The 20 Greatest NFL Players to Never Win a Super Bowl
Dan Marino might be the most well-known ringless NFL legend, but plenty of other players are in that group with him. After all, not everyone can be Tom Brady and the Patriots. Here are the 20 greatest NFL players to never win a Super Bowl—they deserve their props, too.
Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino (R) passes to a receiver against the Oakland Raiders 06 December in Oakland, California.
This feature was originally published on September 15, 2013.
Winning a Super Bowl isn't easy. Just ask any of the 14 teams who've never won one during their franchise's history. The Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals, Minnesota Vikings, San Diego Chargers, Seattle Seahawks, and Tennessee Titans have all been to the Super Bowl before, but they've never come out of one with a W. There's no doubt that coming that close to a Super Bowl title and not winning can be traumatic. But what's even worse is what the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars have been through; these four teams have never been to the big game at all. But it's not like those teams are total lost causes; they've had their fair share of victories and other memorable moments. So it should come as no surprise to hear that there have been plenty of great NFL players from these 14 teams—and, hell, from other NFL franchises who have won a Super Bowl before—who've played their entire careers without winning an NFL title. Despite their greatness, it just wasn't in the cards for them.
One of the greatest NFL players ever to not win a Super Bowl was Dan Marino. Although he set all kinds of NFL records during his playing days with the Miami Dolphins, he never got the chance to raise the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy. His lack of a Super Bowl title is arguably the only blemish on his NFL career. So as Marino prepares to celebrate his 51st birthday today, we thought we would take a look back at some of the other great players who finished their careers in the same position as him. It's a tough position to be in, but at least he's not alone. These are the 20 greatest NFL players to never win a Super Bowl.
RELATED: The 20 Greatest NBA Players to Never Win a Championship
Tony Gonzalez
Accomplishments: 13x Pro Bowl selection, 10x All-Pro selection, First tight end to ever catch 1,000 passes
Team(s): Kansas City Chiefs, Atlanta Falcons
Career stats: 1,245 receptions, 14,304 receiving yards, 104 touchdowns
Super Bowl appearances: Zero
Forget winning Super Bowls. Through the first 15 years of his NFL career, Gonzalez failed to record a single playoff victory. He played on a couple playoff teams in Kansas City and then signed with the Falcons in 2009 to try and increase his chances of eventually winning a title. But until earlier this year, when he helped lead Atlanta to a win over the Seattle Seahawks, Gonzalez just couldn't seem to capture an elusive playoff win. Now he wants a ring. And he put off retirement for one more year during this past offseason to try and get it with the Falcons this season. It will be interesting to see if he's finally able to do it and remove his name from this list.
Warren Moon
Accomplishments: 9x Pro Bowl selection, 3x All-Pro selection, 2x NFL passing yards leader
Team(s): Houston Oilers, Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs
Career stats: 49,325 passing yards, 291 touchdowns, 80.9 quarterback rating
Super Bowl appearances: Zero
After going undrafted in the 1978 NFL Draft, Moon proved that he was a champion by winning not one, not two, not three, not four, but five Grey Cup titles with the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL. However, despite spending almost two decades in the NFL after his stint in Canada, he was never able to play in a single Super Bowl, much less win one, with any of the four teams that he played with. He did put up big numbers for them, throwing for more than 4,000 yards four times during his career and completing more than 300 passes in a season on six different occasions. He also finished his career in the top 10 for wins by a starting QB, though, was never able to get a Super Bowl ring. At least his trophy room isn't completely barren thanks to the CFL, though, right?
John Hannah
Accomplishments: 9x Pro Bowl selection, 10x All-Pro selection, 4x NFLPA Offensive Lineman of the Year
Team(s): New England Patriots
Career stats: 183 games played, 10 fumble recoveries
Super Bowl appearances: 1 (1985)
Legendary Alabama head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant once called Hannah the greatest offensive lineman that he had ever coached. And Hannah showed the rest of the country just how good he was when he entered the NFL. In 1978, he anchored an offensive line that allowed the Patriots running backs to combine for 3,165 rushing yards in a single season, which set a new single-season NFL record that still stands to this day. Hannah was also incredibly reliable, missing just five games during his entire 12-year career with the Patriots. But unfortunately, the only time he went to the Super Bowl was in 1985 at Super Bowl XX when New England got manhandled by the Chicago Bears 46-10. He retired shortly after that game and walked away without a ring.
