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Cooper Kupp Downplays the Emotions in His Reunion Matchup vs. Rams in NFC Championship

Kupp will face his former teammates on Sunday with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.
Cooper Kupp will face his former team, the Rams, in the NFC championship.
Cooper Kupp will face his former team, the Rams, in the NFC championship. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Cooper Kupp already had to face his former team, the Rams, twice during the regular season in his first year as a Seahawk, and now he’ll have to compete against them again in the NFC championship with a Super Bowl bid on the line.

Sunday’s championship game obviously holds a lot more weight for the entirety of the Seahawks than one individual, but Kupp will have the added drama of facing his former teammates with such a big prize on the line. He won a Super Bowl title with the Rams in the 2021 season, and he was named MVP of the Big Game. He carries a lot of history with the Rams, so it’s not surprising that many eyes will be on him when he walks onto Lumen Field on Sunday.

Kupp was asked about what emotions he’ll have when he faces Los Angeles this weekend when speaking to media on Thursday, but he quickly made the focus about the team as a whole, not just his story in particular.

“We all have a story,” Kupp said. “All these guys that step on this field, they’ve all had a story to get them to this point. They’ve all had a journey of what this year has been for them, what the last few years have been to come to this point. Mine is just one of 53 that are going to be on the field. In my story, this is an unbelievable story, the chances that this ends up being what it is. I’m really excited about that. But, this is the Seahawks going into the NFC championship game and trying to get the job done.”

It’s clear that Kupp doesn’t want his reunion matchup to be what fans are paying the most attention to on Sunday. But, of course, it would be quite a compelling story for Kupp to advance to the Super Bowl by beating his former team, where he played for the first eight seasons of his career.


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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.

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