Wednesday 11 January 2017 18:11, UK
Many players stood out as MVP candidates in 2016 and most of them now have the chance to go on to become only the 11th player in history to win regular season MVP and the Super Bowl in the same season.
Matt Ryan, Tom Brady and Ezekiel Elliott have all been touted as potenital winners of the award, which takes into account performances throughout the regular season.
But what does it take to come out on top as Super Bowl MVP in the big game itself? Let's recap on the best individual performances in the five most recent championship games.
The Giants pulled off a huge upset in Super Bowl 42 when Manning's MVP-winning performance led them to a 17-14 win over favourites New England Patriots in 2008, a year after his brother, Peyton Manning, had put in his own Super Bowl MVP performance for Indianapolis Colts.
Four years later, Eli threw for 296 yards with a pass completion rate of 75% to repeat the feat as the Giants defeated the Pats again, this time 21-17 in Indianapolis.
The quarterback was just shy of 5,000 yards in a surprisingly underwhelming regular season for the Giants - at 9-7, they broke the record for the poorest record by a Super Bowl champion - but his personal season was full of individual career records and that form continued into the Super Bowl.
He outperformed his counterpart Tom Brady, who had already won Super Bowl MVP twice, to match his achievements and surpass those of his brother in terms of individual performances in the big game.
The first Super Bowl to feature two teams with 100% records in the championship game, Baltimore (1-0) and San Francisco (5-0), was marred by a power cut in the third quarter, which almost halted the Ravens' momentum, but their quarterback was just too good for the 49ers defence in New Orleans.
Flacco had led the Ravens to the AFC North division title in the regular season and ultimately threw them to a second Super Bowl title in their short history with three touchdown passes in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
It was a fitting end to legendary linebacker Ray Lewis' career as Baltimore survived a second-half surge from San Francisco to win 34-31 and top off a solid season for Flacco and his teammates.
Malcolm Smith stopped a run of successive MVP titles being handed to quarterbacks at the Super Bowl with a remarkable performance as a Seahawks linebacker in 2014.
The top offence in the league, Denver Broncos, was supressed by Seattle, who, in fact, had the top defence in the league that season. The Seahawks ran out 43-8 winners in a virtuoso display, but Smith nicked the game MVP title from his quarterback, Russell Wilson, with a few moments of magic.
He intercepted a Peyton Manning pass for 69 yards for a touchdown and put in a strong defensive shift with nine tackles to take the game to the Broncos, becoming the first non-quarterback Super Bowl MVP since 2009 in the process.
After two defeats in their last two Super Bowl appearances, the Patriots defeated reigning champions Seattle to win the fourth NFL championship in their franchise history.
Tom Brady secured a hat-trick of Super Bowl MVP accolades 13 years after his first as a 24-year-old whippersnapper.
The game itself is perhaps better remembered for Pete Carroll's baffling decision to call a pass instead of a rush with Seattle down 28-24 at the one-yard line with 00:26 on the clock, but there is no denying how integral Brady was to the Patriots' success.
He set the record for the championship game by completing 37 passes out of 50 attempts for four touchdowns and two interceptions. There is a reason he is one of the NFL's all-time greatest players.
The Broncos hadn't won a 21st century Super Bowl before 2016, having lost to Malcolm Smith's Seahawks two years prior, so linebacker Von Miller and co had something to prove in California.
Levi's Stadium set a sunny scene for Super Bowl 50 as Carolina Panthers sought their first ever championship, but this was to be Denver's day.
Despite finishing the season with a 15-1 record, the league-leading offence of the Panthers couldn't do much about Miller and his teammates. He was the epicentre of a defensive earthquake and handed a victorious send-off to his quarterback, Peyton Manning, who retired after the Broncos' third Super Bowl triumph.
Miller kept quarterback Cam Newton under wraps for much of the game, totalling six tackles and 2.5 sacks to win MVP.
Follow the road to Super Bowl 51 with Sky Sports to see who is in the running for big-game MVP this season.
