THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
It may have passed you by, and if it has you must've been under that rock again, but the Super Bowl is this Sunday night.
Yes, this weekend all the great and good descend upon one city to report on all things great, and well sometimes strange. This year it's Los Angeles, with all its glitz and glamour and Hollywood stories where the even most far-fetched scripts can come true. I guess that's where one of this season's participants will feel most at home. The page turning Cincinnati Bengals have been rewriting their own script each week as they've progressed under the on-field leadership of quarterback Joe Burrow, the man who has his own subplot after coming back from a horrific injury that curtailed his 2020 season. The remarkable Bengals are the team that most neutrals will be rooting for when the game gets underway, except maybe some of their AFC North divisional rivals, and even some of those will be looking on impressed at what they've achieved.
The Bengals' opponents in Super Bowl LVI are the Los Angeles Rams, who will be playing in their home stadium, the second consecutive year there's been a team playing in their home stadium after Tampa Bay last year. You wait over 50 years for it to happen, and then two years in a row! The Rams have been built for success over the last year or so, sacrificing future first round draft picks for high profile veteran players, then adding free agents that have slotted in seamlessly to help elevate them at just the right time. Theirs is a Hollywood story that most will recognize, but at the same time the team still has a hungry work ethic that sees them as a legitimate team that fans can be drawn to, there's not much to hate on this team.
So, with two likeable teams that have survived an unpredictable season, with one of the wildest postseasons in memory, can they both live up to what has gone on before? The Super Bowl often comes down to two things. Who can handle the pressure the best, and who turns over the ball the least. This week the focus has mostly been on the Bengals such is their "from nowhere" story, and in the main they have taken it in their stride, which bodes well for Sunday.
Nerves, though, could come when both teams are lined up opposite each other. The media spotlight now is so intense all year that players, and coaches, are used to a high level of scrutiny. The difference this week is the distractions around it, but teams are well versed in how to handle outside influences and keep their routines in check. So that leads to who will make the least errors, and both teams have had issues in keeping the ball when pressure comes. Matt Stafford, the QB bought in to bring a Super Bowl home to the Rams, can be prone to an errant pass which costs his team in big situations. That said, Burrow has also let some passes go that he wished he could have back. It's a tight one to call and would take a brave soul to predict the outcome. The past month has shown that it could come down to the very last play and the swing of a placekickers leg. If it's pushed that way you could favor the Bengals, as rookie kicker Evan McPherson has been perfect so far including clutch game winners.
During Super Bowl week we usually get a few announcements regarding the future of the game and on the European side of the pond they're about what we can expect from the International Series games. As has been reported here before, the NFL are looking to reach further into Europe and beyond. They have been putting a tremendous focus on Germany and narrowed their search down to three cities that had the potential to host games. Well, wait no more, Germany. It has been confirmed that from as soon as this coming season you will host a game, and that this will turn into multiple games in the coming years.
"We are very pleased to welcome Munich and Frankfurt to the NFL family and are excited to reward our fans in Germany for their passion by bringing them the spectacle of regular season NFL football. We look forward to staging our first game in Germany at FC Bayern Munich's fantastic stadium later this year and to exploring areas of broader collaboration with the Bundesliga," said Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner. As well as this exciting news for Germany it was confirmed that games in London would continue. Tottenham will again host two games, and with Jacksonville agreeing terms with Wembley Stadium, a third game will be played in the UK in 2022. Add another outing to Mexico this year, and the total of international games goes up to 5 for the coming campaign.
"We are looking forward to partnerships with Munich and Frankfurt that will extend beyond the games and help us to deliver accelerated growth in Germany," said Brett Gosper, NFL Head of Europe, and UK. The American will of course bring you further information when the teams and dates are officially released for these games.
Lastly, it's February, so that means awards season, and the NFL is no different. Their now customary red-carpet event, the NFL Honors, put on a show and announced its winners of many varied categories, including "Unstoppable performance" award which went to Burrow when he launched his comeback win against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 17. The most notable awards are:
It has been an incredible season with lots of twists and turns, drama, and heartache. With one game left to play we hope it can be the perfect and fitting curtain call. The game kick off time is shortly after 23.30 GMT and can be watched live on Sky Sports and the BBC. There is also live coverage of the whole game on radio, with TalkSport and BBC Radio5 Live.
