Super Bowl XI regular season record before defeating the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs. The Vikings were making their fourth Super Bowl appearance after posting an 11–2–1 regular season record and playoff victories over the Washington Redskins and the Los Angeles Rams. The Vikings became the first team to appear in four Super Bowls, a record they held until the Dallas Cowboys advanced to a Super Bowl for the fifth time in Super Bowl XIII. They had not won in their previous three attempts, losing Super Bowl IV to the Kansas City Chiefs in the final Super Bowl
Super Bowl XIII Super Bowl victories. With this start, Staubach became the first quarterback to start four Super Bowls. Bradshaw joined Fran Tarkenton, Bob Griese as well as Staubach as the only quarterbacks to start at least three Super Bowls. The only quarterbacks to start more Super Bowls than Staubach and Bradshaw are John Elway and Tom Brady, who guided the Broncos and Patriots to five and seven Super Bowls respectively. 49ers quarterback Joe Montana and Bills quarterback Jim Kelly later matched Staubach and Bradshaw by leading their teams to four Super Bowls. The point spread for the game opened at Pittsburgh -3.5