By Brant James | Jan 2nd, 2020 | 8 mins









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150-1! 1999 Rams Top List of All-Time Super Bowl Futures Bets

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The two current favorites to win Super Bowl LIV could become some of the most savvy future wagers in NFL history.

The San Francisco 49ers, top-seeded in the NFC, were at +3000 last January when the Super Bowl futures market opened, but now stand at +350.

The Baltimore Ravens, top-seeded in the AFC, were initial +2500 picks but enter the playoffs at +220.

Not that handicappers expect a Buffalo Bills championship, with current odds at +5000, but their +10000 opening number shows they've already exceeded expectations.

A big payday, for sure, but not nearly enough to make them the longest shot to ever defy the line and capture the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

A common thread in many of these cases: replacement quarterbacks or young signal-callers about to embark on a dynasty. As far as youth is concerned, that fits Lamar Jackson (Ravens), Jimmy Garoppolo (49ers) and Josh Allen (Bills).

The teams that defied the bookmakers.

1. 1999 St. Louis Rams (+15000)

The “Greatest Show on Turf” is the greatest show at the betting window.

And like the offensive numbers – and for that matter, defensive – that they produced, it’s not even close.

The Rams, with head coach Mike Martz deploying an arsenal of pass-catching talent and Hall of Famers in quarterback Kurt Warner and running back Marshall Faulk, innovated on offense and frustrated the defense-oriented NFL in completely changing the philosophical direction of the league.

“Let’s be honest,” Warner later told SI.com, “we had a collection of talent that was ridiculous.”

It was no sure thing in the preseason, though, with newly signed Trent Green at quarterback for a team that finished 4-12 the previous campaign. And a wager placed on a +15000 moneyline didn’t seem like any more of an investment than a whim when Green tore knee ligaments in the preseason and was replaced by Warner, a former Arena Football League quarterback that had been out of football, and, quite legendarily, as this tale unfolded, stocking shelves in a grocery store.

But it worked. It worked incredibly well, in fact, as Warner threw a league-best 41 touchdown passes and the Rams went 13-3 in the regular season. They thwarted a Tennessee Titans comeback bid in the Super Bowl when Warner, the game MVP with a game-record 414 yards passing, hit Isaac Bruce with a game-winning 73-yard touchdown with one minute, 54 seconds left.

A team that began the season being snubbed by handicappers it by pushing on a seven-point line in a 23-16 victory.

“No one was above that team. No one,” Faulk said in his Hall of Fame induction speech. “I believe that our greatest strength was that we believed in the team more than our individual accomplishments.

“I would give anything right now to be in the huddle one minute, 80 yards down by six with the ‘Greatest Show on Turf. Because that's when we were at our best with our backs against the wall.”

2. 2001 New England Patriots (+6000)

Eons ago, before the Patriots won 28 playoff games and five Super Bowls in 16 seasons, before Tom Brady was the three-time NFL MVP, four-time Super Bowl MVP and head coach Bill Belichick the iconic vision of dread or unscrupulousness for opposing teams with championships aspirations, New England was just a team that had gotten close a few times without being able to finish.

Brady, then a 24-year-old, reportedly undersized 199th selection of the 2000 draft, was the backup to Drew Bledsoe in the preseason when sportsbooks assigned such long odds to the highly unlikely prospect of a first Super Bowl win. The odds seemed generous when Bledsoe – working in the first of a 10-year, $103-million contract, sustained a life-threatening sheared blood vessel in his chest in the second game of the season against the New York Jets.

Brady led the Patriots to the playoffs – though Bledsoe replaced him in the AFC Championship Game after he was injured – and helped lead the Patriots to the Super Bowl for the third time with a 24-17 win over the Steelers.

Brady returned for a highly unlikely 20-17 Superf Bowl win over the juggernaut Rams – St. Louis was a 14-point favorite - as Adam Vinatieri kicked the winning 48-yard field goal on the final play. Brady won his Super Bowl MVP award and with Belichick, the rest, was, and is in the moment, history.

A better rematch would be if both teams had to use the same players who played in that Super Bowl. Rams have to start Torry Holt, Marshall Faulk, and Kurt Warner, Pats have to play Troy Brown, Antowain Smith, and whoever our QB was in 2001. https://t.co/qhKYCgfWcB — Manny Veiga (@zmveiga) January 16, 2019

3. 1981 San Francisco 49ers (+5000)

Joe Montana, 25, was in his third NFL season but first as a starter in leading the perennial sad-sack 49ers to a 13-3 regular-season record and 26-21 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl.

He dabbled in legend-building along the way, preserving the season by hitting tight end Dwight Clark for "The Catch," a 6-yard touchdown pass with 58 seconds left to secure a 28-27 win in the NFC title game over Dallas.

The 49ers’ tenure as longshots in the age of MTV ended as they won four more Super Bowls through 1994.

Super Bowl champions with preseason odds of at least +1000

2017 - Philadelphia Eagles (+4000)

1982 - Washington Redskins (+3500)

1980 - Oakland Raiders (+3500)

2007 - New York Giants (+3000)

2000 - Baltimore Ravens (+2200)

2011 - New York Giants (+2200)

2009 - New Orleans Saints (+2000)

2012 - Baltimore Ravens (+1800)

2008 - Pittsburgh Steelers (+1800)

1978 - Pittsburgh Steelers (+1500)

2003 - New England Patriots (+1500)

1983 - Los Angeles Raiders (+1200)

1986 - New York Giants (+1200)

2005 - Pittsburgh Steelers (+1200)

1975 - Dallas Cowboys (+1200)

2010 - Green Bay Packers (+1100)

1997 - Denver Broncos (+1000)

1992 - Dallas Cowboys (+1000)

1991 - Washington Redskins (+1000)

1987 - Washington Redskins (+1000)

1985 - Chicago Bears (+1000)