Jason Myers scored every point in the first half of Super Bowl 60, drilling three field goals to stake the Seattle Seahawks to a 9-0 lead over the New England Patriots at Levi’s Stadium. He’s still almost certainly not winning MVP. That’s because no kicker in NFL history has ever won the Super Bowl’s most prestigious individual award, and the reasons go beyond statistics.
Quarterbacks have claimed the honor 34 times across 59 previous Super Bowls. Running backs, wide receivers, and even a return specialist (Desmond Howard, Super Bowl 31) have all broken through. A kicker? Never.
Adam Vinatieri Made the Case Better Than Anyone and Still Lost
If any kicker was going to win Super Bowl MVP, it should have been Adam Vinatieri. The man hit a 48-yard field goal as time expired to give the New England Patriots their first Super Bowl title over the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl 36. Two years later, he drilled a 41-yard kick with four seconds left to beat the Carolina Panthers 32-29 in Super Bowl 38. Both times, Tom Brady took home the trophy.
Vinatieri didn’t just kick field goals in those games. He was the deciding factor. The Hall of Fame voters eventually recognized his career for what it was. Vinatieri was announced as part of the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame class just days before Super Bowl 60, only the third pure placekicker ever enshrined in Canton.
The timing underscores the contradiction. The NFL’s all-time leading scorer, a four-time Super Bowl champion whose right foot literally launched a dynasty, couldn’t win the biggest individual prize on the biggest stage. If Vinatieri’s resume didn’t clear the bar, it’s fair to wonder whether the bar exists at all for kickers.
Matt Bahr’s 1990 postseason offers another case study in futility. He kicked five field goals, including a 42-yarder as time expired, to beat the two-time defending champion San Francisco 49ers 15-13 in the NFC Championship Game. A week later in Super Bowl 25, Bahr’s 21-yard field goal in the fourth quarter gave the New York Giants a 20-19 lead that held up as the game-winner. MVP went to running back Ottis Anderson.
MORE:Â Ranking the 5 Best Super Bowls of All-Time: Revisiting the Most Exciting Title Games in NFL History
Jake Elliott tied the single-game Super Bowl record with four field goals in last year’s Super Bowl 59, scoring a record 16 kicking points in the Eagles’ blowout of the Chiefs. The award went to Saquon Barkley.
What Jason Myers Is Building in Super Bowl 60
Myers’ three first-half field goals (33, 39, and 41 yards) represent all of the scoring in what has been a defensive slugfest. Kenneth Walker III dominated on the ground with 86 rushing yards by halftime, making him the early MVP frontrunner. But without Myers’ leg, those drives that stalled inside the Patriots’ 25 produce zero points.
The 34-year-old, who set the NFL record for most points in a season without a touchdown in 2025, needs one more field goal to tie Elliott, Harrison Butker, Ray Wersching, and Don Chandler for the most in a single Super Bowl. His teammates already know what he means to this team.
Right through the uprights. Jason Myers makes it 6-0.
Super Bowl LX on NBC
Stream on @NFLPlus + Peacock pic.twitter.com/XeiotNlYXz— NFL (@NFL) February 9, 2026
“We call him Money J for a reason,” Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu said earlier this season after Myers kicked six field goals to beat the Indianapolis Colts 18-16. “We know when the game’s on the line, we’ve got J’s leg, and he’ll win us the game.”
Cooper Kupp was equally direct. “It is 100 percent a luxury” to have Myers as a teammate, the receiver said.
For a kicker to win Super Bowl MVP, the game probably needs to end on his foot in a low-scoring contest where no other individual performance commands the narrative. Vinatieri’s Super Bowl 36 performance was exactly that scenario, and voters still chose Brady. The structural problem isn’t performance. It’s volume. Who touches the ball 60 times versus who touches it six.
Myers won’t beat those odds in Super Bowl 60, even if he finishes the night with five or six field goals. But the second half could give him a chapter in the same book Vinatieri, Bahr, and Elliott wrote before him. Clutch kicks on the biggest stage, remembered by everyone, rewarded with a trophy by no one.
