Why do MVP players who win the Super Bowl go to Disney the next day after?

Somehow, I never noticed that this was a tradition until this year.

And I only noticed it because my beloved Rams won the Super Bowl last year, sending Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and Aaron Donald to Disneyland with their families the day after their victory. Then this year we noticed Mahomes strolling down Main Street and the “aha!” moment happened for me.

Who started it?

It started in 1987. The year I was born.

Which makes this tradition 36 years old.

Every year since 1987, we’ve been watching the famous “what’s next” commercial.

So who first said, “I’m going to Disneyland/Disney World?” It was the New York Giants quarterback, Phil Simms after he was selected as the MVP of Super Bowl XXI. That year the Giants beat the Denver Broncos 39-20, and Simms yelled out “I’m going to go to Disney World!”

This phrase became the formulaic advertisement that we now hear year after year for almost forty years.

Follow the Money

Over dinner, the CEO of Disney and his wife met with two aviators who were world travelers. Jane Breckinridge asked the two pilots where they were going next and they said, “We’re going to Disney World.”

From that innocent conversation sprang the concept that would establish this annual tradition. Walt Disney met up with organizers of the NFL, and they together decided that the MVP would say the catchphrase post-game.

For saying this one sentence, can you guess how much that player makes?

The MVP is said to earn somewhere between 30 and 50 thousand dollars just for saying this phrase.

It’s not like any player needs that money, but whatever. I’d say it if I just won the Super Bowl too. Why not?

Unfortunately for me though, and likely anyone reading this, if we want to go to Disneyland or Disney World we will have to fork up a few thousand dollars of hard-earned money just to visit. And we won’t get to cut in line.