Quarterbacks Who Won Multiple Super Bowls and Their Oscar Counterparts

I thought of this exercise while walking my dog and listening to The Rewatchables podcast—a podcast on the Bill Simmons network, The Ringer. Bill often uses sports for analogies in movies. Then I thought: Could you compare Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks with Oscar-winning actors?

I decided to stick to quarterbacks who won multiple Super Bowls. Comparing them to actors who won multiple Oscars, to keep this manageable, 13 quarterbacks have won two or more Super Bowls. 46 actors have won two or more Oscars. So, off the bat, I knew I’d be leaving off 33 Oscar winners.

I wanted to ensure I used the actors with three or more wins, of which there are seven. So, I had to find six actors with two Oscar wins that I could relate to a quarterback via their Oscar wins. I’m taking less into consideration their career and solely looking at their Super Bowl and Oscar wins. 

Tom Brady (Won 7 Super Bowls, Lost 3) / Meryl Streep (Won 3 Acting Oscars, 21 total nominations)

At first, I thought Tom Brady was Katharine Hepburn. Both have the most wins in their respective careers. However, after more thought, I think Meryl is the better comparison for Tom’s Super Bowl career.

Both are undisputed GOATs in their fields. Both have an all-time win in their respective fields. Tom with the 28-3 comeback, Meryl’s win for Sophie’s Choice. Yet, they both have a win that is disputed and arguably not a career best.

Tom had the “Deflategate” and “Spy Gate” seasons. Meryl won for The Iron Lady, a bad movie and a bad win in the context of the 2011 season. However, these “lesser” wins don’t take away from their careers, which are undeniably great. If forced to list great QBs or great actors, they’ll always be at the top of the lists. 

Terry Bradshaw (Won 4 Super Bowls, Lost 0) / Ingrid Bergman (Won 3 Oscars, 7 total nominations)

Terry does not get the respect he deserves, especially when it comes to Super Bowl victories. 4-0 in the Super Bowl. Only three quarterbacks have won 4 or more Super Bowls. However, when it comes to Terry, people attribute these wins to everything other than himself.

Except in his two final Super Bowls, he threw for over 300 yards. His only stat-poor game was his first victory against the “Purple People Eater” Minnesota defense. Only throwing for 96 yards, but they still won.

All to say he is somehow underrated, even with four Super Bowl wins. Much like Ingrid Bergman, who is one of only 7 actors to win three or more Oscars for acting, yet she is never discussed among the all-time greats.

Her two later Oscar wins are not held in high regard, with many thinking she should not have won for Anastasia or Murder on the Orient Express. Whether or not she should have won those, she has given many performances in her career worthy of an Oscar.

Both are underappreciated and kind of written off because of extenuating factors, but Terry and Ingrid deserve to be in the conversations as Greatest of All Times in their respective fields.

Joe Montana (Won 4 Super Bowls, Lost 0) / Daniel Day-Lewis (Won 3 Oscars, 6 total nominations)

This one was easy, possibly the easiest match when I first started looking at this. Joe Montana is undeniably a GOAT. Some could argue he is the greatest quarterback ever. He threw for almost 300 yards per Super Bowl, 11 touchdowns, and no interceptions over those 4 Super Bowls.

Daniel Day-Lewis has two of the all-time great wins in Best Actor. Many consider his win for There Will Be Blood to be the best performance of the 21st century. His My Left Foot win is also impressive.

Just a simple GOAT for GOAT. When it comes to those GOAT conversations, Montana and Day-Lewis will always and should always be in those conversations.

Troy Aikman (Won 3 Super Bowls, Lost 0) / Frances McDormand (Won 3 Oscars, 7 total acting nominations)

Frances technically has four Oscar including her producer credit on Nomadland. However, we’re only talking about acting wins. Troy and Frances both have three. Not only that, but when making a list of great QBs or great actors, these two never seem to enter the conversations. Or if they do, it’s outside the top-10 mark.

Both have undeniable wins, Troy winning Super Bowl XXVII with 4 touchdowns in a 52-17 rout of the Bills. Frances’ iconic turn as Marge in Fargo.

Patrick Mahomes (Won 3 Super Bowls, Lost 2) / Emma Stone (Won 2 Oscars, 5 total acting nominations)

I tried to pair QBs with three or more wins with actors who have three or more wins. Mahomes proved to be the difficult one to find a counterpart for. So I started skimming the list of actors with two wins, and I came across Emma Stone.

Emma is only 37 and already has seven Oscar nominations. Two for producing and five for acting. She has two wins and feels like she has her whole career ahead of her while being one of the biggest Hollywood stars.

Mahomes came into the league and immediately lit it on fire. At the age of 30, he has already played in five Super Bowls and won three, which is insane. He’s the face of the NFL and has been for a minute and yet has a whole back 9 of his career to go. If both retired now, they’d have better careers than many of their contemporaries.

Bart Starr (Won 2 Super Bowls, Lost 0) / Fredric March (Won 2 Oscars, 5 total nominations)

Bart won the first two Super Bowls ever. He had good games and cemented his legacy. Fredric was not the first actor to win multiple Oscars. However, his two wins are very good to great. No one can argue against them.

