Last year, Mario Manningham was one of the stars of Super Bowl XLVI, as his great sidelines catch helped the Giants defeat the Patriots (although it wasn’t even his most meaningful catch in that game). As a member of the 49ers this season, Manningham has been placed on injured reserve, but that doesn’t make him ineligible to earn a second straight Super Bowl ring. Brandon Jacobs, who was waived by the 49ers in December, is in the same boat.
How rare is that? Believe it or not, only four players in NFL history have ever won back-to-back Super Bowls with different teams. Guard Russ Hochstein was drafted by Tampa Bay in 2001 and played in one game in 2002; he was waived in October and signed by the Patriots a week later. He stayed in New England through 2008, so Hochstein picked up a Super Bowl ring for his cup of coffee with the Bucs and then earned two more the next two seasons in New England. Hochstein was also a freshman with Nebraska in 1997, when the Cornhuskers were named national champions by USA Today and ESPN.
Defensive back Derrick Martin was drafted by Baltimore in 2006 and has already spent time with four distinguished franchises. He made the AFC Championship Game with the Ravens in 2008, won the Super Bowl with the Packers in 2010, won another super Bowl with the Giants in 2011, and nearly made it back there this year with New England.
Those are the two obscure names. The other two? Well, let’s see if you can guess.
Deion Sanders and Ken Norton Jr. were part of the 1994 San Francisco 49ers team that won the Super Bowl. For the prior six years, Norton was with the Cowboys, so he won Super Bowls in 1992 and 1993 with Dallas. Sanders left the 49ers after one season, joining the Cowboys the following year, making him part of the 1995 Dallas team that won the Super Bowl.
It is kind of surprising that there has only been four. When seeing the title of this post I figured there would have been at least seven such players by now.
It would be interesting to see a list of players who lost consecutive conference championships with multiple teams. Jim Leonhard is one.
Back during Michael Jordan’s second championship run, my friends and I played a game we tried to calculate the NBA players with the lowest minutes played:championship rings ratio. Obviously the NFL doesn’t track minutes or snaps like the NBA, but we should be able to do something similar with games played.
When you think of the fullback in today’s game, you probably think of a player like Vonta Leach, widely regarded as the best blocking back in the NFL. There are also the H-Back/receiving fullback types, like Marcel Reece or James Casey, and the rushing fullbacks like Le’Ron McClain, Jacob Hester, and Mike Tolbert. And it’s […]
Yesterday, I looked at the most pass-happy active head coaches and offensive coordinators in the NFL. If you’ve been a loyal reader of my previous posts on Game Scripts, you understand the methodology I’ve used today to grade each coaches. The quick summary is I’ve come up with the term “Game Scripts” to determine the […]
One reason I came up with the concept of Game Scripts was to identify the most pass-happy coaches. Remember, a team’s Game Script score is simply their average scoring differential over each second of every game. Last year, the Falcons were the most pass-happy team in the NFL after adjusting for Game Scripts; Atlanta had […]
Over at Footballguys.com, I analyzed how the fantasy value of quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends have changed since 1990. The NFL is a very different beast than it was 23 years ago, but you might be surprised to see what that means for fantasy football. To measure value, I examined the VBD curves […]
Two weeks ago, I looked at the longest streaks where a team failed to have a player rush for 100 yards. Richie asked me if I could run the numbers on the longest streaks without a 1,000-yard rusher. The longest active streak in the NFL belongs to the Detroit Lions, who have not boasted a […]
Green Bay didn’t use a first round pick on a running back, but the Packers did spend a second round pick on Alabama’s Eddie Lacy and a fourth round pick on UCLA’s Johnathan Franklin. How much weight should we put on draft status when one team drafts two running backs just a couple of rounds […]
How bad were the Chiefs last year? Kansas City went 2-14, tied for the worst record in the league with Jacksonville. Since the Chiefs faced an easier schedule, they received the first pick. With an Simple Rating System score of -14.0, Kansas City had the worst SRS rating in the league. They ranked 32nd in […]
Twenty quarterbacks started all sixteen games last season: Eli Manning Tony Romo Andrew Luck Russell Wilson Peyton Manning Matthew Stafford Sam Bradford Aaron Rodgers Matt Schaub Ryan Tannehill Matt Ryan Christian Ponder Drew Brees Ryan Fitzpatrick Tom Brady Josh Freeman Cam Newton Philip Rivers Joe Flacco Andy Dalton Mark Sanchez started 15 games for the [. […]
One of the surprising success stories of the 2012 season was the breakout performance of second-year Jacksonville wide receiver Cecil Shorts. With a cap value of $729,000 in 2013, Shorts is probably the best value on the Jaguars roster. But he’s one of the more confusing players to project. The optimistic outlook on Shorts is […]
It’s no secret that Bill Belichick’s Patriots ran an up-tempo offense last year: Tom Brady and crew ran 1,191 offensive plays in 2012, just eight shy of tying the record set by the Drew Bledsoe Patriots in 1994. With versatile players like Aaron Hernandez, Rob Gronkowski, and Danny Woodhead, New England was capable of running […]
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I got the first one without the hints, but guessed Charles Haley for the other and didn’t realize I was wrong until the third hint.
Interesting – I went through the exact same progression
It is kind of surprising that there has only been four. When seeing the title of this post I figured there would have been at least seven such players by now.
It would be interesting to see a list of players who lost consecutive conference championships with multiple teams. Jim Leonhard is one.
Back during Michael Jordan’s second championship run, my friends and I played a game we tried to calculate the NBA players with the lowest minutes played:championship rings ratio. Obviously the NFL doesn’t track minutes or snaps like the NBA, but we should be able to do something similar with games played.
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