12 12 Terry Bradshaw threw for more than 300 yards in a game only seven times in his career but two of those performances came in Super Bowls 6 And he'd even beaten Henderson's Cowboys in Super Bowl X three years earlier But now he had to prove himself all over again On Pittsburgh's first drive Bradshaw hit receiver John Stallworth on a 28-yard touchdown pass Before the first half was over Bradshaw had thrown two more scores including a 75-yarder to Stallworth At the time that matched the record for the longest play in Super Bowl history
13 19 31 17 Bradshaw added a fourth touchdown pass in the fourth quarter that made the score 35 After Pittsburgh held on to win 35 Bradshaw became the first quarterback to win the Super Bowl three times He then told reporters to ask Henderson if he could spell M V P Bradshaw had just won the Super Bowl's award as well Pittsburgh won again the next season defeating the Los Angeles Rams 31 behind two more touchdown passes from Bradshaw One of them was a 73-yard strike to Stallworth with just over 12 minutes left that put the Steelers ahead for good Bradshaw never played in another Super Bowl but he had set the standard for quarterbacks on football's biggest stage JOE COOL Joe Montana had two nicknames in his NFL career One of them was Joe Cool for his calm nature The other was the Comeback Kid He lived up to both on one drive near the end of Super Bowl XXIII in January 1989. His San Francisco 49ers were trailing the Cincinnati Bengals 16 with 3:20 left The 49ers were just about to start a drive from their own 8-yard line when Montana noticed his teammates were nervous He pointed to the stands and said Look isn't that John Candy Whether or not Montana had actually spotted the famous actor and comedian didn't matter He loosened up the huddle Twelve plays later he drilled a game-winning 10-yard touchdown pass to receiver John Taylor with 34 seconds remaining 7
NFL 16 SF 16 Joe Montana was the first player to ever win the Super Bowl MVP Award three times 8 Super Bowl XXIII was Montana's third win His first had also come against the Bengals seven years earlier in Super Bowl XVI His second came in Super Bowl XIX against the Miami Dolphins after the 1984 season NFL fans came into the game expecting to see Miami's record-setting quarterback Dan Marino air it out against San Francisco And Marino indeed threw for 318 yards but Montana stole the show His 331 passing yards set a Super Bowl record He added three touchdown passes in a 38 win By Super Bowl XXIII another quarterback had passed Montana's record but the 49ers quarterback took it back with 357 yards against the Bengals San Francisco then went back to the Super
10 Bowl a year later Facing the Denver Broncos Montana had another memorable day He completed 22 of 29 passes for 297 yards and a Super Bowl-record five touchdowns in a 55 romp It was Montana's fourth and final Super Bowl but he left quite a legacy At the time his 83 completions 1,142 passing yards and 11 touchdowns were all the most in Super Bowl history THE WINNER Tom Brady began the 2001 NFL season as a backup for the New England Patriots The unknown sixth-round draft pick in 2000 only took over when New England's All-Pro starter Drew Bledsoe was injured in September But Brady played so well that he kept the job even when Bledsoe came back And after he led the Patriots on a game-winning drive in Super Bowl XXXVI to defeat the heavily favored St. Louis Rams Brady was a star Before the 2001 season the Patriots had never won a Super Bowl With Brady running the offense they won three in four years The New England dynasty then spent 10 seasons coming close to a fourth championship In Super Bowl XLIX in February 2015 Brady led New England to victory again touching off a streak of three victories in the next five years Brady's six titles were incredible but even more amazing was how he won them Brady had a knack for coming up big late in close championship games Two years after his late-game heroics against 9
