The History of Super Bowl Champions

The first Super Bowl was played on Jan. 15, 1967, marking the beginning of a merger between the National Football League and the American Football League, which had been separate, independent and rival leagues. The merger was completed in 1970.

  1. The Green Bay Packers

    • The Green Bay Packers, won the first two Super Bowls, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs and then the Oakland Raiders in 1967 and 1968 respectively. The Packers also won the NFL title in 1961, 1962 and 1965, making them the dominant professional football team of that decade. The team would not win another Super Bowl, however, until 1996.

    The Pittsburgh Steelers

    • The Pittsburgh Steelers won four Super Bowls in the 1970s, including two sets of back-to-back wins in 1975 and 1976 as well as 1979 and 1980. The Steelers have a total of six Super Bowl victories, the most of any franchise. Their other wins came in 2006 and 2009.

    The Dallas Cowboys

    • The Dallas Cowboys have five total Super Bowl victories to their name, second only to the Steelers. Three of those wins came in the 1990s; the other two were in 1972 and 1978. Dallas also holds the record for total number of Super Bowl appearances with eight.

    The San Francisco 49ers

    • The 49ers also have five total Super Bowl wins to their credit, all but one in the decade from 1981 to 1990.

    Teams Without Championships

    • Only four professional football teams have never appeared in the Super Bowl. Two, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans, are recent expansion teams. The Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions are the other two teams, both founding members of the unified NFL. The Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings are tied for the most losses without a Super Bowl ring; their record in the championship game is 0-4.