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Gary Klein on the Rams: All these billions Stan Kroenke spent to construct SoFi Stadium and host Tremendous Bowl LVI.
All these trades for star gamers.
All these strikes to go all-in.
All of it paid off.
On Sunday, the Rams continued their dream season and fulfilled their mandate to play within the Tremendous Bowl by defeating the San Francisco 49ers, 20-17, within the NFC championship sport earlier than 73,202 at SoFi Stadium. The Rams superior to the Tremendous Bowl on Feb. 13, the place they are going to play the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals.
“Love this staff,” mentioned coach Sean McVay, who led the Rams to the Tremendous Bowl for the second time within the final 5 seasons. “We bought yet another.”
On the one-year anniversary of the blockbuster commerce for quarterback Matthew Stafford — the Rams’ pronouncement that they have been pursuing a boom-or-bust run to the Tremendous Bowl — Stafford linked with star receiver Cooper Kupp for 2 touchdowns and led a game-winning scoring drive for the second week in a row.
Stafford had greater than the 42 seconds wanted to knock off Tom Brady and the defending Tremendous Bowl-champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, however he escaped a close to catastrophe and led the Rams to a different 30-yard discipline aim by Matt Homosexual that gave them a 20-17 lead with 1 minute 46 seconds left.
Star lineman Aaron Donald pressured 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo into desperation mode, and linebacker Travin Howard intercepted a move that sealed the victory, breaking the Rams’ six-game shedding streak towards the 49ers and sending them to the Tremendous Bowl.
“It feels superb,” star cornerback Jalen Ramsey mentioned. “That’s actually the one phrase I can consider.”
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Rams’ 20-17 victory over San Francisco 49ers by the numbers
Underdog (?) Bengals rally from 18-point deficit to beat Chiefs, advance to Tremendous Bowl
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FIRST LOOK
Sam Farmer on the Tremendous Bowl: Earlier than he joined the Rams, Matthew Stafford had by no means gained a playoff sport.
Earlier than this season, the Cincinnati Bengals had gone 31 years with out successful one. It was the longest energetic postseason drought of the 4 main skilled sports activities.
Speak about colliding Hollywood tales.
The Rams and Bengals will meet in Tremendous Bowl LVI on Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium, the glistening $5-billion palace that performed host to Sunday’s NFC championship sport.
“It’s past surreal,” mentioned Rams government Kevin Demoff, ducking out of the locker room delirium to talk to a reporter. “We dream of transferring this staff again to Los Angeles, constructing this stadium, internet hosting a Tremendous Bowl, internet hosting the championship, and we beat the 49ers to make the Tremendous Bowl in your individual constructing? It’s unbelievable.”
To Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey, it was all a fantastic thriller.
“I don’t know the way just like the logistics of it work,” Ramsey mentioned. “Hopefully we are able to get our locker room. I don’t know the way all that stuff works, however hopefully we could be up in our locker room and have the music enjoying and type of get a vibe and hopefully L.A. comes and packs the stadium out. I imply, simply enjoying within the Tremendous Bowl regardless.”
The Tremendous Bowl might be a showdown between two groups led by quarterbacks chosen No. 1 total, Stafford and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow, and two head coaches who used to work facet by facet.
Cincinnati’s Zac Taylor was an assistant large receivers coach in Sean McVay’s first season with the Rams, then quarterbacks coach on the 2018 Rams staff that misplaced within the Tremendous Bowl to New England.
“Nice resilient staff,” McVay mentioned of the Bengals. “It didn’t look good for them, and so they’ve simply continued to point out why they’re a mentally powerful outfit. I feel that’s mirrored by their head coach. I do know what a terrific coach he's.
“They’ve achieved a terrific job this yr. We’ve crossed over with them a little bit bit however I’m trying ahead to diving into the tape and determining how we are able to put collectively sport plan to attempt to see if we are able to end this factor off.”
STAFFORD REDEFINES LEGACY
Dylan Hernández on Matthew Stafford: The view was totally different from up there.
On a makeshift stage in the midst of the sphere at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, Matthew Stafford seemed out at a world that may by no means see him the identical once more.
13 years into his profession, he was lastly a winner.
A yr to the day of his commerce to the Rams, Stafford superior his staff to the Tremendous Bowl.