Ken Houston
Accomplishments: 12x Pro Bowl selection, 3x All-Pro selection, NFL 1970s All-Decade Team
Team(s): Houston Oilers, Washington Redskins
Career stats: 49 interceptions, 21 fumble recoveries, 12 touchdowns
Super Bowl appearances: Zero
Back in the 1970s, Houston patrolled the secondary for the Oilers and Redskins and always seemed to know where opposing quarterbacks were going to try to put the football. As a result, he was able to pick off almost 50 passes in his career and, better yet, often returned those interceptions for big yardage. In 1971, he even broke an NFL record for most touchdown returns in a single season when he brought back four interceptions and one fumble for six points. However, he played on a bunch of mediocre and bad teams and was never able to reach the Super Bowl. It's a shame that all of his talent got wasted the way it did.
Cris Carter
Accomplishments: 8x Pro Bowl selection, 3x All-Pro selection, 1x Wide Receiver of the Year
Team(s): Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Miami Dolphins
Career stats: 1,101 receptions, 13,899 receiving yards, 131 touchdowns
Super Bowl appearances: Zero
Once upon a time, former Eagles head coach Buddy Ryan said, "All he does is catch touchdown passes," when asked about Carter. And he was right. That's all he did, and he did a lot of it. During his career, Carter scored 131 times, which currently puts him eighth all-time in touchdowns scored. His 1,101 receptions are also fourth all-time on the NFL's reception leaders list. But despite his knack for making big plays and putting points up on the board, and playing on some really good Vikings teams that were built to win Super Bowls, he never won a title.
Alan Page
Accomplishments: 9x Pro Bowl selection, 9x All-Pro selection, 1971 NFL MVP
Team(s): Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears
Career stats: 2 interceptions, 3 safeties, 28 blocked kicks
Super Bowl appearances: 4 (1970, 1974, 1975, 1977)
During the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, the NFL didn't keep track of sacks, as they were not an official statistic yet. But if they had, Page would've finished his career with somewhere in the range of 150 sacks (that would have put him fifth overall on the NFL's list of all-time sack leaders). He was a part of the vaunted "Purple People Eaters" Vikings defense and was the first defensive player in the history of the NFL to be named MVP. He just couldn't win a Super Bowl. Page came close a few times, going to the big game on four different occasions, but the Vikings lost by double digits in all four matchups.
Anthony Muñoz
Accomplishments: 11x Pro Bowl selection, 11x All-Pro selection, 3x Offensive Lineman of the Year
Team(s): Cincinnati Bengals
Career stats: 185 games played, 6 fumble recoveries
Super Bowl appearances: 2 (1982 and 1989)
In addition to becoming a fixture on the offensive line for the Bengals for more than a decade, protecting quarterback Boomer Esiason at the left tackle position, Munoz also played some receiver. He caught four touchdowns during his career and recorded seven receptions altogether. His athleticism and sure-handedness is one of the reasons he's often referred to as one of the best offensive lineman in the history of the league. However, the San Francisco 49ers twice prevented him from cementing his legacy by knocking him off in the Super Bowl by narrow margins. If not for that, his career would have been damn-near perfect.
Paul Krause
Accomplishments: 8x Pro Bowl selection, 8x All-Pro selection, Washington Redskins 70th Anniversary Team
Team(s): Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings
Career stats: 81 interceptions, 1,185 interception yards, 3 touchdowns
Super Bowl appearances: 4 (1970, 1974, 1975, 1977)
Krause was, to put it simply, an interception machine. During his 16-year career, he picked off 81 passes, which is the most in NFL history. And it's a record that's probably going to stand for a long, long time, considering that the closest active player behind Krause is Ed Reed, who has just 61 interceptions right now. Despite all of those interceptions, Krause was a part of four Vikings teams that made it to the Super Bowl and lost. It's sort of amazing to think that guys like Krause and Alan Page were on the same defense but were unable to win the big game, due in large part to the defense giving up too many points during their Super Bowl trips.
Earl Campbell
Accomplishments: 5x Pro Bowl selection, 3x All-Pro selection, 1979 NFL MVP
Team(s): Houston Oilers, New Orleans Saints
Career stats: 9,407 rushing yard, 121 receptions, 74 touchdowns
Super Bowl appearances: Zero
Campbell, Paul Hornung, and O.J. Simpson (who just narrowly missed making this list) are the only Heisman Trophy winners to ever be selected No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft and go on to have Hall of Fame careers. Campbell did it by using his bruising style to win three NFL rushing titles, three NFL Offensive Player of the Year awards, and an MVP. However, he never raised the Lombardi because he never made it to the Super Bowl. Campbell also had to retire from the NFL after just seven seasons because of his style of play. We've always wondered what might've been if he had been able to stick around for a longer period of time.
