The NFL’s pinnacle game features two of the SEC’s all-time greatest players in former Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning and former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton.
Today’s big game is just the third time for the Super Bowl to feature starting quarterbacks from the SEC. In the Super Bowl to cap the 1976 season, the Oakland Raiders’ Ken Stabler of Alabama opposed the Minnesota Vikings’ Fran Tarkenton of Georgia. In the Super Bowl to cap the 2006 season, the Chicago Bears’ Rex Grossman of Florida opposed Manning, who was with the Indianapolis Colts then.
With reports swirling that the Super Bowl will mark the end of Manning’s career, many have pondered whether the game could mark the passing of the torch of the Manning era to the Newton era in the NFL. But one thing’s for certain, both signal callers are undoubtedly two of the SEC’s best of all-time.
Manning and Newton certainly aren’t the only SEC players in today’s game — just the biggest. Both were the No. 1 overall selections in their respective NFL Drafts — Newton in 2011, Manning in 1998.
Super Bowl 50 includes a combined 31 former SEC players from both rosters. This includes players on the active roster, injured reserve and the reserve/future list. Carolina leads the way with 17 players (12 active), compared to Denver’s 14 (11 active).
Those 31 players — the most of any conference — come from 13 different SEC programs. Give you one guess which school isn’t represented.
Ding, ding, ding. You got it, Vanderbilt.
If your guess for the SEC teams with the most players in the Super Bowl is Alabama ... Well, try again.
It’s Tennessee with four, followed by Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Georgia with three each.
The Big Ten is next with 18 players represented today. Ohio State, the league’s top program, has more players (six) than any other school on Super Bowl rosters.
The Panthers have two active players with Mississippi SEC ties — offensive lineman Michael Oher, a first round pick in 2009 from Ole Miss, and defensive lineman Kyle Love, an undrafted free agent from Mississippi State in 2011.
Oher, known more for his story in the movie “The Blind Side”, has had an up-and-down NFL career. He had five seasons in Baltimore, including a Super Bowl victory in 2012, followed by a tough homecoming. He played one year in his home state of Tennessee with the Titans, allowing six sacks and 26 quarterback hurries in 11 games in a 2-14 season. On Feb. 5, 2015, the Titans cut Oher. The Tennessean’s story called it a move that “should have blindsided no one.”
When the Panthers signed Oher to a two-year, $7 million deal this past March, the move was widely criticized. Oher, 29, appeared to be on the downswing.
But he has proven to still have some gas left in his tank.
Love learned he had Type II diabetes two years ago, and the New England Patriots released him in May 2013, a month after his diagnosis — despite the fact he’d made 24 starts at defensive tackle the previous two seasons.
