Peyton Manning and Joe Montana: the Super Bowl résumé behind the Super Bowl LX spotlight

Super Bowl LX on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, is set to open with a coin toss featuring two of the most decorated quarterbacks the game has produced: Peyton Manning and Joe Montana. Their presence is more than nostalgia. Between them, they represent two different blueprints for Super Bowl success—Montana’s near-mythic perfection on the biggest stage and Manning’s long-arc career defined by persistence, reinvention, and two title runs with different teams.

With the Seahawks and Patriots preparing for a 6:30 p.m. ET kickoff in Santa Clara, the ceremony moment puts a clean, simple question back into focus: what did these two legends actually do in the Super Bowl, and why do their records still matter?

Joe Montana’s Super Bowl record: 4-0 and built for the moment

Montana’s Super Bowl legacy starts with the number that still defines him: four appearances, four wins. As the quarterback of San Francisco’s dynasty, he won Super Bowls XVI, XIX, XXIII, and XXIV, finishing his Super Bowl career undefeated.

What makes the résumé stand out is not just the rings but the performance profile. Montana threw no interceptions in his Super Bowl appearances, a stat that underlines the reputation that earned him the “Joe Cool” nickname. In an era with less quarterback protection and more defensive latitude, he played the biggest games with unusual calm, often looking more comfortable as the stakes climbed.

His dominance is reflected in the hardware: Montana won three Super Bowl MVP awards (XVI, XIX, and XXIV). Few accomplishments capture big-game control like that—multiple title nights where he wasn’t just good enough to win, but clearly the engine of the victory.

Peyton Manning’s Super Bowls: two titles, two teams, two chapters

Manning’s Super Bowl story reads differently. It’s not a perfect record; it’s a narrative of returning to the top across eras of his career.

He won his first championship in Super Bowl XLI with Indianapolis, earning Super Bowl MVP honors in that victory. It was the culmination of years of expectations and near-misses—an answer to questions about whether his regular-season brilliance would translate cleanly into the postseason.

Nearly a decade later, he won again in Super Bowl 50 with Denver. That title came at the end of his career, with a team identity that leaned heavily on defense and situational execution. The contrast between the two championships is part of what makes Manning’s résumé distinctive: he experienced the Super Bowl both as a statistical centerpiece and as the veteran quarterback steering a roster built to win in multiple ways.

The bottom line is simple: two Super Bowl wins, one with each franchise, spanning the prime and the twilight of a Hall of Fame career.

MVPs, signatures, and the way each quarterback won

When people debate Montana vs. Manning, they’re often debating two different kinds of greatness.

Montana’s Super Bowl signature is clean efficiency under pressure—the kind of quarterbacking that keeps the opponent from ever getting a free possession. His awards and undefeated record reinforce the idea that, when the game was biggest, his margin for error was the smallest.

Manning’s Super Bowl signature is endurance and adaptation. His path to the podium was longer and more jagged, but that’s also why it resonates: he returned to the Super Bowl in different circumstances and found ways to win even as the league and his own physical tools changed.

Put another way, Montana’s legacy is the standard of peak performance; Manning’s is the standard of sustained excellence that still finds a way to finish.

Why they’re featured at Super Bowl LX

Super Bowl LX is the 60th edition of the game, and the league has leaned into anniversary symbolism throughout the weekend. Bringing Manning and Montana to midfield for the coin toss is a way to tie the event to iconic Super Bowl eras without turning the ceremony into a history lecture.

It’s also an on-the-nose reminder of what the Seahawks and Patriots quarterbacks are chasing Sunday night: a moment that turns a career into something permanent. In the Super Bowl, a single drive, a single throw, or a single mistake can outlive everything else. Montana and Manning are on the short list of quarterbacks whose Super Bowl nights still shape the way fans talk about them.

The quick Super Bowl tally

Here’s the clean scoreboard version of their Super Bowl résumés:

• Joe Montana: 4 Super Bowl wins (4-0), 3 Super Bowl MVPs

• Peyton Manning: 2 Super Bowl wins, 1 Super Bowl MVP

As the ceremony unfolds before kickoff Sunday, those numbers explain the choice. They also explain the appeal: two different routes to the same destination—winning on the sport’s largest stage.

Sources consulted: NFL, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Reuters, ESPN