The competition is always fierce in the NFL. Everyone who plays in the NFL wants to win a Super Bowl and hoist the Lombardi Trophy. But not everyone is lucky enough to get to a Super Bowl.
These 10 athletes were oh so close to being part of a Super Bowl-winning team as well as getting a chance to taste victory on the NFL’s biggest stage. All active players are excluded from this list because they still have time to win a Super Bowl.
Edgerrin James
Edgerrin James was the star Pro Bowl running back for the Indianapolis Colts from 1999 to 2005. During his time in Indy, he earned four Pro Bowl appearances, two second-team all-pros, and a first-team all-pro, to name a few of his accolades, during his time as a Colt. In 2005, James’ Colts had the number one seed, the best record in the NFL (14-2 record), and hosted the six-seeded Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers ultimately won the contest (and eventually won the Super Bowl that season) off a missed Mike Vanderjagt field goal. The Colts released James during the offseason where he signed a four-year $30 million deal with the Arizona Cardinals. The 2006 Colts led by Peyton Manning eventually won Super Bowl 41 that year.
James would help lead the Cardinals to Super Bowl 43 before losing the game to the Pittsburgh Steelers. James would then sign a one-year $2 million deal with the Seattle Seahawks before permanently hanging up his cleats in 2011. The silver lining to this story is Jim Irsay gave James a Super Bowl 41 ring for all that he accomplished as a member of the Colts. That act was a very standup thing to do Mr. Irsay!
Bruce Armstrong
Armstrong was a six-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle for the pre-Tom Brady era New England Patriots. He earned New England Patriots All 1980s and 1990s decade team honors during his time in Foxborough, MA. During the 1996 season, Armstrong helped lead the Patriots to Super Bowl 31 before ultimately losing to Desmond Howard’s and Brett Favre’s Green Bay Packers. Armstrong retired from football after the 2000 season.
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However, during the 2001 season, a young Tom Brady came off the bench for an injured Drew Bledsoe and helped lead the Patriots to their first of six Super Bowl Championships against Kurt Warner and the Greatest Show on Turf- St. Louis Rams.
Reidel Anthony
Anthony was one of the Buccaneer’s main wide receivers during the late 1990s to early 2000s. During his career in Tampa, Anthony scored 16 touchdowns. Unfortunately, during the 2001 season, Anthony didn’t haul in any touchdowns, but he did help get the Bucs into the playoffs where they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. The following season, the Bucs led by newly acquired coach Jon Gruden would win Super Bowl 37 against the Oakland Raiders.
Tiki Barber
Barber was the New York Giants’ star running back in the late ’90s and the 2000s. Barber helped the 2000 Giants reach Super Bowl 35 where they were demolished by Ray Lewis and Baltimore Ravens fierce defense. Barber appeared in three Pro Bowls from 2004 to 2006, ultimately retiring after the 2006 season. During the following year, the Giants ended up winning Super Bowl 42 against the undefeated New England Patriots. Barber covered the game and was criticized heavily by both fans and former teammates of his.
Wes Welker
One of the more unlucky stars on this list, Welker became a Pro Bowl star during his time with the New England Patriots and helped them reach Super Bowls 42 and 46 where they would fall to the New York Giants in both games. During the 2013 season, Welker jumped ship and joined Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos. Welker and the Broncos’ elite offense led the team to Super Bowl 48 before getting manhandled by the Legion of Boom Seattle Seahawks.
Welker was released from the Broncos in 2015 and ended up signing a one-year deal with the St. Louis Rams and ended up retiring from football as a player in 2017. During the 2015 season, the Broncos led by the No-Fly Zone defense ended up winning Super Bowl 50 against Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. Welker is currently a wide receivers coach for the Miami Dolphins, so he still has time to capture his illustrious Super Bowl ring as a coach helping the next generation of wide receivers.
Ricky Williams
Williams was a star for the Texas Longhorns during his collegiate years. He won the Heisman Trophy during his senior year. Williams would get drafted by the then desperate New Orleans Saints where he ended up not producing much in the Big Easy. Williams would rebound and become a star during his time in South Beach with the Miami Dolphins before getting suspended by the NFL for violating its drug policy. Williams would play one season for the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts before returning to the Dolphins in 2007. A few seasons later, Williams would sign a two-year $2.5 million deal with the Baltimore Ravens as a veteran backup to Ray Rice.
Williams would help the Ravens reach the AFC Championship game where they would lose on a missed field goal to the New England Patriots. Williams hung up his cleats in 2012, the same year the Ravens would reach and win Super Bowl 47. A bit of poetic irony to this tale is that Willams was at the game as a photographer on the sidelines.
Billy Cundiff
Staying on the Ravens is former placekicker Billy Cundiff. His NFL career spanned from 2002 until 2015. Cundiff played for the Ravens from 2009 until 2011. He earned one Pro Bowl appearance back in 2010. During the 2011 season, just like Ricky Williams, he helped the Ravens reach the AFC Championship game where they ended up falling to the New England Patriots on a missed field goal.
Cundiff was released and replaced with then undrafted rookie Justin Tucker the following season where he ended up winning Super Bowl 47 with the Ravens and becoming one of the NFL’s most accurate kickers in the league. Cundiff ended up finishing his career with the Buffalo Bills in 2015.
Leon Washington
Washington was a star running back for the New York Jets and Seattle Seahawks as well as having brief stops with the New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans. During the 2009 season, Washington helped the Rex Ryan coached New York Jets to the AFC Championship game before getting defeated by Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. Washington would join the young and upcoming Seattle Seahawks where the Seahawks defeated the defending Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints in the playoffs.
After the 2012 season, Washington signed with the Patriots until he was released and picked up by the Titans via waivers. That same season, the Seattle Seahawks led by the Legion of Boom won Super Bowl 48 in blowout fashion against Peyton Manning and the Broncos. Washington played for one more season in 2014 with the Titans before getting released in 2015. Washington is currently a special teams coach for the New York Jets. Just like Welker, there is a possibility he can earn a Super Bowl ring as a coach.
Ahman Green
Green is a former Pro Bowl running back for the Green Bay Packers from 2000 to 2006 and for one last season in 2009. Green also played for the Seattle Seahawks (the team that drafted him), and the Houston Texans. Green helped the Pack reach the Wildcard round of the playoffs in 2009 where the Packers ended up falling to the defending NFC runner-up Arizona Cardinals.
Green was released by Green Bay and played for the United Football League’s Omaha Nighthawks in 2010 and joined the Montreal Alouettes in 2011 for a tryout deal before getting released in June of that year. Green hung up his cleats in 2012. After his release from Green Bay, the Packers ended up winning Super Bowl 45 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Eric Berry
This one hurts the most. Berry was one of the game’s best safeties for his entire nine-season career with the Kansas City Chiefs. Not only was he a five-time Pro Bowler, but he was the 2015 Comeback Player of the Year for defeating Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. Even though his action was limited in 2018 due to recovering from an Achilles injury, he still managed to help the Chiefs reach the AFC title game that season before they lost to the eventual Super Bowl 53 New England Patriots in overtime.
Berry ended up getting released by the Chiefs in the 2019 offseason and hanging up his cleats the same year. The Chiefs ended up winning Super Bowl 54 the same season against the San Francisco 49ers. Does the Hunt Family have a Super Bowl ring saved for Berry for all he accomplished with the Chiefs similar to the standup act Jim Irsay displayed when he gave Edgerrin James a Super Bowl ring for all he accomplished with the Colts?
