Super Bowl XXXV teams were named Lewis. Linebacker Ray Lewis, a native of Lakeland, Florida, less than an hour from Super Bowl host city Tampa, who made 3 solo tackles, 2 assists, and blocked 4 passes, became the second linebacker to be named Super Bowl MVP after Chuck Howley in Super Bowl V. Lewis also became the first defensive player to be honored since Larry Brown in Super Bowl XXX, and at the time the seventh defensive player to be Super Bowl MVP, joining Howley, Jake Scott, Harvey Martin, Randy White, Richard Dent, and Brown (since Lewis, only three additional defensive players have
Super Bowl XVI to date between two teams who had losing records the previous season, although Super Bowl XXXIV matched a team that had a losing record in 1998 (St. Louis Rams) against a team that finished a mediocre 8–8 that year (Tennessee Titans). This is the only Super Bowl to have ever been played at the Pontiac Silverdome. This was also only the second of 16 Super Bowls to not take place in one of the three so-called "Big Super Bowl Cities" (the other was Houston in January 1974). Fourteen of the previous 16 Super Bowls took place in either Miami, Florida,