Especially his second win for The Best Years of Our Lives. Which ranks 30th on my list ranking the Best Actor Winners. Like Bart Starr’s Super Bowl performances, they may not rank among the greatest. But they’re good enough not to be argued against.

Roger Staubach (Won 2 Super Bowls, Lost 2) / Tom Hanks (Won 2 Oscars, 6 total nominations)

Roger was a tough one to match. Not really considered an all-time great. Tom Hanks is beloved, but if you ask people to name great actors, would Tom Hanks come up quickly? Probably not. However, he is beloved. As well as a good actor, not trying to say he isn’t.

Tom Hanks is like America’s Dad. Roger Staubach led “America’s Team” to four Super Bowls, including two wins. This was when they were actually loved, not loved to be hated like Jerry Jones’ Cowboys. At one point, Roger and Tom were revered by Americans and represented the best of America.

Bob Griese (Won 2 Super Bowls, Lost 1) / Spencer Tracy (Won 2 Oscars, 9 total nominations)

Bob Griese is remembered only because he quarterbacked the Dolphins to the NFL's only undefeated season. Possibly. Spencer Tracy is probably more revered as an actor than Bob as a QB.

Yet, when it comes to their respective wins, I cannot help but think they’re some of the least impactful components of their wins. Bob didn’t even throw for 100 yards in either of his Super Bowl wins.

Spencer is stoic to an almost stilted point. His performances are the least interesting thing about his movies. I’d argue that the performances he won for are not the best performances of his career. Both are in this echelon of multiple winners, yet neither is memorable.

Jim Plunkett (Won 2 Super Bowls, Lost 0) / Walter Brennan (Won 3 Oscars, 4 total nominations)

If most football fans were asked to name all the multiple Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, the one that many would likely forget is Jim Plunkett. If you asked many movie and Oscar fans, all the actors who have won three Oscars, Walter Brennan would be the forgotten one.

I could argue that Jim is a better football player than Walter is an actor. However, the main similarity is the unfortunate forgetability of these two major achieving men.

John Elway (Won 2 Super Bowls, Lost 3) / Jack Nicholson (Won 3 Oscars, 12 total nominations)

The first word that comes to mind when I think of Jack Nicholson is electric. Immediately popping off the screen. He takes up the entire screen in every movie he is in, almost pushing everyone else off with his energy and magnetism.

John is similar in his play style. He may not have been the conventional dual-threat QB. But he was still electric to watch. He loomed large over my childhood as a Raiders fan when I was a kid.

They both gave incredible performances in their winning performances.

But they’ve both given better, more renowned performances. Not to mention, Elway played in five Super Bowls, which puts him in a small group of QBs. Just like Jack’s 12 nominations, it puts both of them tied for 2nd all-time in their categories.

Ben Roethlisberger (Won 2 Super Bowls, Lost 1) / Kevin Spacey (Won 2 Oscars, 2 total nominations)

This one seems self-explanatory. Like, do I even have to write anymore? If you don’t know, Ben is one of the more problematic quarterbacks. Easily the most problematic to win multiple Super Bowls.

Kevin Spacey, once a celebrated actor, is not reviled and is one of the most problematic actors to win multiple Oscars. I don’t think it’s close. If you want to know about either’s controversies, just Google their names.

Eli Manning (Won 2 Super Bowls, Lost 0) / Luise Rainer (Won 2 Oscars, 2 total nominations)

Looking through the actors to find a match for Eli and all the way back to nearly the beginning, I find Luise Rainer. Not my favorite actress, and her win for The Good Earth ranks as the worst Best Actress win ever.

Her win that year beat out some truly great performances: Barbara Stanwyck for Stella Dallas, Janey Gaynor for A Star is Born, and Irene Dunne for The Awful Truth. Her win, especially who she beat, is a true stinker.

Eli’s first Super Bowl win was against the undefeated Patriots. The Giants were a 5-seed that year; it never should’ve happened. Yet, somehow, the improbable happened. Luise wasn’t the underdog that the Giants were in the years I am referring to, but their wins are not looked back on fondly. Maybe for Patriot haters and Giants fans, Eli’s is.

Many don’t believe Eli is a Hall of Famer, even with his two Super Bowl wins. Just as I don’t believe Luise was a very good actress, even with her two Oscar wins.

Peyton Manning (Won 2 Super Bowls, Lost 2) / Katharine Hepburn (Won 4 Oscars, 12 total nominations)

Like I said at the beginning of this. I initially had Katharine and Tom together. But Tom and Meryl felt like a better pair. What struck me with Peyton being Katharine is their wins. No, Peyton hasn’t been to the most Super Bowls, nor won the most.

But Peyton and Katharine’s wins are not great. Especially when you look at their careers in relation to their wins. Their wins are not emblematic of their careers.

Now, I will say Katharine’s The Lion in Winter win is an all-timer. But her other three leave you asking, “Really? She won for those?” Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?, and On Golden Pond.

Their final wins were underwhelming, and their final wins were their last appearances. Katharine never had another nomination; Peyton fully retired after his final Super Bowl appearance. Both are considered GOATs, but there are others who rank higher in everyone’s mind.