The 10 best players in NFL history to never win a Super Bowl

For all the love showered upon Tom Brady for his accomplishments, it’s easy to forget NFL history is littered with greatness that never made it to the top.

The list of all-time players who didn’t win a Super Bowl is far large than the one of those that did. That’s why the Lombardi trophy is so coveted. Simply getting to that game is hard. Winning it is even harder. This leads to a rather fascinating question. Out of the many notable names over the past 50 years, who are the best of the best to never win a ring?

Before getting into this, there is one set of criteria that is important to not. Only players who played the majority (at least 75%) of their careers in the Super Bowl era are eligible for this list. Players who spent one or two years at the very beginning of that time period towards the end of their careers don’t count.

10. Philip Rivers (Los Angeles Chargers)

Think of it like this. In NFL history, only nine quarterbacks have ever thrown for over 50,000 yards in their career. Of those nine, seven of them won a Super Bowl championship. The only two who failed are on this list and Philip Rivers is one of them. It’s such a shame too because he has been such a constant for an organization that frankly doesn’t deserve him. The Chargers have done a poor job building around him for over a decade.

Sure they’ve provided the occasional good weapons but routinely his offensive line is average at best and when was the last great defense he had? One could argue the best team he was ever on was back in 2006 when he was in just his third season. That year pretty much set the tone for his career: being unable to get past the New England Patriots. Of his six postseason trips, three of them ended at the hands of them.

For a guy with seven Pro Bowls and a career passer rating of 95.6? That has to be hard to stomach.