Although most of the nation found itself rooting for the Cincinnati Bengals on Super Bowl Sunday, much of Broncos Country found itself loyal to the Rams because of one player — Von Miller.
Miller, who won Super Bowl MVP for the Broncos thanks to a performance that featured 2.5 sacks and two fumbles forced, had yet another remarkable showing in the second Super Bowl appearance of his career. Miller tallied two sacks, which weighed heavy on the outcome of this close game, and gave him 4.5 sacks across the two Super Bowls.
That total is good enough to tie him with Charles Haley for the most in Super Bowl history, but where it took Haley five Super Bowls to reach that number (.9 sacks per appearance), it only took Miller two (2.25 sacks per appearance). That’s the highest sack rate of any player in NFL history to have appeared in multiple Super Bowls, and the fourth-best rate among all players to appear in a Super Bowl (trailing only Grady Jarrett, Kony Ealy, and Darnell Dockett).
The memory of Broncos legend and close personal friend Demaryius Thomas fueled Miller towards yet another historic Super Bowl performance, he said after the game.
“I don’t think I’ve ever played for more in my career. I was playing for D.T.; he passed away suddenly in December,” Miller told the media. “I was playing for my son; he was born in August. I was playing for [sports psychologist] Trevor Moawad; he passed away after the very first game of the season.
“Playing for all of my teammates here—so many hard-working, so many talented guys, so many guys on my team that were deserving of this moment—and it feels good to give it to them,” Miller continued. “It feels good to give it to Aaron Donald, Andrew Whitworth, Jalen Ramsey, all of these guys that have been working their whole careers to get to this point.”
#Rams @VonMiller on who he was playing for, including his good friend Demaryius Thomas #Broncos #Denver7 pic.twitter.com/UhJXDIOoES
— Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) February 14, 2022
Many in Broncos Country will be hoping that Miller’s tremendous impact will be returning to Denver this offseason, as he’s set to enter free agency.