“I don’t know that I ever thought of what I might be feeling at this second,” Stafford mentioned. “I in all probability simply sat there and simply wished I may very well be in these video games.”
When the NFC championship sport was over, when the Rams closed out their 20-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, Stafford’s spouse ran onto the sphere and leaped into the quarterback’s arms.
“She’s fired up,” Stafford mentioned.
They weren’t in Detroit anymore.
Stafford didn’t win a single playoff sport in his 12 seasons with the Lions however has now gained three within the final three weeks.
Per week after organising Matt Homosexual’s successful discipline aim in Tampa Bay with a 44-yard move to Cooper Kupp, Stafford accomplished 5 passes to steer the Rams down the sphere and place Homosexual to transform his newest tiebreaking kick.
“We speak about aggressive greatness on a regular basis, being your finest when the most effective was required,” coach Sean McVay mentioned. “He embodied aggressive greatness right now.”
WHOSE HOUSE? RAMS’ HOUSE
Invoice Plaschke on the Rams: SoFi Stadium shook. The Rams danced. Confetti sprayed.
1000's screamed, repeatedly, answering the public-address announcer’s bellowing query of exactly who will personal this Inglewood palace within the upcoming Tremendous Bowl.
They’ve chanted it many instances earlier than, but it surely’s by no means fairly resounded like this.
“Whose home?”
“Rams’ home!”
It occurred. It actually occurred. The Rams promised, and delivered, and at the moment are staying house for the journey of a lifetime after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 on Sunday within the NFC championship sport.
Their home. Their second. And now their magic.
On Sunday, Feb. 13, at SoFi Stadium, the Rams will face the Cincinnati Bengals in Tremendous Bowl LVI.
Take into consideration that. The Tremendous Bowl. Being performed in Los Angeles. With a Los Angeles staff.
RAMS FANS OUTNUMBERED
Jorge Castillo on the stadium scene: The sport surrounding Sunday’s NFC championship sport surfaced inside SoFi Stadium as soon as followers started trickling via the gates at 1:30 p.m.
One facet wore blue and yellow defending their turf as Rams supporters. Their counterparts — followers of the San Francisco 49ers — have been the loud, unruly friends in pink and gold. If the $5-billion constructing was certainly the Rams’ home — because the franchise’s tagline suggests advert nauseam — then the 49ers aficionados crashed the ADU out again and threw themselves a carne asada.
A stroll across the concourse, teeming with playful pressure, plainly illustrated the dichotomy.
“Niners home!” a 49ers fan on the 300-level yelled 90 minutes earlier than kickoff.
“F— no!” contested a person with a “Rams Home” flag draped round him like a cape.
“Residence sport,” a person in a 49ers jersey rapidly rebutted.
Rams followers have been outnumbered. An unofficial tally estimates it was a 60-40 cut up, although each side have been loud sufficient for each groups to make use of a silent snap rely on offense. Ultimately, the individuals in blue have been the final ones cheering within the Rams’ heart-stopping 20-17 win.
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Los Angeles and San Francisco soccer rivalry is tremendous enjoyable for followers
PHOTO GALLERY
Click on right here for a photograph gallery from Sunday’s win over the 49ers.
DON’T PLACE THOSE BETS
Jon Healey on betting: Sports activities betting is a huge business, with greater than $92 billion wagered because the Supreme Court docket dominated in Might 2018 that states may permit it. That’s why, when you’ve watched any NFL video games on tv this yr, you’ve seen virtually as many commercials for on-line betting websites as for beer and vehicles.
Let’s get one factor straight on the outset, although: Betting on the Tremendous Bowl at these websites (or on another sports activities performed by people not on horseback at a licensed racetrack) is prohibited in California. Even when it’s authorized in your house state, when you come to Los Angeles for Tremendous Bowl LVI, you can't place a authorized wager on the sport at a licensed U.S. sports activities e book whilst you’re right here.
For a lot of Californians, nevertheless, authorized restrictions are merely a velocity bump. An unpublished research in 2019 estimated that Californians have been making $15.7 billion in sports activities bets, whether or not with mates, bookies or offshore websites.
Therefore the numerous commercials touting betting websites, together with the chatter on TV and radio about level spreads and favorites.
“California state regulation might be the broadest within the nation” in terms of limiting playing, mentioned I. Nelson Rose, a playing regulation scholar and emeritus professor at Whittier School. “It makes it against the law — a misdemeanor — to just accept, document and even make a wager on a sports activities occasion. Clearly, no one ever will get arrested for making bets on sports activities occasions. However it’s clearly towards the regulation.”
