It’s one of the most unfair designations in the NFL: guys who win a Super Bowl ring are forever considered to be “winners,” despite whatever they did – or didn’t – accomplish on the field, and the guys who have resumes filled with everything but a Super Bowl ring get overlooked in such conversations.
Guys in the latter group – like Barry Sanders, Bruce Smith, and Randy Moss, among many other greats – probably loathe the guys you’re going to read about on this list. While 53 players on each roster get a Super Bowl ring, you gotta believe not all 53 are really deserving of it.
Here are the 20 worst players to win a Super Bowl ring since 2000:
Joe Germaine – St. Louis Rams (2000)
You want to know why saying “he’s a winner” is completely irrelevant when scouting college players’ chances of making it in the NFL? Look no further than Joe Germaine. The former star quarterback of the Ohio State Buckeyes, who led the team to a Rose Bowl win and was named the Big 10 Offensive Player in the Year in college, played a grand total of two seasons in the NFL.
Of course, the first one just so happened to in 1999, as a member of the “Greatest Shown On Turf” St. Louis Rams, orchestrated by Kurt Warner. He kept the pine warm for Warner while the latter was scorching the league, throwing only 16 attempts — two of which were intercepted — for the entirety of his NFL career. Even in this photo he is playing his back-up role very well.