My Own List of the Worst Super Bowls Ever

🏈🏈🏈🏈

Super Bowl LX Champions

Seattle Seahawks

This was another Super Bowl which, frankly, failed to live up to the hype. It was one-sided, dominated by defenses and so not much scoring. The first three quarters were played without either team managing to score a touchdown. Then, there were four touchdowns in that final quarter, although this did not make it feel particularly interesting or exciting, either.

Seattle dominated. Both defenses played very well, to be sure. But the Seahawks, with that "Dark Side Defense," were simply better. New England had only 78 yards and five first downs entering the fourth quarter. 

It seemed like their worst game was the Super Bowl.

Of course, that used to almost be the norm. I remember most Super Bowls when I was younger seemed like dull affairs. Rarely was there any real suspense left by the time the fourth quarter began, much liek with this Super Bowl.

Earlier today, I encountered this CBS Sports article which listed, according to the author Bryan DeArdo, the worst Super Bowls of all time. It was a curious list, one which I agreed with some assessments to a certain extent. Yet, I felt that he left one or two obviously boring and relatively awful Super Bowls out.

Here is his list, without the explanations, with worst at the top, and the other Super Bowls listed in order after that from second worst to tenth worst:

Worst XXXV, according to him, as the worst Super Bowl of all time. Baltimore Ravens defeated the Giants, 34-7.

XLVIII was second worst, with the Seattle Seahawks grounding Denver's record-breaking offense, winning 43-8.

XXIV, when the 49ers walloped the Broncos 55-10, in what remains the most lopsided Super Bowl to date.

XX, when the legendary '85 Bears humiliated the clearly overmatched and overwhelmed New England Patriots, 46-10.

LIX, last year's Super Bowl, when the Eagles crushed the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22, denying them a three-peat. The game was not even as close as the final score would indicate, as Philly went up 34-0 before KC scored any points, and they scored two cosmetic touchdowns very late to make it look more respectable on paper than it actually was.

XXVII, the Cowboys blasting the Buffalo Bills, 52-17. Buffalo committed nine turnovers.

VIII, the Dolphins defeated the Vikings, 24-7.

LX, this year's Super Bow, with Seattle beating down the Pats, 29-13.

XII, when the Cowboys crushed the Broncos, 27-10.

XXXIII, when the Broncos beat the Falcons, 34-19, in a game that also was not as close as the score would suggest. 

Now my list would be completely different. And it would be topped by a Super Bowl which was not even on Bryan DeArdo's list. Here are mine (restricted to Super Bowls which I actually watched, which means from XVI onwards):

Worst  - Super Bowl XL - If you look at the final score of 21-10, it might seem like this was more competitive than others, and thus more interesting. But the game was somehow maddeningly boring throughout. Also, it was poorly played by both sides. I remember the commentators even suggesting that the rest of the teams in the NFL were thinking that they could have played better than these two teams. A lot of mistakes, turnovers, dropped passes, and not much going on generally. Just a very dull, boring, uninspiring Super Bowl. I chose this one over, say, Super Bowl XXIV or XX, which were far more lopsided, because at least one team showed brilliance and demonstrated why they were the best. Super Bowl XL, on the other hand, seemed to make the viewer question how these two teams (the Steelers and the Seahawks) got this far. 

Second Worst - XXXIII - The Broncos were the defending champions. So there was no question why they were there. But the Falcons had pulled off a huge and improbable upset over the Vikings in the NFC Championship Game to reach their first ever Super Bowl. Once there, they played predictably uninspired and were clearly overmatched. They were down 31-6 at one point, and that was more indicative of how the game actually felt than the final score of 34-19 would suggest. The Falcons were so bad that it made you wonder what might have been, had the 15-1 Minnesota Vikings, with their record-setting offense (at the time) might have fared. It likely would have been far more competitive, and the Vikings might actually have won. Instead, we got the Falcons, who felt like they did not belong on that day.

Third Worst - Super Bowl XXIX - The 49ers were brilliant on offense, but the Chargers were so clearly overmatched that it underscored just how big of a surprise it was that they even got there. You came away with the sense that they just did not belong in the big game, that they got lucky to that point, and their luck ran out once there. A lot of points were scored, but it felt this was more because of the absence of defense than anything else.

Fourth Worst - Super Bowl XVIII - It felt like this should have been a good Super Bowl. Washington were the defending champions, and they had beaten the Raiders in the regular season. Yet once this one got going, the defending champs made one mistake after another. A blocked punt, and a ridiculous interception very late in the first half and deep in Washington territory, which made a fairly one-sided 14-3 Raiders lead into a laughable blowout at 21-3. Those were free points, because that was an unforced error. The game was never competitive, and you got the sense that the Raiders were handed some of those points, and that Washington played the very worst game possible, under the circumstances, giving it away. 

Fifth Worst - Super Bowl XXXV - The Ravens demolished the Giants, 34-7. The G-Men produced so little offense, that it was ridiculous. Even the one touchdown that they scored was not because of the offense. But that had more to do with the Ravens record-setting defense, which may have been the greatest single season defense ever, than it had to do with Big Blue, who really did not belong on the same field as the Ravens on that day. 

Ranking worst Super Bowls of all time: Where Patriots-Seahawks rematch falls among bottom 10 Super Bowl LX certainly did not live up to the hype  by Bryan DeArdo  Feb 8, 2026 at 10:51 pm ET •

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/ranking-worst-super-bowls-of-all-time-patriots-seahawks/

Ranking worst Super Bowls: Where Seahawks-Patriots rematch falls among bottom 10 - CBS Sports