Ranking the 10 biggest upsets in Super Bowl history

The Super Bowl has produced some of the most memorable upsets in American sports history, with underdog teams repeatedly defying the odds to claim the NFL's biggest prize.

Among the games most frequently cited as the greatest upsets is Super Bowl III, when the New York Jets of the American Football League stunned the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, a result that is often credited with legitimizing the AFL ahead of its merger with the NFL.

Giants shock unbeaten Patriots

More recently, the New York Giants' victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII stands out as one of the sport's defining upset stories, denying Tom Brady and the Patriots what would have been a perfect 19-0 season.

Other teams that have pulled off significant Super Bowl surprises include the Philadelphia Eagles, the Seattle Seahawks and the New York Jets, each producing a title-game result that defied pre-game expectations and betting lines.

These upsets endure in NFL lore precisely because they ran counter to the expected outcome, reshaping legacies and, in several cases, changing how the sport's underdog franchises were perceived for years afterward. Analysts continue to debate where exactly each result ranks, but the common thread is the way a single game overturned months of expectation built over an entire season.