On Sunday, Feb. 13, with one minute and 25 seconds left in the Super Bowl, Rams fans were giddy with excitement, as the Rams pulled ahead with a one yard touchdown reception by future Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp. Forty-two seconds later, on fourth and one, three-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald threw Bengals Quarterback Joe Burrow to the ground as a last-ditch pass bounced harmlessly on the turf. One quarterback kneel later, the Rams were officially Super Bowl Champion. Within minutes of the hometown victory, Harvard Westlake students’ Instagram accounts were flooded with posts of the Rams 2022 Super Bowl win.

Two weeks prior, on Sunday, Jan. 30, the Rams won the NFC Championship and, in doing so, punched their ticket to the Super Bowl for the fifth time since the Championship game was created 55 years ago. What made this one special, though, is that it was played in Los Angeles, at the Rams home stadium.

This enthusiasm about the win was shown by Cale Barker ’27.
“This year’s Rams are the Greatest Show on Turf, Part 2”, Barker said, referring to the nickname of the Rams of the late ’90s, early 2000s who won the Rams only Super Bowl in 2000.

The uniqueness of this year’s game was not lost on at least some of the students.
“It’s exciting that the Rams get to play the Super Bowl in their home stadium,” Alex Dinh ’25 said.

According to CNN, the location of the Super Bowl is decided three to five years in advance by cities placing bids to host the game. This has caused only two home teams in NFL history to host a Super Bowl. Interestingly enough, this is the second time in two years that a team has hosted a Super Bowl, as last year the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in Tampa Bay.

For some, the 2022 Super Bowl was experienced in more depth than others, as Jayan Kandavel ’25’s father and grandfather both attended the game.
“My grandfather always wanted to attend a Super Bowl, and thought that, since the game is in LA, this would be the year to do so,” Kandavel said.
70,048 people went to the Super Bowl, causing it to reach 98% capacity according to ESPN. Super Bowl LVI was one of the most expensive tickets in NFL history, as ticket prices on the official NFL website ranged from $3,000 in the rafters to $100,000 box seats.

These ticket prices came during an otherwise difficult time for the NFL, as it has gone through a series of scandals this year, with many of them still ongoing. This wrongdoing ranges from owners being accused of fostering sexist and hostile workplaces according to Newsweek, to paying coaches to lose according to ESPN, to discriminating against coaches based on race aslo according to ESPN, to everything going on with the circus that is the Las Vegas Raiders. Despite all this, ticket prices were still at all-time highs; ad space was sold out at record prices and parking spaces pushed game-goers back another few hundred.

All of those Super Bowl statistics show what has been evident this entire year, as NFL games accounted for 75 of the top 100 television broadcasts in the U.S. this year, according to Sports Business Journal. The NFL also signed deals last year with many major television networks such as ABC/ESPN, CBS, NBC, Fox and Amazon, worth on average $10.27 billion a year, or $320 million per team per year. The yearly average from the league as a whole is more than three times the revenue of the next biggest major sports league in America, the NBA. The NFL is the king of sports, and with the Los Angeles Rams having beaten the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl, the Rams seized their chance to become its champion.

On a more solemn note for Rams fans, several key components for the Rams, including Head Coach Sean McVay, Aaron Donald, safety Eric Weddle, and offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth are all expected to leave the team next year, with all the players expected to retire, while McVay is expected to take a break to spend more time with family.
The game was played at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The Rams beat the Bengals 23-20 with Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp winning MVP after hauling in eight receptions for 92 yards and two touchdowns.