not exist. One shudders to think what his playoff numbers would have looked like had he played in the post-1978 NFL, which opened up the passing game.

 

Signature moment: Starr wasted no time putting his stamp on Super Bowl lore. Halfway through the first quarter of Super Bowl I, he connected with backup receiver Max McGee for a 37-yard touchdown, the first score in Super Bowl history. Starr completed 16 of 23 passes for 250 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT (one of just three INTs in his entire postseason career) and earned MVP honors.

 

Super Bowl	Comp.	Att.	Pct.	Yards	TDs	INTs	Rating	Result
I	16	23	69.6	250	2	1	116.2	W 35-10
II	13	24	54.2	202	1	0	96.2	W 33-14
TOTALS	29	47	61.7	452	3	1	106.0	2-0

 

 

 

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