The Super Bowl Endings Nobody Got Over

Every Super Bowl ends with one locker room spraying champagne and the other one staring at the carpet. Most of those losses fade. A few never do. Some fan bases can still tell you where they were sitting, what they were drinking and exactly how the last two minutes went, decades after the confetti got swept up.

These are the endings that never stopped stinging.

Wide Right

Super Bowl XXV, January 1991, Tampa. The Bills had the most explosive offense in football and came in favored by about a touchdown. The Giants were on their backup quarterback, Jeff Hostetler, after Phil Simms got hurt late in the season, and their plan was simple: keep Jim Kelly on the sideline. New York held the ball for more than 40 minutes.

Buffalo still got its shot. Down 20-19 in the final seconds, Scott Norwood lined up a 47-yarder. It drifted wide right, and two words became a permanent part of the city's vocabulary.

Here's the cruel footnote. Even a make wouldn't have covered a touchdown spread. Nobody in Buffalo has ever cared. The Bills went back to the next three Super Bowls and lost all of them, and somehow the first one still hurts the most.

One Yard Short

Super Bowl XXXIV, January 2000. The Titans trailed the Rams 23-16 with time for one more play. Steve McNair hit Kevin Dyson on a slant, Dyson turned for the goal line and stretched the ball out, and Rams linebacker Mike Jones wrapped him up a yard short as the clock hit zero.

That's it. That's the whole story. One more yard and it's an extra point away from overtime. Instead it's the most famous tackle in Super Bowl history, and Tennessee is still waiting for its first Super Bowl win.

Eighteen and One

Super Bowl XLII, February 2008. The Patriots were 18-0 and favored by double digits. They were one win from the first 19-0 season the NFL had ever seen.

The Giants' pass rush beat on Tom Brady all night. Then, on the winning drive, Eli Manning somehow slipped out of a pile of Patriots defenders and heaved it downfield, where David Tyree pinned the ball against his own helmet and held on. A few plays later Plaxico Burress caught the go-ahead touchdown with 35 seconds left. Giants 17, Patriots 14.

New England fans have six rings from that era. Ask them about this one anyway.

Second and Goal

Super Bowl XLIX, February 2015. Seattle trailed New England 28-24 and was sitting at the 1-yard line on second down with under half a minute left. Marshawn Lynch was in the backfield. Earlier on that same drive, Jermaine Kearse had made a juggling, flat-on-his-back catch that looked like fate stepping in.

Seattle threw. Malcolm Butler, an undrafted rookie, jumped the route and intercepted Russell Wilson at the goal line. Ballgame.

Seahawks fans have spent more than a decade arguing about that call. Nobody has won the argument. Nobody ever will.

28-3

Super Bowl LI, February 2017. Atlanta led New England 28-3 in the third quarter, and the only question left seemed to be the margin.

Late in the fourth, still up eight, the Falcons drove into field goal range. A sack and a holding penalty pushed them back out of it, and they punted. Julian Edelman made a catch in a tangle of Falcons defenders, the ball inches from the turf. New England tied it with a touchdown and a two-point conversion, and James White ended it in the first overtime game in Super Bowl history. Patriots 34, Falcons 28.

In Atlanta, the number 28-3 doesn't need context. Say it in a bar and somebody winces.

The Flag

Super Bowl LVII, February 2023. Philadelphia and Kansas City were tied at 35 late in the fourth, and the Chiefs were driving. On third down, Eagles cornerback James Bradberry was flagged for holding JuJu Smith-Schuster. First down. Kansas City bled the clock and Harrison Butker kicked the winning field goal in the final seconds. Chiefs 38, Eagles 35.

Bradberry said afterward that it was a hold. It didn't help. Philadelphia got its revenge on the Chiefs two years later, and plenty of Eagles fans will still bring up that flag before they bring up the rematch.

The winners get rings and parades. The losers get the highlight, on loop, every winter for the rest of their lives. Ask Buffalo about 47 yards. Ask Nashville about one. Ask Seattle about second down. They'll tell you every detail. They've had a long time to practice.