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New England’s Edelman Most Unlikely Super Bowl MVP Since Howley
February 06, 2019 09:19 AM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Julian Edelman might be the most unlikely Super Bowl MVP since Chuck Howley.
Chuck Howley?
Who is Chuck Howley, some of you may be asking?
He was a five-sport letterman at West Virginia University from Warwood, West Virginia, who became a six-time Pro Bowl outside linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys.
His 13-year NFL career alone is worthy of Pro Football Hall of Fame consideration, although each passing year makes it less likely it will happen.
Chuck was also named MVP of Super Bowl V, a 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Colts in what has since become known as the "Blunder Bowl."
The Colts had seven turnovers and won the game; Dallas had four turnovers to go with 10 penalties. The Cowboys actually had more penalty yardage than they acquired either running or passing.
Nobody on the winning Colts team was deemed good enough to win the award, not even rookie kicker Jim O'Brien whose 32-yard field goal with five seconds left gave the franchise its first Super Bowl victory.
Howley made a couple of interceptions and also recovered a fumble so he got the award. He found out when a teammate congratulated him while he was at his locker about to get undressed to take a shower.
Not a single reporter talked to him after the game.
"It was the losing locker room," Howley recalled in 2011. "It didn't mean anything to me sitting there when somebody came in and told me I was MVP. I said, 'I think that's fantastic but we didn't win the game.' I don't even remember who told me."
For his efforts, Howley received a new Dodge Charger – a car similar to the one Jerry West received for winning MVP honors in the 1969 NBA Finals.
West's Los Angeles Lakers were also losers. The Boston Celtics beat LA in seven games and to add insult to injury, West said the car he received was green – Boston's color!
"I felt like putting a stick of dynamite in it and blowing it up – right there in Manhattan," West wrote in his memoir.
Howley, too, didn't have much use for a Charger. He let his wife drive it to a bridge party one night, and she didn't care for its pick up.
"She hit that accelerator and the tires squealed and she brought the car right home and said 'you take it. I don't want it,'" Howley chuckled.
Chuck ended up selling it, even though he considered winning the MVP award a tremendous honor.
The Super Bowl MVPs before him were all quarterbacks: Bart Starr twice, Joe Namath and then Len Dawson.
"I'm not anti-quarterback, but they are the focal point when you win something," Howley explained. "It's only natural that your quarterbacks are going to be No. 1. Then the running backs are probably No. 2 and then your wide receivers are No. 3. They filter in a linebacker here and there."
Actually, very little here and very little there.
Denver's Von Miller was MVP in Super Bowl 50; Seattle's Malcolm Smith won it two years prior and Baltimore's Ray Lewis was MVP of Super Bowl XXXV. Howley, Lewis, Smith and Miller are the only linebackers in 53 Super Bowls to be named game MVP.
There were other defensive players to receive the award such as Miami safety Jake Scott, Dallas defensive linemen Harvey Martin and Randy White, Chicago defensive end Richard Dent, Dallas cornerback Larry Brown and Tampa Bay cornerback Dexter Jackson.
All of them played for winning teams, except for one.
"That's the thing they remember me for," Howley said.
Super Bowl V's most important piece of metal – the Lombardi Trophy – is not even in the Colts' possession today. As part of the settlement for leaving Baltimore for Indianapolis, the franchise had to return the Lombardi Trophy to the city.
It is displayed in the museum of Sports Legends in Camden Yards.
At least Howley, now 82, still has his trophy. It's sitting someplace in his suburban Dallas home.
Chuck Howley?
Who is Chuck Howley, some of you may be asking?
He was a five-sport letterman at West Virginia University from Warwood, West Virginia, who became a six-time Pro Bowl outside linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys.
His 13-year NFL career alone is worthy of Pro Football Hall of Fame consideration, although each passing year makes it less likely it will happen.
Chuck was also named MVP of Super Bowl V, a 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Colts in what has since become known as the "Blunder Bowl."
The Colts had seven turnovers and won the game; Dallas had four turnovers to go with 10 penalties. The Cowboys actually had more penalty yardage than they acquired either running or passing.
Nobody on the winning Colts team was deemed good enough to win the award, not even rookie kicker Jim O'Brien whose 32-yard field goal with five seconds left gave the franchise its first Super Bowl victory.
Howley made a couple of interceptions and also recovered a fumble so he got the award. He found out when a teammate congratulated him while he was at his locker about to get undressed to take a shower.
Not a single reporter talked to him after the game.
"It was the losing locker room," Howley recalled in 2011. "It didn't mean anything to me sitting there when somebody came in and told me I was MVP. I said, 'I think that's fantastic but we didn't win the game.' I don't even remember who told me."
For his efforts, Howley received a new Dodge Charger – a car similar to the one Jerry West received for winning MVP honors in the 1969 NBA Finals.
West's Los Angeles Lakers were also losers. The Boston Celtics beat LA in seven games and to add insult to injury, West said the car he received was green – Boston's color!
"I felt like putting a stick of dynamite in it and blowing it up – right there in Manhattan," West wrote in his memoir.
Howley, too, didn't have much use for a Charger. He let his wife drive it to a bridge party one night, and she didn't care for its pick up.
"She hit that accelerator and the tires squealed and she brought the car right home and said 'you take it. I don't want it,'" Howley chuckled.
Chuck ended up selling it, even though he considered winning the MVP award a tremendous honor.
The Super Bowl MVPs before him were all quarterbacks: Bart Starr twice, Joe Namath and then Len Dawson.
"I'm not anti-quarterback, but they are the focal point when you win something," Howley explained. "It's only natural that your quarterbacks are going to be No. 1. Then the running backs are probably No. 2 and then your wide receivers are No. 3. They filter in a linebacker here and there."Actually, very little here and very little there.
Denver's Von Miller was MVP in Super Bowl 50; Seattle's Malcolm Smith won it two years prior and Baltimore's Ray Lewis was MVP of Super Bowl XXXV. Howley, Lewis, Smith and Miller are the only linebackers in 53 Super Bowls to be named game MVP.
There were other defensive players to receive the award such as Miami safety Jake Scott, Dallas defensive linemen Harvey Martin and Randy White, Chicago defensive end Richard Dent, Dallas cornerback Larry Brown and Tampa Bay cornerback Dexter Jackson.
All of them played for winning teams, except for one.
"That's the thing they remember me for," Howley said.
Super Bowl V's most important piece of metal – the Lombardi Trophy – is not even in the Colts' possession today. As part of the settlement for leaving Baltimore for Indianapolis, the franchise had to return the Lombardi Trophy to the city.
It is displayed in the museum of Sports Legends in Camden Yards.
At least Howley, now 82, still has his trophy. It's sitting someplace in his suburban Dallas home.
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