Top 30 NFL games of all-time
The NFL has a long history, and we went through to find the best 30 games in the league history.
There have been games played by the National Football League since 1920. Of course, most of the men who began the league are long gone, and legions of the great contests from the early eras have been forgotten. In this space, we will bring them back to blend with the modern era, giving everybody a chance to be recognized.
In the following list of the Top 30 NFL games of all-time, it is not about only fantastic finishes, but the importance these games had to the history of the sport. We measure both the entertainment value but also the impact on professional football. Some of these games technically did not even take place in the NFL, with the American Football League certainly deserving of a few spots.
While this is a longer slideshow, hopefully you will sit down with a cup of coffee in a quiet space and read through. Perhaps you will even learn a thing or two about not only other teams, but even your own. The NFL has an incredibly rich history, ranging from early Super Bowls and iconic playoff games to the present-day legends such as Peyton Manning and Jerry Rice.
Without anything further, here are the Top 30 NFL games of all-time…
30. Jaguars at Broncos, 1996
Why is this game on the list? Because it was one of the great upsets in NFL history. The Broncos were two-touchdown favorites over the second-year franchise, a team dubbed the “Jagwads” by the Denver Post that week. The Broncos took a 12-0 lead in the first quarter but then fell apart, failing to contain the duo of Mark Brunell and Natrone Means.
The loss signaled what many believed was the end of John Elway’s best chance to win a Super Bowl. Afterwards, Elway would call it the toughest defeat of his career, including his trio of losses in the Super Bowl.
29. Patriots vs. Panthers, 2003
This was a classic, but not until the climax. New England was supposed to blow out Jake Delhome and the Panthers, but somehow Carolina was able to hang in the contest throughout. It was mostly a defensive struggle until the two teams combined for a staggering 37 points in the fourth quarter. Tom Brady threw for 354 yards and three touchdowns, unheard of numbers for Brady at the time.
Of course, the game came down to Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri, who kicked a 41-yard field goal as time expired. For Vinatieri, it marked the second Super Bowl-winning kick of his career.
Next: No. 28 & 27