Super Bowl LVI: 10 Things to Know About Rams vs. Bengals
Here are 10 things to know about Super Bowl LVI:
HOME COOKING: For 54 years no team had ever played in a Super Bowl at its home stadium until the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won last year's big game at Raymond James Stadium. After the Los Angeles Rams earned the right to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LVI over San Francisco, it’s now happened in consecutive seasons, although technically the Rams will be labeled as the visitors at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.
NO. 1: For 49 years, no starting quarterbacks drafted No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft had met in a Super Bowl, until Peyton Manning (1998) and the Denver Broncos defeated Carolina's Cam Newton (2011) and the Panthers in Super Bowl 50. Sunday's game pits another pair of No. 1s against each other for the second time in seven years: the Rams' Matthew Stafford (2009) and Cincinnati's Joe Burrow (2020).
FIRST TIME: A first is coming on Sunday.
The Bengals franchise dates back to 1968, but will be searching for its first Super Bowl title in the franchise's third appearance, and first since after the 1988 season. The Rams have been around much longer (1937) and have won three NFL championships but only one Super Bowl after the 1999 season when the franchise was located in St. Louis so if the Rams top Cincinnati it will be the first Lombardi Trophy for the Los Angeles Rams.
YOUTH MOVEMENT: The two head coaches on Sunday, the Rams' Sean McVay, 36, and the Bengals' Zac Taylor, 38, who was a McVay assistant from 2017-18, will be a combined 74 years and 299 days old on Sunday, the youngest combined age for opposing head coaches in Super Bowl history.
Previously, the youngest head-coaching matchup was Super Bowl XLIII with Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin (36 years, 323 days old) and Arizona’s Ken Whisenhunt (46 years, 339 days old).
With a Rams win, McVay (36 years, 20 days on Sunday) would become the youngest coach to ever win the SB surpassing Tomlin (36 years, 323 days old in Super Bowl XLIII).
FORESHADOWING: McVay, who was hired by the Rams in 2017 and led the team to a Super Bowl LIII appearance after the 2018 season, is the fifth coach in NFL history to advance to two Super Bowls within his first five seasons.
Three of the other four are in the Hall of Fame - Joe Gibbs, Jimmy Johnson, and Tom Flores - and the other is a near certainty in Tomlin.
TAYLOR-MADE: Taylor, who was on McVay's first Super Bowl staff has won his first three postseason games as a head coach, is just the third mentor since 2008 to do so joining Whisenhunt and former Eagles coach Doug Pederson.
If Taylor wins the Super Bowl, he would become the third coach in 30 years (1991-2021) to win his first four postseason games as an NFL head coach, joining Pederson and Brian Billick.
FOUR-LEAF CLOVER: Both the Rams and Bengals were four seeds in their respective conferences. Since the NFL began seeding postseason teams in 1975, Super Bowl LVI is the first that does not include at least one team seeded No. 1 or No. 2. The last No. 4 seed to win a Super Bowl was the 2012 Baltimore Ravens (XLVII).
17 AND COUNTING: For a 17th consecutive season, the NFL will have a new Super Bowl champion, extending the longest streak without a repeat winner in league history. The last team to win consecutive Super Bowls was the 2003-04 New England Patriots.
HOPE: Including Cincinnati on Sunday, five of the last 12 teams to appear in the Super Bowl missed the playoffs the previous season.
Prior to the Bengals, the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2019 San Francisco 49ers, 2017 Eagles and 2016 Atlanta Falcons reached the Super Bowl after missing the playoffs the prior season.
Since 2000, the Bengals are the fifth team to go from worst to first in their division and make the Super Bowl. Three of the four to do that – the 2017 Eagles, 2009 Saints, and 2001 Patriots – won the Super Bowl.
SOMETHING ABOUT JOE: Burrow piloted LSU to a College Football Playoff national championship in 2019 and with a win over the Rams, he would join Hall of Famers Joe Namath and Joe Montana as the only starting quarterbacks to win both a consensus college football national title and a Super Bowl.
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
