How many times has the NFL MVP lost the Super Bowl?

Across more than 30 years of NFL history since the Super Bowl era began, there had never been a player who was selected as the regular season MVP and then went on to lose in the Super Bowl. Starting in 1966 and before 1997, it had never once happened.

Since 1997, the trend has taken a complete 180. Since the 1997 season, there have been 11 regular-season MVP winners to appear in a Super Bowl. Ten of them lost and only Kurt Warner in the 1999 season won his Super Bowl appearance after winning the MVP award.

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10 NFL MVP winners went on to lose in the Super Bowl in the same season

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady

Ten times in NFL history a player has been awarded the regular season MVP and then gone on to lose in the Super Bowl in the same season. All ten such cases have occurred since the 1997 season. Prior to that it had never happened before. All eight MVP winners prior to 1997 who made it to the Super Bowl that season won the game and left with a ring.

In total, 20 NFL MVP winners made it to the Super Bowl the same year they won the award. Ten of them won while ten of them lost. The ten winners include Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw, Mark Moseley, Lawrence Taylor, Joe Montana, Emmitt Smith, Steve Young, Brett Favre, Terrell Davis and Kurt Warner.

The ten losers include Brett Favre, Kurt Warner, Rich Gannon, Shaun Alexander, Tom Brady (twice), Peyton Manning (twice), Cam Newton and Matt Ryan. Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are the only two players to win the regular season MVP but lose the Super Bowl in the same season multiple times. They are two of the best quarterbacks of all time, but this is a list they would rather not be a part of.

Warner and Favre are the only two players to be on both the winners and losers list for Super Bowl results of a regular season MVP winner. Favre won the NFL MVP award for three consecutive seasons while earning a Super Bowl ring in one of them, then appeared in the Super Bowl the following year but was defeated.

Warner won two MVP awards in a three-year span at the peak of his career. He went on to win the Super Bowl in the first year but lost it the second time around. In the 1999 season, Warner was the last player in NFL history to win both in the same year.