The Los Angeles Rams have solidified their position as Hollywood’s hometown football team after winning Super Bowl LVI in a close 23-20 game Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
NBC telecast this year’s Super Bowl contest. The Rams’ win was made all the more memorable in an industry that banks on hits by coming at the team’s home stadium through a quirk of NFL scheduling. The win is the first NFL championship trophy to come to Los Angeles since the Rams franchise returned to the city in 2016 and the first for the city since the Los Angeles Raiders beat Washington in 1984.
The Super Bowl win also promises to vault Rams head coach Sean McVay into star category. After a close first half, the Bengals had the lead through most of the second half. But the Rams came on strong in the fourth quarter, keeping the game competitive until the final seconds on the gridiron.
The Bengals and its promising young quarterback Joe Burrow were on a quest to claim the NFL’s Lombardi trophy for the first time in the franchise’s 53-year history. Cincinnati’s last trip to the big game came in 1989 when the Bengals were beaten 20-16 by the San Francisco 49ers.
The Super Bowl LVI telecast was chock full of the usual marketing and promotional hoopla outside of the game play. A number of celebrity-packed commercials fueled social media buzz around the game. The halftime show featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent and other hip hop stars was generally well received by fans, as were pre-game renditions of “America the Beautiful” and “The Star Spangled Banner” by Jhene Aiko and Mickey Guyton, respectively.