Bruce Matthews
Accomplishments: 14x Pro Bowl selection, 10x All-Pro selection, All-time NFL record for games played by an offensive lineman (296)
Team(s): Houston Oilers/Tennessee Oilers/Tennessee Titans
Career stats: 296 games played, 10 fumble recoveries
Super Bowl appearances: 1 (2000)
No other offensive lineman in NFL history had more chances to win a Super Bowl than Matthews. Over the course of 18 seasons, he played in almost 300 games. He actually played for so long that he started his career blocking for Earl Campbell and then ended up blocking for Eddie George during his final years. But in all that time, he was never able to get to the big game and win a Super Bowl. Matthews did come close to doing it in 2000 when the St. Louis Rams beat the Tennessee Titans 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV. But the Titans came up one yard short on the game's final play (wide receiver Kevin Dyson infamously got tackled on the one-yard line) and Matthews retired the following year without a ring.
Jim Kelly
Accomplishments: 4x Pro Bowl selection, 3x All-Pro selection, Only quarterback ever to lead his team to four straight Super Bowls
Team(s): Buffalo Bills
Career stats: 35,467 passing yards, 237 touchdowns, 84.4 quarterback rating
Super Bowl appearances: 4 (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994)
Think about how different Kelly's legacy would be right now if Scott Norwood hadn't missed his last-second field goal during Super Bowl XXV. The Bills would've beat the New York Giants 22-20. And who knows? Kelly might rank way higher in the "Best Quarterback of All-Time" discussion. Instead, he's probably best known for leading his team to four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s, losing all four of them. Machine Gun Kelly still go down as one of the all-time greats. But things might have gone much differently for him had he won one of the four Super Bowls that he played in.
Carl Eller
Accomplishments: 6x Pro Bowl selection, 7x All-Pro selection, 1971 NEA NFL Defensive Player of the Year
Team(s): Minnesota Vikings, Seattle Seahawks
Career stats: 1 interception, 2 safeties
Super Bowl appearances: 4 (1970, 1974, 1975, 1977)
Much like his teammate Alan Page, Eller recorded tons of sacks during his career and is usually credited with being the all-time sack leader for the Vikings. He played an integral role in the Vikings' "Purple People Eaters" defense and was one of the main reasons Minnesota went to four Super Bowls in a span of seven years. We just don't understand how a defense that was that dominant—three of the 20 players on this list were on that defense—wasn't able to win at least one Super Bowl during their time together.
Eric Dickerson
Accomplishments: 6x Pro Bowl selection, 5x All-Pro selection, NFL record 2,105 rushing yards in a single season
Team(s): Los Angeles Rams, Indianapolis Colts, Los Angeles Raiders, Atlanta Falcons
Career stats: 13,259 rushing yards, 281 receptions, 96 touchdowns
Super Bowl appearances: Zero
During four of his 11 seasons in the NFL, Dickerson led the league in rushing. In 1984, he set the record for the most rushing yards in a single season by running for more than 2,100 yards. And when he retired in 1993, he was the second leading rusher in NFL history. Yet, he played on a lot of bad teams and never got to experience what it was like to play in a Super Bowl. His single-biggest postseason memory is running for a playoff record 248 yards in a game against the Dallas Cowboys in 1985. Impressive, for sure, but not as impressive as a Super Bowl ring would have been.
Fran Tarkenton
Accomplishments: 9x Pro Bowl selection, 3x All-Pro selection, 1975 NFL MVP
Team(s): Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants
Career stats: 47,003 passing yards, 342 touchdowns, 80.4 quarterback rating
Super Bowl appearances: 3 (1974, 1975, 1977)
Today, there are a ton of quarterbacks who can scramble around in the pocket, buy time for themselves, and either run with the ball or find a receiver downfield. But back when Tarkenton—or "Scramblin' Fran" as he was known—played, the idea of a "mobile quarterback" was a foreign one. So in a lot of ways, he revolutionized the quarterback position and showed the NFL what a guy like him could do for a team. Unfortunately, his scrambling act didn't work out so well in the Super Bowl, and he lost all three times he played in the big game. He's still regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in league history.
Merlin Olsen
Accomplishments: 14x Pro Bowl selection, 9x All-Pro selection, NFL 1960s and 1970s All-Decade Teams
Team(s): Los Angeles Rams
Career stats: 1 Interception
Super Bowl appearances: Zero
Like several other defensive players on this list, Olsen played before sacks became an official NFL statistic. That's why his "career stats" look so paltry up there. But if sacks had counted back in the 1960s and 1970s, he would've recorded more than 120 of them. Olsen frequently terrorized opposing offenses and helped the Rams finish at or near the top of the league in team defense year in and year out. Along with Bruce Matthews, he also holds the record for most Pro Bowl selections in a career. But while he made plenty of trips to the playoffs, he never made it all the way to the Super Bowl. Unless you're an NFL historian, that's the reason you were probably scratching your head when you got to this slot on the list and saw his name.
