Photo: Getty Images
INGLEWOOD (CNS) - Los Angeles is hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy for the first time since the 1983 season and third all time, as the Rams held off the Cincinnati Bengals to win Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium today.
Matthew Stafford threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to the game's most valuable player, Cooper Kupp, with one minute, 25 seconds to play to give the Rams a 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium.
The Rams drove 79 yards on 15 plays in 4:48 for the winning score, but the Bengals' comeback attempt ended when Joe Burrow threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-1 from the Rams' 49-yard line under a heavy rush by Aaron Donald with 39 seconds left.
The last time the Big Game was played in the Los Angeles area, Bill Clinton was just settling into the White House when the Dallas Cowboys throttled the Buffalo Bills in that Jan. 31, 1993, Super Bowl, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Michael Jackson was the halftime entertainment that day. The pregame coin toss came courtesy of O.J. Simpson. The land where SoFi Stadium now stands was a horse racing track.
Yes, it has been a long time.
But Super Bowl LVI marks ``the culmination of football's comeback in L.A.,'' as Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a recent interview -- referring to the Rams' return from St. Louis and the Chargers' move from San Diego.
``It started with one and then suddenly two teams,'' Garcetti added. ``And then the most glorious stadium ever built in sports history, and now the biggest show that there is.''
Indeed, few cities do ``big'' better than L.A., and Sunday was no exception. The big game was stocked with big storylines -- and here are XVII of them.
-- This marks the second straight year a Super Bowl team has played in its home stadium, following the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year.
-- The Rams made their fifth Super Bowl appearance overall and third representing L.A. Their only prior Super Bowl victory came in Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000, when they were based in St. Louis.
-- It was hot on game day, maybe the hottest kickoff in Super Bowl history. According to the Southeast Regional Climate Center, the warmest previous Super Bowl kickoff occurred in 1973 -- at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum -- when it was 84 degrees.
-- COVID remains a factor. Every fan attending Sunday's game was issued a KN95 mask, with face coverings still mandated by the county at large outdoor events. Stadium officials insisted they would enforce it, unlike two weeks ago in the NFC title game at SoFi, when the vast majority of spectators were spotted maskless, including Garcetti and Gov. Gavin Newsom. However, it was nearly impossible to spot anyone wearing a mask during celebrity cutaway shots from the action.
-- Maybe Garcetti was a lucky charm for the Rams. As the mayor said during last week's Super Bowl welcome news conference, an L.A. victory would mean the city won every major sports championship available during his nine years at City Hall.
``Since I've been mayor, I've been lucky enough -- we've got a Stanley Cup, we've got Major League Soccer Championship, we were able to win the WNBA, World Series and an NBA championship,'' Garcetti said. ``All that's left is this Super Bowl, and I'll have been lucky enough while being mayor to win every major sports championship.''
-- While the Rams technically weren't the home team, with the Super Bowl site officially ``neutral,'' the halftime show had a distinctly L.A. flavor. Southland music icons Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg rocked SoFi, along with Eminem and Mary J. Blige.
Dr. Dre and Lamar are both Compton natives, while Snoop Dogg hails from Long Beach.
-- Country music star Mickey Guyton sang the national anthem, while eclectic R&B songstress Jhené Aiko sang ``America the Beautiful.'' Guyton recently earned a Grammy nomination for best country album for her debut release, ``Remember Her Name,'' the first for a Black artist, plus nominations for best country song and best country solo performance.
-- Actress Sandra Mae Frank performed the national anthem and ``America the Beautiful'' in sign language on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf.
-- Pregame festivities included the contemporary gospel duo Mary Mary, accompanied by the L.A. Philharmonic's YOLA (Youth Orchestra Los Angeles), performing ``Lift Every Voice and Sing,'' conducted by Thomas Wilkins, principal conductor of the LA Phil's Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
-- In honor of the Air Force's 75th anniversary, the service conducted a first-of-its-kind flyover during the national anthem. The Air Force Heritage Flight formed a formation of a P-51 Mustang, A-10C Thunderbolt II, F- 16 Fighting Falcon, F-22 Raptor, and a F-35A Lightning II.
-- DJ and producer Zedd acted as the official pregame DJ during player warmups.
-- Security was tight. The Los Angeles Police Department increased deployments, which will last through Monday to guard against rowdy celebrations and other disruptions. Chief Michel Moore said the LAPD began planning two years ago and will be coordinating with federal, state and local partners.
-- Security was tight in the air, too. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a Temporary Flight Restriction from 2:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday, effective in a 30-mile circle around SoFi and stretching up to 8,000 feet, with violators facing hefty fines. The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, was part of the security force enforcing the restrictions.
-- Betting is a big part of any Super Bowl, and local dignitaries were not immune. Garcetti had a friendly wager with Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval on Sunday's outcome, with the losing mayor vowing to wear the winning team's jersey during a public appearance.
-- Even the archbishops of L.A. and Cincinnati got into the spirit. Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles put a batch of baked treats from the famed L.A. bakery Porto's on his hometown Rams, while Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr of Cincinnati wagered a case of Cincinnati's own Graeter's ice cream on the Bengals.
-- The game featured a pair of compelling quarterback stories. The Rams traded for star QB Matthew Stafford during last offseason after Stafford languished for 12 years with the sad-sack Detroit Lions. Stafford now has a true Hollywood ending. The Bengals, meanwhile, featured young Joe Burrow, who took the long-downtrodden Bengals to the Big Game in just his second NFL season.
-- It wasn't just another 29 years for the Super Bowl to come back to Los Angeles. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said as much last week when he told reporters, ``I would be hard-pressed to think (Los Angeles is) not going to be at the top of everybody's list every opportunity we get.''
``One of the things I'm really confident about sitting here and feeling it this week is that we really landed in the right spot,'' Goodell said. ``We have a state-of-the-art stadium, which I think reflects this great community and the entertainment capital of the world. ...
``And we have what I think is really the ultimate event, which is a Super Bowl here. To me, it's sort of surreal that we're here in many ways after all these years -- 29 years since we had our last Super Bowl (in the L.A. area).''