Super Bowl MVP Voting Explained

The one thing even more prestigious than being part of a Super Bowl-winning team is taking home Super Bowl MVP honors after a job well done.

More often than not, it's the winning quarterback who collects the hardware, but each year, one player separates themselves from the rest. While upwards of 60 players see the field each Super Bowl, there's always someone whose performance has the most obvious impact on the game. The vote might seem like a popularity contest every season because the fans appear to be in control, but it's really far from that.

Super Bowl 54 MVP Voting

There are two components to the MVP voting process: the fans and the media. The fan results make up just 20% of the vote, while select media members present at the game account for the other 80%.

At the start of the fourth quarter, an online vote opens up on the NFL and Super Bowl's website, and fans have until the end of the game to make their selections. The fan vote doesn't count for nearly as much as the media's assessment, of course, to avoid making things a popularity contest (additionally, some fans place their vote long before the game is over).

The voting process works the same for the media in the press box, except they have the option to change their selection, in case a big moment occurs down the stretch. In reality, though, they'd have more on their mind than changing their MVP vote after a big play in the final minutes of a Super Bowl that they're working, of course.

Last season's MVP vote is a great reason why the system is at least somewhat broken. In a 13-3 Patriots win with a lot of votes coming when the game was tied 3-3, you'd expect it to be a defensive player coming home with the honors? Yet, somehow, it was receiver Julian Edelman who won the award, because he was the only player with any sort of eye-catching stats (10 catches, 141 yards, no touchdowns).

Rookie running back Sony Michel, defensive back Stephon Gilmore and other deserving Patriots missed out on a special honor because their names don't carry the same weight as Edelman's. Aside from maybe Patrick Mahomes, this year's Super Bowl matchup doesn't create that issue, but an offensive player winning MVP in a low-scoring game certainly would.