Today’s title gives a pretty good hint as to what today’s post is about. The table below shows the career Approximate Value for the top 50 players whose last game happened to be a Super Bowl victory. For reference, I’ve also includes things like number of games, Pro Bowls, 1st-team All-Pro selections, and number of seasons starting.

In addition to Lewis, Matt Birk of the Ravens also joins the list, and for the heck of it, I’ve included Anquan Boldin, who has hinted that he might retire. Full disclosure: I defined a player as “retiring after winning the Super Bowl” if his last season came during a year in which he played for the eventual Super Bowl champ. So Wes Chandler, who played for the ’88 49ers but retired in mid-season, is included in this list even though he shouldn’t be. Ditto Michael Dean Perry, who was on the Broncos in 1997 but actually finished the season with the Chiefs. I could filter out all the Chandlers and Perrys of the world, but my time is better spent elsewhere (for that matter, just about every person’s time is better spent elsewhere), and therefore I’ll present the full, overinclusive list instead of spending an extra hour of time fixing it and possibly not presenting it at all.

The table is sorted by the Career AV column; the AV column shows the player’s AV in his final season.

Rk	Name	Year	Team	Pos	AV	CarAV	G	Pro Bowl	1AP	SeaSt
1	Ray Lewis	2012	BAL	ILB	4	159	228	13	7	14
2	John Elway	1998	DEN	QB	14	138	234	9	0	16
3	Ted Hendricks	1983	RAI	OLB	10	122	215	8	4	14
4	Michael Strahan	2007	NYG	DE	8	121	216	7	4	14
5	Mel Renfro	1977	DAL	CB-S	1	106	174	10	1	13
6	Gary Zimmerman	1997	DEN	T	9	99	184	7	3	12
7	Forrest Gregg	1971	DAL	T-G	1	96	193	9	7	11
8	Lomas Brown	2002	TAM	T	1	93	263	7	1	17
9	Ralph Neely	1977	DAL	T	9	92	172	2	3	12
10	Seth Joyner	1998	DEN	OLB	1	86	195	3	0	11
11	Jack Reynolds	1984	SFO	ILB	7	84	198	2	0	11
12	Michael Dean Perry	1997	DEN	DT	4	83	148	6	2	9
13	Tarik Glenn	2006	IND	T	14	82	154	3	0	10
14	Wes Chandler	1988	SFO	WR	0	80	150	4	1	9
15	Jerome Bettis	2005	PIT	RB	3	80	192	6	2	12
16	Charles Mann	1994	SFO	DE	2	78	177	4	0	10
17	Billy Ray Smith	1970	BAL	DT-DE	9	78	166	0	0	11
18	Jimmy Orr	1970	BAL	WR	2	77	149	2	1	10
19	Randy Cross	1988	SFO	G-C	7	77	185	3	0	13
20	Chris McAlister	2009	NOR	CB	0	73	137	3	1	9
21	Anquan Boldin	2012	BAL	WR	9	71	140	3	0	10
22	Rich Caster	1982	WAS	TE-WR	0	71	161	3	0	8
23	Max McGee	1967	GNB	WR	0	70	148	1	0	9
24	Matt Birk	2012	BAL	C	6	70	210	6	0	12
25	Sean Jones	1996	GNB	DE	10	67	201	1	0	9
26	Matt Millen	1991	WAS	ILB	7	67	180	1	0	12
27	Jim Dunaway	1972	MIA	DT	4	66	132	4	1	9
28	Larry Centers	2003	NWE	FB	2	66	198	3	0	8
29	Russ Grimm	1991	WAS	G	2	63	140	4	3	9
30	Joe Lavender	1982	WAS	CB	2	62	139	2	0	9
31	Curtis McClinton	1969	KAN	FB	1	61	107	3	0	5
32	Anthony Pleasant	2003	NWE	DE-DT	1	61	202	0	0	11
33	Kareem McKenzie	2011	NYG	T	8	61	161	0	0	10
34	Deon Grant	2011	NYG	S	4	60	176	0	0	10
35	Bob Talamini	1968	NYJ	G	7	59	126	6	3	9
36	Johnny Sample	1968	NYJ	CB-S	9	58	125	0	0	7
37	Jim McMahon	1996	GNB	QB	0	57	120	1	0	9
38	Keith Jackson	1996	GNB	TE	8	57	129	5	3	7
39	Ricky Proehl	2006	IND	WR	0	57	244	0	0	6
40	Jay Novacek	1995	DAL	TE	11	57	158	5	1	6
41	Ben Coates	2000	BAL	TE	2	56	158	5	2	7
42	Mark Tauscher	2010	GNB	T	2	55	134	0	0	9
43	Gerald Riggs	1991	WAS	RB	2	55	129	3	0	5
44	Fuzzy Thurston	1967	GNB	G	1	55	116	0	1	7
45	Orpheus Roye	2008	PIT	DE-DT	1	55	180	0	0	8
46	Louie Kelcher	1984	SFO	DT	1	54	116	3	1	7
47	Ken Ruettgers	1996	GNB	T	1	54	156	0	0	9
48	Jeff Christy	2002	TAM	C	5	53	148	3	0	9
49	Paul Hornung	1966	GNB	RB	4	52	104	2	2	9
50	Tim McKyer	1997	DEN	CB	1	50	170	0	0	7

It’s hard to top John Elway for going out on a high note, but I think Ray Lewis did just that.