SUPER BOWL: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Tremendous Bowl Sunday
Feb. 13
at SoFi Stadium, Inglewood
Rams vs. Cincinnati, 3:30 p.m. PT, Rams favored by 4 factors
TV: NBC and Telemundo.
Radio: Westwood One radio (AM 570 in Los Angeles), SiriusXM NFL Radio, NFL GamePass.
Streaming: NFL app (iOS, Android), Peacock app (iOS, Android), Telemundo app (iOS, Android), Yahoo Sports activities
To purchase tickets (after mortgaging your home to afford them): Ticketmaster, OnLocation, HOFExperiences, VividSeats, SeatGeek
Halftime present: Recording artists Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar are scheduled to carry out within the Tremendous Bowl halftime present. The NFL has but to announce who will sing the nationwide anthem earlier than the sport.
Coronavirus pointers when you attend: Beneath Los Angeles County’s coronavirus well being and security pointers, all followers in attendance have to be vaccinated. Followers attending the sport might be required to put on masks and might be given KN95 masks.
SUPER BOWL OVERTIME RULES
The NFL’s present postseason extra time guidelines have been applied in 2010 and are beneath renewed scrutiny after the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ AFC divisional playoff win over the Buffalo Payments on Jan. 23. Of the 11 playoff video games which have gone to extra time beneath the present guidelines, 10 have been gained by the staff that bought the ball first. Right here’s a rundown of the foundations:
—A coin flip determines which staff receives the opening kickoff of extra time
—Groups play 15-minute durations till there’s a winner.
—A landing or security on the primary possession wins the sport.
—If the rating is tied after every staff’s first possession, both as a result of neither scored or every kicked a discipline aim, the following rating (landing, discipline aim or security) will win the sport.
—There are not any coach challenges with all evaluations being initiated by the replay official.
SUPER BOWL OFFICIALS
Ronald Torbert, an NFL official since 2010, has been named the referee for Tremendous Bowl LVI. His crew is about to incorporate Bryan Neale (umpire), Derick Bowers (down decide), Carl Johnson (line decide), Rick Patterson (discipline decide), Keith Washington (facet decide), Scott Halverson (again decide) and Roddy Ames (replay official).
BEST SUPER BOWL/NFL/AFL CHAMPION TOURNAMENT
Only for enjoyable, over the following two weeks we might be operating a event to find out the most effective Tremendous Bowl/NFL/AFL champion of all time. The groups have been seeded 1-64 (utilizing a mixture of standard season document, common season level differential and playoff level differential) and put into 4 areas, identical to the NCAA males’s basketball event. Utilizing the Second And Ten laptop sport, we'll run the video games to find out the most effective staff of all of them. Since there are solely 55 Tremendous Bowl successful groups, we selected 9 groups from earlier than the Tremendous Bowl period to compete, all champions of both the NFL or the AFL. They're: 1950 Cleveland Browns, 1951 Los Angeles Rams, 1953 Detroit Lions, 1960 Philadelphia Eagles, 1961 Houston Oilers, 1962 Inexperienced Bay Packers, 1963 San Diego Chargers, 1963 Chicago Bears and the 1964 Buffalo Payments.
