Super Bowl XVIII

The Raiders' last Super Bowl win, a dominant 38–9 victory over the Redskins at Tampa Stadium.

Super Bowl XVIII was an American football game played on January 22, 1984, at Tampa Stadium between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion and defending Super Bowl XVII champion Washington Redskins and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Los Angeles Raiders to determine the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1983 season. The Raiders defeated the Redskins, 38–9.

Quick Facts

Location: Tampa Stadium

Lore & Background

The Raiders dominated Super Bowl XVIII outgaining the Redskins in total yards, 385 to 283, and built a 21–3 halftime lead, aided by touchdowns on Derrick Jensen's blocked punt recovery, and Jack Squirek's 5-yard interception return on a screen pass with seven seconds left in the first half. This is also the second out of five Super Bowls where the winning team outscored the losing team in every quarter. Los Angeles' defense also sacked Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann six times and intercepted him twice.

Raiders halfback Marcus Allen, who became the third Heisman Trophy winner to be named the Super Bowl MVP, carried the ball 20 times for a then-record total of 191 yards and two touchdowns, including a then-record 74-yard run in the third quarter. He also caught 2 passes for 18 yards. Allen was the first running back who was a halfback to be named Most Valuable Player. All previous running backs who won the MVP were fullbacks.

Reader's Guide

The NFL awarded Super Bowl XVIII to Tampa on June 3, 1981, at the owners' meetings in Detroit. This was the first time Tampa hosted the game, and it was the first Super Bowl to be played in Florida in a city other than Miami. Tampa Stadium won the rights to host the game in a landslide, earning 24 out of the 26 votes. As of the 2025 season, this is the Raiders' most recent Super Bowl championship, and it was also the only time that a Los Angeles–based team had won the Super Bowl until their then cross-town rival Los Angeles Rams won Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California in 2022.

Did You Know?

The Raiders' 38 points scored and 29-point margin of victory broke Super Bowl records; it remains the most points scored by an AFC team in a Super Bowl, later matched by the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.
This is the first time the city of Tampa hosted the Super Bowl and was the AFC's last Super Bowl win until Super Bowl XXXII in 1998, won by the Denver Broncos.
The telecast of the game on CBS was seen by an estimated 77.62 million viewers. The broadcast was notable for airing the famous '1984' television commercial, introducing the Apple Macintosh.
The NFL highlight film of this game was the final voiceover work for famous NFL narrator John Facenda.