We’ve seen the elite company Dak Prescott has joined in only his first season as an NFL quarterback; as a rookie, he tied Ben Roethlisberger for the most wins by a rookie quarterback in a season with 13. Roethlisberger, by the way, has won two Super Bowls and has been a perennial playoff quarterback.
Prescott’s quarterback rating ranked him third in the NFL in 2016. Behind only Matt Ryan and future NFL Hall of Famer Tom Brady, and ahead of future NFL Hall of Famers Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers. It’s safe to say that Prescott is already in elite company after just one season.
What you may not know is that Dak Prescott is in Super Bowl company. For one simple reason: His Name.
What’s in a Name?
I know I’m entering into R.J. Ochoa territory with this one, however, since he is the math guy, I’ll try to be the grammar guy.
In looking back at all of the past Super Bowl winning quarterbacks I found something very interesting. Of the 51 Super Bowls that have been played, 38 (74.5%) times a Super Bowl has been won by a player with one syllable in their first name.
Here are the guys with one-syllable names that have won Super Bowls:
Of the 51 Super Bowls only 31 different quarterbacks have won Super Bowls. Of those 31 quarterbacks, 24 (77.4%) are quarterbacks with one syllable first names. In fact, from Super Bowl XV to Super Bowl XL, there was a 26-year run where only quarterbacks with one syllable in their first name won the Super Bowl.
Sounds like it pays to have a first name that is short and sweet.
Two-syllable first-named quarterbacks only account for 13 (25.5%) Super Bowl titles. Only seven different guys with two-syllable first names have one Super Bowls.
Here are the two-syllable Super Bowl winning QBs:
What about the Last Name?
Dak Prescott’s last name also seems to have some syllabic significance as well.
Quarterbacks with two syllable last names in the Super Bowl era have won the Championship game 37 times, or 72.5% of the time.Those 37 Super Bowls belong to 20 different quarterbacks with two-syllable last names.
Not only has this group of two-syllable quarterbacks won a lot of championships, but nine of them have won multiple championships.
That leaves only 14 Super Bowl titles to go to the one and three or more syllable names.
Best of Both Syllabic Worlds
But what’s the percentage of one-syllable first name and two-syllable last name quarterbacks to have won a Super Bowl? 49%.
Fifteen quarterbacks whose first names have one syllable and last names have two syllables have combined to win 25 Super Bowls. It’s far and away the highest number of all the possible syllable combinations.
One of those names is very familiar to us; Troy Aikman. His three Super Bowls are the second most for any one and two-syllable combination quarterback, second to Tom Brady’s five.
Of the group that Dak Prescott could join with a Super Bowl win, five of the 15 have won multiple Super Bowls.
Which Combination is Next?
The next best first name/last name syllable combination is: two and two. That list includes; Roger Staubach, Terry Bradshaw, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Russell Wilson.
They’ve combined to win 11 of the 51 Super Bowls played.
What does it all mean?
Well, if you are a superstitious person, then it means that Dak Prescott is going to win a Super Bowl and possibly multiple Super Bowls. If you are only a little “stitious”, then you probably think this gives him a better chance, but he has to prove it on the field.
If you don’t believe in superstition, then you probably feel like you wasted your time reading this article, and for that I apologize. It’s for fun anyway.
What is certain is that Dak Prescott has the game to go with the name.
In his first season as an NFL quarterback, he had his team a few plays away from the NFC Championship game. With a rookie quarterback that is all you can ask. Now we look forward to him taking the next step: leading this team to the next rung of contention.
