An Unlikely Super Bowl City Produces Unlikely MVPs

Super Bowl LII is over. Merchandise is on clearance. The blue jacketed volunteers have left the streets and skyways. The snow covered bridge, corporate tents and television studios on Nicollet Mall are being unceremoniously dismantled. The game was a classic, but the show is leaving town. Possibly forever.

Now we are left to reflect, sort out the meaning. This, of course, will take time. One idea quickly grabbed me however; both Minneapolis Super Bowls have featured a losing Hall of Fame quarterback and an unlikely Super Bowl MVP.

As has been well documented, Nick Foles didn’t play any meaningful action in 2017 until late in the Eagles Week 13 victory over the Los Angeles Rams. He put up solid, but unspectacular numbers to close out the regular season. There was no reason to expect greatness.

After an efficient 15-10 win over Atlanta in the Divisional round, Foles lit up our Vikings for 373 yards and 3 touchdowns in the NFC Championship game. At the time, it was hard to know what to make of it.  A fluke?

Yesterday’s events sealed his place in history, but they also harkened back to the last MVP a Minnesota Super Bowl produced: Mark Rypien. Unlike Foles, the Redskins quarterback was one of the best players in football during the 1991 season. His 3,564 yards and 28 touchdown passes, ranked fourth and second in the NFL.

Rypien then passed for 292 yards and 2 touchdowns in Washington’s 37-24 victory over Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVI. While a Super Bowl MVP would be almost any player’s peak, Rypien’s career quickly faded after the Metrodome moment of glory.

The Redskins went 9-7 in 1992, defeating the Vikings 24-7 in the Wildcard round, but lost at San Francisco the following week. Rypien was good, not great that season. In 1993, Rypien injured his knee in Week 2 and Redskins bottomed out at 4-12.

The former Super Bowl MVP was released before the 1994 season and latched on as a backup with the Cleveland Browns. Rypien appeared in six games as a Brown, starting three.  He completed a dismal 46% of his passes. After joining the Rams in 1995, Rypien started three more games in St. Louis, the final starts of his career.

The journeyman joined the Eagles in 1996 and appeared in one game before returning to St. Louis in 1997. Rypien went to training camp with Atlanta in 1998, but stepped away when his son tragically passed away due to a malignant brain tumor.

After three years out of football, Rypien was signed by the Colts in 2001 where he backed up Peyton Manning. He appeared in four games, all mop-up duty. Rypien signed with Seattle in 2002, but was released after appearing in two preseason games, ending his career.

Following his Super Bowl MVP performance on January 26, 1992, Rypien made 32 more NFL starts, going 14-18. He threw 31 touchdown passes and 40 interceptions. In 2006, at age 44, Rypein suited up for the Rochester (NY) Raiders of the Great Lakes Indoor Football League, as part of one-game publicity stunt.

As for Nick Foles, who knows where his NFL journey will take him. He’s signed with Philadelphia for 2018 at $7.6 million, but he’ll draw a lot of interest in the QB-starved, NFL trade market. There’s even a chance we could see him in purple next year….

-David Zingler

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