Listed here are the 4 areas. Outcomes will start to be introduced tomorrow. Within the first spherical, No. 1 performs No. 16, No. 2 performs No. 15, and many others.:
Jim Brown Area
No. 1: 1972 Miami Dolphins
No. 2: 1962 Inexperienced Bay Packers
No. 3: 1986 New York Giants
No. 4: 1973 Miami Dolphins
No. 5: 1977 Dallas Cowboys
No. 6: 1970 Baltimore Colts
No. 7: 2013 Seattle Seahawks
No. 8: 1990 New York Giants
No. 9: 1963 San Diego Chargers
No. 10: 2000 Baltimore Ravens
No. 11: 1993 Dallas Cowboys
No. 12: 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers
No. 13: 2015 Denver Broncos
No. 14: 2001 New England Patriots
No. 15: 2010 Inexperienced Bay Packers
No. 16: 2011 New York Giants
Walter Payton Area
No. 1: 1985 Chicago Bears
No. 2: 1998 Denver Broncos
No. 3: 1978 Pittsburgh Steelers
No. 4: 1975 Pittsburgh Steelers
No. 5: 1963 Chicago Bears
No. 6: 1953 Detroit Lions
No. 7: 1994 San Francisco 49ers
No. 8: 2017 Philadelphia Eagles
No. 9: 1969 Kansas Metropolis Chiefs
No. 10: 1997 Denver Broncos
No. 11: 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
No. 12: 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers
No. 13: 2006 Indianapolis Colts
No. 14: 2018 New England Patriots
No. 15: 1952 Los Angeles Rams
No. 16: 2007 New York Giants
Joe Montana Area
No. 1: 1984 San Francisco 49ers
No. 2: 1991 Washington Redskins
No. 3: 2004 New England Patriots
No. 4: 2003 New England Patriots
No. 5: 1964 Buffalo Payments
No. 6: 1960 Philadelphia Eagles
No. 7: 1996 Inexperienced Bay Packers
No. 8: 1992 Dallas Cowboys
No. 9: 1971 Dallas Cowboys
No. 10: 1961 Houston Oilers
No. 11: 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers
No. 12: 2019 Kansas Metropolis Chiefs
No. 13: 1987 Washington Redskins
No. 14: 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers
No. 15: 1967 Inexperienced Bay Packers
No. 16: 2012 Baltimore Ravens
John Madden Area
No. 1: 1976 Oakland Raiders
No. 2: 2016 New England Patriots
No. 3: 1989 San Francisco 49ers
No. 4: 1982 Washington Redskins
No. 5: 1966 Inexperienced Bay Packers
No. 6: 1950 Cleveland Browns
No. 7: 1999 St. Louis Rams
No. 8: 2009 New Orleans Saints
No. 9: 1981 San Francisco 49ers
No. 10: 1968 New York Jets
No. 11: 2014 New England Patriots
No. 12: 1995 Dallas Cowboys
No. 13: 1983 L.A. Raiders
No. 14: 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
No. 15: 1980 Oakland Raiders
No. 16: 1988 San Francisco 49ers
SUPER BOWL POLLS
Two Tremendous Bowl polls so that you can vote in: Which staff will win, and who might be named the sport’s MVP? Click on right here to vote. Outcomes might be introduced on Tremendous Bowl Sunday.
WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOTBALL PLAYER?
I requested you to ship me the title of you favourite soccer participant and why, and I used to be deluged with solutions. Solutions might be printed beginning right now. Hold sending them in by emailing me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. Embrace a few sentences explaining why that participant is your favourite. It’s your probability to be learn by the tens of hundreds of people that subscribe.
Kirk Pieper: Jack Youngblood. He performed a complete playoff sport with a damaged leg. Additionally, a part of my favourite groups, Brooks, Hacksaw, Mack, Saul,
Greg Flakus: Gale Sayers. He may run with grace when wanted and energy when wanted.
Michael Gorecki: My favourite participant is Joe Montana of the San Francisco 49ers. He took a staff that had little success and gained 4 Tremendous Bowls with out a loss. He utterly modified the tradition in San Francisco. The staff of the 80’s. Joe Cool was the most effective.
Marc A. Herbst of Saint Augustine, Fla.: My favourite participant is the late Johnny Unitas of the Baltimore Colts. I grew up in Baltimore throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, when he was in his prime, main the Colts to championships in 1958, 1959, and 1971. Mr. Unitas got here from very humble beginnings in Pittsburgh, performed in faculty for an unheralded Louisville staff, and was reduce by his house city Steelers with out a lot of a tryout (thanks, coach Buddy Parker). As soon as with the Colts, he displayed his management and athletic abilities. He referred to as his personal performs, and mastered the 2-minute offense on the finish of many video games. He performed via many extreme accidents, throughout an period when quarterbacks weren't protected in addition to is the case right now. There weren't many penalties referred to as towards the protection for extreme hits like clotheslining, and helmets weren't designed with many security options (Unitas’ helmet had solely a single bar throughout his face). Regardless of his fame and success, Mr. Unitas remained grounded and humble, becoming in completely with the blue-collar followers of Baltimore.
And eventually
Highlights from the Rams-49ers sport. Watch and hear right here. Highlights from the Bengals-Chiefs sport. Watch and hear right here.
Till subsequent time...
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