Super Bowl power rankings: Who’s the best loser?
By John Buhler
4. 1968 Baltimore Colts, Super Bowl III
The 1968 Baltimore Colts were going to win Super Bowl III. They had Don Shula as head coach and Earl Morrall playing fantastically at quarterback in place of the injured Johnny Unitas. The Colts went 13-1 winning the NFC Coastal. They beat the Minnesota Vikings, 24-14, in the Western Conference Championship and shutout the Cleveland Browns, 34-0, in the 1968 NFL Championship.
Baltimore would enter Super Bowl III as a staggering 18-point favorite over the AFL Champion New York Jets. Only the 1994 San Francisco 49ers would be a bigger favorite in a Super Bowl, as they were 18.5-point favorites over the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX.
The goliath Colts would go on to lose to Broadway Joe Namath and the Jets in Super Bowl III, 16-7, after Namath had guaranteed a victory in the days leading up to the event. This loss by the Colts changed football forever, as it proved to the world that the AFL and NFL were not so vastly different in competition.
Seeing the NFL Champion Minnesota Vikings lose Super Bowl IV to the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs ushered in the AFL/NFL merger before the start of the 1970 NFL season. Ironically, the Colts would win Super Bowl V as a member of the AFC over the Dallas Cowboys two years later, as the Colts, the Browns, and the Pittsburgh Steelers were asked to join the 10 teams coming to the NFL from the AFL.
The Colts may have won Super Bowl V, but this was the better of the teams Shula had in Baltimore that played in Super Bowls. Could the 1968 Colts have gone undefeated had Unitas been healthy that season? No disrespect to Morrall, but Unitas was the best quarterback of his era, not to mention one of the greatest of all-time.
Next: 3. 1990 Buffalo Bills