Worst Super Bowl player of all time

It has to be a defensive back for the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I. He is #22 and identified on the NFL Films video as "Mitchell".

The Packers "ends" (as wide receivers were apparently called in those days) in the game were Boyd Dowler (left the game early with a separated shoulder), Carroll Dale, and Max McGee. I won't get into any ugly racial stereotypes, so lets just say that the Packers receivers weren't on any Olympic sprint relay teams.

Throughout the game, #22 got burned continuously. It wasn't even close. He gave McGee a huge cushion, and had no reaction for even the slightest moves. #22 wasn't even in the picture on many of the receptions. I've seen this film maybe 15 times and I continually ask myself, "What was this guy doing out there?" It was like he was told to keep a 10 yard cushion at all times, even after the ball left Starr's hand.

The NFL films video will be on many times this month. Watch #22. It's amazing.

 

Not to be bitter, but I'm still voting Neil O'Donnell.

 

Stanley Richard

Ronnie Bradford

Tony Eason

 

Or the reciever that failed to notice the blitz and that he was the hot route.

What about Jackie Smith dropping his sure TD for the Cowboys?

Tony Eason?

David Woodley?

 

From a BLOG!!!!, but the guy makes a good point,

http://nflhistory.net/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&forum=DCForumID17&om=2&omm=2

I should explain something here about Willie Mitchell and Super Bowl I. I said in the last post that Mitchell had the dubious honor of covering Max McGee in that Super Bowl. Of course, McGee caught several passes in that game, a couple for touchdowns. Mitchell wore the goathorns after the game. It says here that the horns were largely undeserved.
Willie Mitchell had to cover McGee one on one for most of the game, and got little help. A defensive back once said that his grandmother could beat him on a pass pattern with enough time. Bart Starr had the time in Super Bowl I, and Mitchell found himself with a very difficult task, trying to cover the slippery McGee. I would say that few cornerbacks could have done much better than Mitchell did that day.

I was thinking about that game, and wondered why one of the safeties did not give McGee a good rap just after McGee touched the ball on one or more of his catches. I think that the reason was something like this. I think that the Chiefs were double teaming the Packer flanker Carole Dale, who was considered the most dangerous Green Bay receiver. This would mean that Dale was being covered by Fred "the Hammer" Williamson and one of the safeties. This allowed the Chiefs to contain Dale.

The other safety was covering the Packer tight end Marv Fleming, if I have this right. The Chiefs were playing a 5 man line that day, so the 2 linebackers were covering the Green Bay running backs Taylor and Hornung. This left Mitchell all alone on Max McGee. I think that the fact that Mitchell was still playing for the Chiefs in 1971 is evidence that the Chiefs' coaching staff could see the situation for what it was. If Mitchell was so weak as a cornerback, as has been implied by some, then I doubt that the Chiefs would have kept Mitchell around for another 5 years after Super Bowl I. In all, Willie Mitchell played 8 years for Kansas City (1964-71). In 1965, Willie Mitchell was named 2nd team All-AFL cornerback by one New York paper (Daily News I think). So, if Willie Mitchell could play for the Kansas City Chiefs for 8 years, and the Chiefs were the most successful team in the old AFL, then Mitchell was no bum.

Emmitt Thomas was a rookie in 1966, and played left cornerback for a time, after Fred Williamson retired (Williamson retired after the 1967 season). Thomas got some playing time in the defensive backfield in 1967, and by 1969, Emmitt Thomas was the starting right cornerback for the Kansas City Chiefs. Thomas led the league in interceptions in 1969 with 9, and played many years for Kansas City, being invited to the pro Bowl about 5 times, and was named to various all-pro teams a number of times. Evidently, Thomas was one of the better cornerbacks in pro football, and when teamed with Jim Marsalis, made up one of the best cornerback duos in pro football.

 

Eason.

Here's how the ESPN Page 2 staff characterized his performance.

"The Bears' vaunted "46" defense forced Eason into the worst game ever by a starting quarterback, so bad that Eason completed as many passes in a Super Bowl game as the Page 2 staff: zero. By the time he was replaced by Steve Grogan in the second quarter, Eason was 0-for-6, had fumbled once and been sacked three times."

Pretty compelling evidence.

And here's the full ESPN top ten list

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/superbowl/worst.html

 

O'Donnell had two brutal interceptions that night, one that might have been a receiver's fault. I believe the receiver in question was Andre Hastings.

Of course, he was pretty damn ineffective otherwise, just as he was in every other playoff game as a Steeler.

And that pass Jackie Smith dropped was behind him. The kind of catch he usually made, but still not a good throw for having him so wide open. I've always thought way too much was made of that play. It's not like it was on the final drive of the game. The Steelers broke the game open with two touchdowns after the score and went right into the prevent defense, allowing the Cowboys to score twice while burning up the clock.

Theisman was worse than either of them in Super Bowl XVIII against the Raiders.

 

Compelling evidence, indeed.... that the Bears' defense, by far was the best one ever to suit it up in a Super Bowl. There is one guy in the league who could have handled those guys. Everyone else would have approximated Eason. So, he don't count to me.

Neil O'Donnell can't be throwing those balls, blitz or not. If you don't KNOW that the hot is there, you eat the ball.

Football 101.

It's really hard for any of us to know what responsibilities were in place in rating a guy through an entire game. There are certain plays, though, that stick out.

To me, O'Donnell is way up there.

However, the other Super Bowl goathorn play that pops up immediately for me as an absolute game changer came in Miami in 1989 in XXIII. On the second play of the fourth quarter, with Cincinnati up 13-6, the 49ers have the ball on the Bengals' 14.

On that play, Lewis Billups drops a Joe Montana pass between his numbers, and in his end zone. On the next play, Montana hits Rice for a tying TD.

Not game over with a Billups INT, but it makes it a real good possibility.

Sam Wyche must toss and turn at night with that play in his head.

 

True, the Raiders snookered a sleepwalking Theismann in Tampa, but Joe was playing with major, major house money from XVII. He is on my list of guys would could have/should have been named MVP of the game, but weren't.

 

Agreed: There is Bill Buckner, there is Scott Norwood and there is Jackie Smith when you delve into the three biggest sportswriter-created goats in sports history. They are the media-created antipodes of Namath.

 

Whoever played nose tackle and middle linebacker for Denver when Timmy Smith ran for 204 yards.

Smith had 602 regular season yards in his career, but he had 204 in the Super Bowl? Come on now.

Counter trey anyone?

 

You really need to be in the film room for that to assign anything close to individual blame.

Missed tackles, we can see... Guys out of position, we can see.... Whether they are out of position because of their relative lack of ability, or because of the defensive play call.... we need to be in the film room.

Guys writing for papers take way too many liberties in that regard.