(WHTM) – The final game of the longest NFL season in history is fast approaching. Super Bowl LVI is Sunday, Feb. 13. The Cincinnati Bengals (13-7) look to win their first ever Super Bowl, while the Los Angeles Rams (15-5) hoping for their second, first since 2000.
This is the first meeting of these two franchises in the big game, and it is the latest Super Bowl ever played in league history due to the longer regular season.
Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Despite the Rams hosting the Super Bowl in their own stadium, the Bengals will be the official home team. As the road team, the Rams will call the coin toss before kickoff.
Who is singing the national anthem?
Grammy-nominated Mickey Guyton will be singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Sher is the first Black artist to receive a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album of the Year. Jhene Aiko, who is also Grammy-nominated, will perform “America the Beautiful” just before kickoff.
Halftime show
5 hip hop giants will co-headline the halftime show. Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar will perform together in a celebration of West Coast hip hop.
Dr. Dre was a supporter and collaborator to the four other artists. Dr. Dre is also a Rock and Rall Hall of Fame Inductee. He was inducted in 2016 with N.W.A. The 5 artists have a combined 43 Grammys and 22 No. 1 Billboard albums.
You can watch the halftime show preview here.
About the Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals have not made it to the Super Bowl since 1988, years before their quarterback, Ohio’s own Joe Burrow, was born.
The Bengals lost to the San Francisco 49ers in both preview Super Bowl appearances in ’88 and ’81. Prior to this season, Cincinnati had not won a playoff game since 1990. (Still years before Burrow was born in 1996.)
This is Burrow’s second season in the NFL, but its first full season in the pros. Burrow suffered a knee injury in his rookie year and missed the last 6 games of the season.
If the Bengals win, the number 1 NFL Draft pick of 2020 and Heisman winner of 2019 would become one of the youngest in history to win a Super Bowl at 25, behind Ben Roethlisberger (23), Patrick Mahomes (24) and Tom Brady (24).
Before he was a Bengal, Burrow was a Buckeye. Burrow redshirted his first year at The Ohio State University in 2015. He spent the next 2 years as a backup and transferred to Louisiana State University (LSU) in 2018 when he wasn’t named the starter. He helped LSU win a national championship title in 2020.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, 38, used to be on the coaching staff under L.A. head coach Sean McVay, 36. That makes them the youngest coaching pair in Super Bowl history.
Taylor was named the Bengals head coach in 2019. Taylor has brought the team from worst in the league to the Super Bowl in just 3 seasons.
L.A. Rams
The Los Angeles Rams are favored to win the Super Bowl by 4 points. The franchise began as the Cleveland Rams in 1936. From there they went to California, then St. Louis and landed back in L.A. in 2016.
The Rams have not won a Super Bowl while playing in L.A. Their last and only Super Bowl win came as the St. Louis Rams in 1999.
If Rams coach Sean McVay brought the team to victory Sunday, he’d become the youngest head coach to ever win the Super Bowl. Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin currently holds that title. He won Super Bowl XLIII at 36.
He’s been glowing all season about QB Matthew Stafford, who is in his first season with the Rams.
“We went out and got him because we thought it was a chance to be able to get a great player of his magnitude,” McVay said about Stafford after the NFC Championship game.
“What he’s done, he’s elevated everybody around him. He’s made me a better coach. He’s made his teammates better. He’s such a great person. I think you guys know from getting a chance to interact with him. If you don’t root for this guy, something’s wrong with you.”
Stafford was also a first-round draft pick like Burrow. He was drafted by Detroit in 2009 and was with the Lions until they traded him to the Rams in 2021. It’s taken him 13 years to get to the biggest game in football, compared to Burrow’s 2.
Stafford has a big cheering section. He and his college sweetheart, Kelly Stafford, have 4 little girls.
The Rams will face the Bengals in the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 13 at 6:30. The game is broadcast on NBC.
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