The top accolades in college football are the Heisman Trophy and the National Championship. Then, in the pros, it’s all about winning the Super Bowl. Over 25,000 players have made it through the college football ranks and into the NFL, but as of the morning of February 9, only four had completed football’s Holy Trinity—winning a Heisman, a National Championship, and a Super Bowl. Philadelphia Eagles WR DeVonta Smith just made it five.
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Smith’s triumph in Super Bowl 59 places him in one of the most exclusive groups in football history. He now joins just four other players who have achieved the same level of team and individual success across two levels of the sport in nearly six decades of the Super Bowl era.
Smith is the first to accomplish the feat in 15 years and only the third to do so since the turn of the century. The full list (Super Bowl season in brackets):
- Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett (1977)
- Los Angeles Raiders Hall of Fame running back Marcus Allen (1983)
- Oakland Raiders/Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame defensive back Charles Woodson (2010)
- New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush (2009)
- Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith (2024)
DeVonta Smith became just the 5th player in history to win the Heisman, National Championship, and Super Bowl 🏆
📸: @alabamaftbl, @cooperneill, AP pic.twitter.com/GT3p43ENdu
— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025
Smith burst onto the scene with the game-winning TD as a freshman for Alabama in the 2017 National Championship. Three years later, he won another Natty, this time pairing it with the 2020 Heisman Trophy. Now, after leading the Eagles with 69 yards and a TD on four receptions in their 40-22 statement win in Super Bowl LIX, he’s got that elusive Lombardi Trophy to make the trifecta.
DeVonta Smith joins a list with a bit of controversy
It only took a dozen Super Bowls for someone to accomplish the Heisman-Natty-Lombardi trifecta. That person was Tony Dorsett. The Western Pennsylvania native has about as interesting a football story as you’ll hear.
A Pittsburgh area native who won a National Championship and Heisman Trophy with the Pittsburgh Panthers in 1976, he was then drafted by the Steelers’ greatest rivals of the 1970s (Cowboys) and promptly won a Super Bowl with them in his rookie year (1977). Dorsett was part of the Cowboys team that lost to his hometown Steelers the next year in Super Bowl 13. He remains 10th all-time in rushing (12,739).
Just a few years later, USC standout and Raiders phenom Marcus Allen followed suit. Like DeVonta Smith, Allen won his Natty as a freshman. After a 2,300+ yard 22-touchdown senior year, Allen earned the second link with his Heisman. In his 2nd NFL season, Allen completed the trilogy by leading the Raiders to the Super Bowl.
"…on came Marcus Allen, running with the night."
His majestic 74-yard #Raiders touchdown as described by four voices: John Facenda, Bill King, Pat Summerall, and John Madden
Super Bowl XVIII
January 22, 1984 pic.twitter.com/L5OaqnnIBl— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) January 22, 2025
Not only did he win a ring, but he also won Super Bowl MVP and produced one of the greatest moments in Super Bowl history. His epic field-reversing 74-yard TD run remains a sight to behold. Along with his place in this decorated fivesome, Allen is also the only player to win all three honors plus the NFL MVP award (or the Super Bowl MVP), which he claimed in 1985 after racking up 1,759 rushing yards and 555 receiving yards.
It took nearly three decades before another player joined the club. Once again, it was a USC running back doing the honors. This time, it was the electric Reggie Bush, who won Nattys in 2003 and 2004 before taking home the Heisman in 2005. Those honors were stripped from him for a time, but have since (rightly) been reinstated. You really had to see this guy run at USC, man.
Bush had an excellent rookie year in the NFL, but his game never fully translated. Still, he was an excellent triple threat (rushing, receiving, returning) who was a key piece in the Saints’ Super Bowl XLIV victory following the 2009 season.
The next year, Charles Woodson became the first defensive player to enter the fold. A return and coverage maven at Michigan, Woodson earned the National Championship-Heisman double in 1997. However, he had to wait longer than any of the other five to complete his trifecta, not earning his Super Bowl ring until the 2010 season as a 13-year veteran.
15 years later, DeVonta Smith made that quartet a quintet in the most emphatic way possible. His 46-yard touchdown catch in the 3rd quarter to make it 34-zip was pretty much the nail in the coffin. His 16 receptions for 190 yards in the playoffs overall were both second on the team.
With a Super Bowl ring on the way and a freshly-signed three-year $75 million extension kicking in soon on top of the fact that he just joined this elite fivesome, DeVonta Smith must be somewhere even higher than Cloud 9 right now. No doubt he’ll come back down for a Philly parade that can’t possibly disappoint on Friday, February 14, though.
