See how the LA Rams came from behind to claim Super Bowl LVI

One of world sport’s biggest events is upon us, with the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams locking horns in California for Super Bowl LVI. Join The Roar for live scores and all the action from SoFi Stadium from 10am (AEDT).

America, as you may be aware, with the greatest respect to their eclectic mix of world citizens, is a crazy big bastard.

And the Super Bowl, the LVIth iteration of which kicks off today, is peak crazy big bastard.

Consider this: pre-match vision will see players alighting from team buses dressed like young pimps on prom night. It’s like they’ve been dressed by Lady Gaga if Lady Gaga didn’t like them.

The over-under market – what we call the ‘line’ – on how many commercials a dog will appear in is 6.5. The fee for both dog-free and dog-inclusive commercials is $300,000 AUD per second.

It is, as Ron Burgundy would tell you, something of a big deal.

The Rams have ten players with Super Bowl experience (the Bengals have one), along with coach Sean McVay; and in wide receiver Cooper Kupp and defensive tackle Aaron Donald, the best players in their positions in the NFL.

Kupp received 30 per cent of quarterback Matthew Stafford’s offerings this season. Donald is scarier than airborne ebola.

LA also sport Odell Beckham Jr among their coterie of fleet-footed receivers, and that fellow can run like a hairy goat.

For those who enjoy what Americans call ‘prop’, or proposition, bets, Beckham or Kupp have scored the first touchdown for the Bengals in five of their last eight games.

For the Bengals, Joe Mixon is one of those workhorse running backs to whom so much pigskin goes because he’s so effective at eating up yards. He was third in the NFL for rushing yards and is less than even money to score the Bengals’ first touchdown.

Cincinnati beat Kansas City Chiefs, and their borderline sorcerer of a QB Patrick Mahomes, by 27-24 in one of the great AFC Championship Games to reach the Super Bowl.

Yes, they kept Mahomes – Super Bowl MVP in 2020 – relatively quiet and took an intercept from his pass in overtime and reached their first Super Bowl in 41 years.

The Rams, meanwhile, scraped in against San Francisco 49ers 20-17 after the 49ers fumbled an interception with five minutes left and leading by three.

The quarterbacks, of course, are the jockeys and pilots of these super-physical, multi-headed hydras, and will be credited with win or loss. Nine of the last 12 MVPs have been quarterbacks.

Did you know?

Did you know the Super Bowl is called the Super Bowl because the son of the late Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt had one of those high-bouncing super balls and because it sounds better than AFL-NFL World Championship Game or, as was proposed, “The Big One”.

Did you know: you can get $1.90 that the national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, which will be sung by three-time Grammy award winning country star Mickey Guyton, will run longer than one minute and 35 seconds.

And did you know: that after Janet Jackson’s nipple popped out during the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” of the 2004 half-time show, her career did not recover.

Meanwhile, Justin Timberlake, who was gyrating away and perving upon said nipple, continued on the up-and-up, and today hosts a PGA Tour golf tournament.

Hardly seems fair.

Prediction:

While several players have Super Bowl experience, historically both franchises have effectively none.

The Bengals have made two Super Bowls – in 1982 and 1989 – and lost both to San Francisco 49ers.

The Rams won the Super Bowl in 2000, though back then they were the St Louis Rams, so you wonder if it counts. Could Penrith Panthers lay claim to the 1991 NSWRL premiership if they’d relocated to the Riff from Adelaide?

A question for another time.

Who will win? Bookmakers say LA Rams, who they’ve listed as comfortable favourites.

That’s mainly because they’re playing at their home ground: SoFi Stadium, named for a financial planner and the site of the former Hollywood Race Track in Inglewood where Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) told Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel) he lived in Pulp Fiction.

The Bengals, meanwhile, are only nominally underdogs, given they just keep on winning. And in a classic Super Bowl, they’re my tip here to complete an all-time NFL postseason.

Bengals by three.

Game information

Time: 10:30am (AEDT)
Venue: SoFi Stadium, California
TV: Channel Seven, ESPN
Online: Kayo Sports, 7Plus
Head-to-head: Cincinnati 8, Los Angeles 6
Last meeting: Los Angeles 24 def. Cincinnati 10, Week 8, 2019
Odds: Cincinnati $2.85, Los Angeles $1.53 (odds via PlayUp)

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Matt Cleary

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Matt Cleary is a sports writer from Sydney. He enjoys golf, footy and Four Pines Pale Ale, and spends as much time as conscience allows at Long Reef GC. You can read him at his website and find more of his golf columns over at Patreon.