AP

Column: Rams and Bengals put past aside in Super Bowl

Feb 12, 2022, 12:35 AM | Updated: 2:39 pm

Members of the Cincinnati Bengals smile during a team photo for the NFL football team Saturday, Feb...

Members of the Cincinnati Bengals smile during a team photo for the NFL football team Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022, inside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The Cincinnati Bengals play the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl Sunday Feb. 13. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)


              Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay watches as his team stretches during practice for an NFL Super Bowl football game Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The Rams are scheduled to play the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl on Sunday. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
            
              Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow adjusts his sunglasses during a press conference following the team's NFL football practice Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in Los Angeles. The Cincinnati Bengals play the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl Sunday Feb. 13. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
            
              Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay, center, talks to guard David Edwards, left, as wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. stands by during practice for an NFL Super Bowl football game Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The Rams are scheduled to play the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl on Sunday. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
            
              La foto del viernes 11 de febrero de 2022, muestra un casco de los Rams de Los Ángeles, en el campo durante una práctica (AP Foto/Mark J. Terrill)
            
              Team photographer Ryan Meyer, top right, gathers the Cincinnati Bengals for the official Super Bowl team photo Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022, inside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The Cincinnati Bengals play the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl Sunday Feb. 13. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
            
              Members of the Cincinnati Bengals smile during a team photo for the NFL football team Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022, inside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The Cincinnati Bengals play the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl Sunday Feb. 13. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It’s been nearly three decades since the city where the Super Bowl began last hosted the big game. The year was 1993 and, if you’re looking for an indication how much times have changed, O.J. Simpson did the pregame coin flip and Michael Jackson thrilled the country with a spectacular halftime show at the Rose Bowl.

The Rams weren’t in the game, not even close. They finished 6-10 on the season and owner Georgia Frontiere was busy plotting the team’s escape from Southern California, eventually landing in St. Louis in what may have been the worst move ever by a modern-day sports franchise.

The Rams eventually returned, though it cost them a generation of fan loyalty. That means the new Rams are still a work in progress in a city where they once reigned supreme — as evidenced by the mass of San Francisco faithful who just might have outnumbered the locals at the NFC championship game in the imposing new stadium that cost current owner Stan Kroenke a reported $5 billion to build.

Still, nothing builds love more than a Super Bowl championship. And now the Rams of Los Angeles not only have a chance to win their first Super Bowl but do it Sunday in a home stadium that no other city can come close to matching.

“There’s a lot of reasons for this city to be excited about this team,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “We’ve got great players. It’s a fun brand of football that you’re seeing them play, and then you got this iconic venue that we’re able to play out. And oh, by the way, that’s where the Super Bowl is, even though we’re the away team.”

Being the away team shouldn’t be much of a problem for the Rams. This is a team, after all, that was away from 1995 until 2016, when Kroenke brought them back for the same reason they left: more money and bigger profits.

They have a long, fractured history in Los Angeles, a city that embraced them warmly when they moved from Cleveland the year after World War II ended. But the fact remains the only Super Bowl won by a team with horns on its helmets was won in 2000 when the Rams were, yes, in St. Louis.

In a way it’s fitting that the team standing in the way of that championship is form another city that has never celebrated a Super Bowl win. The Bengals for the most part have been hapless over the years, aside from a couple of Super Bowl runs in the 1980s that didn’t end well.

Now they have Joe Burrow and, two seasons after winning just two games, are within 60 minutes of capping off an improbable playoff run themselves.

Oddsmakers don’t like their chances, making them a 4-point underdog to a Rams team loaded with star talent. But the city is abuzz, with residents shooting off fireworks and honking horns after the Bengals beat Kansas City in overtime in the AFC championship game.

“The best way to describe it for the city is it’s like waking up from a long nightmare,” said Joe Kay, a retired Associated Press sportswriter who covered the team through 40 seasons. “It had been more than 30 years since they even won a playoff game.”

The easy narrative would be to cheer for the underdog team from a working class town. Unlike LA, Cincinnati has no movie stars, no beaches, no perfect weather and certainly no $5 billion stadium.

But it does have iconic chili. It does have Joe Burrow.

And, soon, maybe a lot more Joes.

“I would imagine nine, 10 months from now, there’s going to be a lot of babies named Joe. … That’s the impact he’s had on Cincinnati,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said.

Indeed, the fit between the city and its star quarterback couldn’t be better. Burrow grew up in a hardscrabble area of Ohio, just a few hours from Cincinnati, though in his hometown of The Plains fans rooted mostly for the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Cleveland Browns.

“Growing up, it was nobody really ever talked about the Bengals too much,” Burrow said. “And I think it’s exciting for us, exciting for the city that, you know, the Bengals are starting to, you know, people are starting to realize that we’re really good team and an exciting team as well.”

The same thing could be said about the Rams and their city, so maybe in the end these teams and their towns aren’t so different.

That will change Sunday night when only one can proudly claim they’re Super Bowl champions.

___

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP

Associated Press

Ex-Packer Guion gets 1 year for domestic violence assault

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Former Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Letroy Guion was sentenced to one year in jail after pleading no contest in a domestic violence assault at his home last fall. Brown County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Walsh also ordered Guion on Tuesday to serve three years’ probation and complete a domestic […]

1 year ago

Joe Jarzynka...

Associated Press

Durant eager for Suns debut vs. Hornets after knee injury

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Kevin Durant has been through quite a bit during his 15-year NBA career — but joining a new team midway through the season is a new one for the 13-time All-Star. The 34-year-old Durant doesn’t seem all that worried. Durant makes his highly anticipated Phoenix Suns debut on Wednesday night against […]

1 year ago

FILE - Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores stands on the sideline during the second half of an N...

Associated Press

Judge: NFL coach can press discrimination claims in court

NEW YORK (AP) — NFL Coach Brian Flores can pursue some of his discrimination claims against the league and its teams in court rather than through arbitration, a judge ruled Wednesday. The written decision by Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan was issued months after lawyers for the league tried to get the lawsuit moved to […]

1 year ago

Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Alex Stalock cools off in the first period during an NHL hockey game ...

Associated Press

Kane trade reinforces hard reality of Blackhawks rebuild

CHICAGO (AP) — After days of speculation, the harsh reality of the Chicago Blackhawks’ situation was reinforced by one move in a flurry of transactions ahead of the NHL trade deadline. Showtime is over, at least in Chicago, and a seemingly bright future is, well, way off in the distance. The reverberations of Chicago’s decision […]

1 year ago

FILE -  Yves Jean-Bart, president of the Haitian Football Federation, wearing a protective face mas...

Associated Press

Disgraced ex-Haitian soccer president announces he’s back

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s former soccer federation president whose lifetime ban from sport over sexual abuse allegations was overturned last month announced Wednesday that he is reclaiming his position. Yves Jean-Bart’s defiant announcement could lead to a standoff with FIFA, which already has appointed an emergency management committee to lead the Haitian Football Association […]

1 year ago

FILE - Green Bay Packers' Aaron Rodgers walks off the field after an NFL football game against the ...

Associated Press

Rodgers says decision on future will come ‘soon enough’

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Aaron Rodgers says he will make a decision on his future “soon enough” as the four-time MVP quarterback ponders whether to play next season and if his future remains with the Green Bay Packers. Rodgers, 39, discussed his future while speaking on an episode of the “Aubrey Marcus Podcast” that […]

1 year ago

Column: Rams and Bengals put past aside in Super Bowl