Bruce Smith
Accomplishments: 11x Pro Bowl selection, 11x All-Pro selection, NFL all-time sack leader
Team(s): Buffalo Bills, Washington Redskins
Career stats: 200 sacks, 15 fumble recoveries, 2 interceptions
Super Bowl appearances: 4 (1991, 1992, 1993, 1994)
Smith was an absolute beast during his playing days. The 200 sacks he recorded on opposing NFL quarterbacks is still an NFL record—and it's a record that will likely stand for a long time. He was also an excellent run-stopper, and he's one of the reasons (along with quarterback Jim Kelly) that the Bills were able to make it to four straight Super Bowls. If you go back and look at scores from the Super Bowl games, one of the reasons the Bills lost four straight Super Bowls was that, outside of Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants, they gave up a ton of points and got blown out. That obviously doesn't all fall on Smith's shoulder. But for whatever reason, the Bills played some of their worst defensive games during Super Bowls.
Dick Butkus
Accomplishments: 8x Pro Bowl selection, 8x All-Pro selection, 2x NEA NFL Defensive Player of the Year
Team(s): Chicago Bears
Career stats: 1,020 tackles, 22 interceptions, 27 fumble recoveries
Super Bowl appearances: Zero
Butkus is easily the most surprising player on this list. Anytime you hear anyone talk about great linebackers, Butkus' name automatically gets brought up. And for good reason. By all accounts, he was one of the toughest guys to ever play in the NFL, and he played alongside some really talented players. Yet, he was never able to make it to a Super Bowl, much less win one. Maybe championships aren't the true definition of a player after all, eh?
Deacon Jones
Accomplishments: 8x Pro Bowl selection, 8x All-Pro selection, 2x NFL Defensive Player of the Year
Team(s): Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, Washington Redskins
Career stats: 2 interceptions, 2 safeties
Super Bowl appearances: Zero
As part of the Rams' heralded "Fearsome Foursome," which consisted of Lamar Lundy, Rosey Grier, Merlin Olsen, Jones helped them dominate offensive lines. In fact, he's frequently credited as the guy who actually coined the phrase "sacking the quarterback." He explained the term "sack" during an interview with the Los Angeles Times back in 1999. "You take all the offensive lineman and put them in a burlap bag," he said, "and then you take a baseball bat and beat on the bag. You're sacking them, you're bagging them. And that's what you're doing with a quarterback." Even though sacks weren't an official statistic when Jones played, he would've registered more than 170 of them if they were. However, even with all that sacking power, he was never able to reach a Super Bowl and ultimately retired without a ring.
Barry Sanders
Accomplishments: 10x Pro Bowl selection, 10x All-Pro selection, 1997 MVP
Team(s): Detroit Lions
Career stats: 15,269 rushing yards, 352 receptions, 109 touchdowns
Super Bowl appearances: Zero
Although he only played for 10 seasons and retired way earlier than most people thought he would, Sanders accomplished everything he could on a personal level before he left the game of football. He led the league in rushing for four years. He put together a string of five straight seasons where he rushed for more than 1,500 yards. And he set an NFL record by rushing for more than 100 yards in 14 straight games at one point in his career. However, the one knock on him was always that he never led his team to a Super Bowl. Then again, he played on some really bad teams in Detroit and never had a great supporting cast. So we can't blame him for retiring early.
Dan Marino
Accomplishments: 9x Pro Bowl selection, 8x All-Pro selection, 1984 NFL MVP
Team(s): Miami Dolphins
Career stats: 61,361 passing yards, 420 touchdowns, 86.4 quarterback rating
Super Bowl appearances: 1 (1985)
When you think about great NFL players who never won a Super Bowl, who is the first player that pops into your head? Or, better yet, when you think about great athletes in any sport who never won a championship, who is the first player that pops into your head? Outside of maybe Charles Barkley, Marino is the one guy we think of when we think of legendary athletes who fell short of winning a championship during their playing days.
That's because Marino was so dominant, so successful, so, well, great that we can't believe he never won a title. He was the first quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards in a single season, the first quarterback to throw for 40 touchdowns in a single season, and he currently holds a dozen NFL records. He also held more than two dozens other NFL records at one time or another and is frequently regarded as the best quarterback to ever play the game of football. But in 16 seasons in the NFL, he only reached the Super Bowl once (and that was in his second season!) and he never won a title. How is that even possible?