Has a Super Bowl Ever Gone to Overtime?

There has only been one Super Bowl game to go to overtime.

Well, this is embarrassing. You’re here because you Googled something about whether there has ever been a Super Bowl game that went to overtime. Do you really not remember one of the most exciting Super Bowls in history?

Super Bowl LI, played in February 2017 between the Patriots and Falcons, is thus far the only Super Bowl game to require more than 60 minutes to decide. New England famously went down 28–3 and clawed all the way back to tie the game on a one-yard touchdown run by James White with under a minute to go. White scored again from two yards out about four minutes into the extra period to give the Pats the win. 

It might be a bit surprising that it took 51 years for a game between the league’s top two teams to go the distance but Super Bowls have actually been lopsided historically. Only 18 of the first 51 games were decided by a single possession, and seven of those were Patriots games during the Brady-Belichick era. Ten of the 18 have occurred since the turn of the millennium, so perhaps we’re trending toward more overtime games.