Superbowl LVI: More Than a Game for Los Angeles
Photo by Deseret News
After an eventful season for both the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams, the two teams met up for the biggest football game of the year—the Super Bowl. This year the Bowl game of all Bowl games was held at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles County, California, on Sunday, February 13th. There are many points of view on just how the Super Bowl influences the US, and how it may be more than football, but before we cover that, let’s see how the game played out.
The 3:30 PST kick-off put the ball into the Rams’ hands first, but it was not until their 2nd possession of the ball that Odell Beckham Jr. scored the first touchdown of the game to put LA on the board. The Bengals capped off the first quarter with a field goal by Evan McPherson. The 2nd quarter started with a touchdown thrown to Cooper Kupp from Matthew Satfford for LA, but the attempt for a two-point conversion failed. The 2nd touchdown in the 2nd quarter was one for Cincinnati. The pass to Tee Higgins was not done by Joe Burrow, though, and instead was thrown by Joe Mixon. Mixon is only the fifth non-quarterback to throw a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. The touchdown by Cincinnati was the last score of the half, so the score at halftime was 13-10 LA leading.
Within the first minute of the 2nd half, Burrow passed the ball to Higgins for a 75-yard touchdown for Cincinnati. Just one play later, the ball was intercepted by Cincinnati, but they were not able to turn this possession into a touchdown, so they settled for another field goal made by McPherson. LA’s possession after 10 plays long ends in a field goal by Matt Gay. This field goal was scored with almost 6 minutes left in the third quarter, and the next scoring play was not made until 1 minute and 25 seconds were left in the fourth quarter. This scoring play was a 2nd & Goal touchdown pass to Kupp after a 15-play drive for LA. Cincinnati was not able to turn the last minute of play into a game-tying field goal or game-winning touchdown, so the LA Rams took the victory and the 56th Vince Lombardi Trophy.
The Super Bowl did not deliver only good news to LA, though, as Beckham Jr. suffered a noncontact injury to the knee in the 2nd quarter which meant he had to watch from the sidelines while his team scraped out a win in the last two minutes of the game. People are worried about this injury because it’s the same knee that saw an ACL tear last season. Beckham Jr. has support from his teammates and fans, so hopefully, he can have a smooth and quick recovery. Bengals QB Burrow also suffered a scare in the 2nd half when his knee was tweaked during a sack. Burrow was able to return to gameplay later, though, and there are reports that he will not need post-season surgery, so we should expect to see him back on the field this fall.
Now for some fun stats: sacks and penalties. After the end of the Super Bowl, Burrow was sacked a total of 70 times in the 2021-2022 season. That is the third-highest in NFL history. In the Super Bowl alone, he was sacked 7 times. It is honestly amazing to think that the most sacked quarterback currently in the NFL almost won the Super Bowl. Still, a team that makes it to the most important game of the season should not be allowing a season total of 70 sacks on their QB. While Stafford was sacked, too, LA only allowed two sacks. Apart from sacks, penalties are always something fans of football praise and denounce almost in the same breath. Despite many plays being made that could warrant a penalty, the first 58 minutes of the game were penalty-free. Only 6 penalties were called in the whole game, three of which came during the final LA drive that resulted in the game-winning touchdown. The 2nd to last penalty is the one that Cincinnati fans are up in arms about because before Logan Wilson’s defensive holding penalty, there was a missed false start penalty that should have been called on LA. It’s a huge what-if scenario when people get into those debates because maybe LA would have still won the game with the false start penalty being called. Still, it is something for the Cincinnati fans to hold on to in the off-season to lick their wounds.
Now that we’ve recapped the actual game, let’s talk about reasons why some people don’t care about the football part of this football game. Many people whose team does not make it to the Super Bowl still tune in every year “for the commercials.” Super Bowl commercials are known for being over the top with A-list celebrities starring in them. This year’s ads included a Taco Bell commercial with Doja Cat, and one from BMW depicting Arnold Schwarzenegger and Salma Hayek as a retired Zeus and Hera. Over 100 million TV viewers tuned into the Super Bowl this year. It’s this number that makes companies think it is worth it to cough up the $6.5 million to get a 30-second ad spot. For companies, the LA Rams winning the Super Bowl doesn’t matter because it’s a business opportunity, not a game.
Since Super Bowl standard seating costs between $5000-$20,000, and suite seating can go for up to millions, it’s safe to say that a lot of the people in attendance are not there because this was the first time the Cincinnati Bengals had been in the Super Bowl since 1989. Watching the game on Sunday there were countless celebrities spotted, and when I checked my Instagram the next day it was like half of the influencers that I followed went to the game because of some brand sponsoring them. Many of them joked about how they did not know why they were there and that they were not big football fans, but hey, it’s the Super Bowl; it’s become less a fan or spectator event and more of an event for the event’s sake.
Like the Olympics, cities that are picked to host the biggest game in football are eager to cough up millions if not billions of dollars to sustain the event and make sure everyone knows what their city has to offer. The festivities and extravagance of the game can also distract people from the ugly stuff going on behind the scenes. Leading up to the match-up on the 13th, an encampment of homeless people set up near SoFi Stadium was cleared for concerns of safety, but many residents of this camp are of a different opinion. Sofi Villalpando, who works with some of the residents in this camp, said, “It feels like [authorities] are removing people so they won’t be seen.” Many of the residents are confused why the Los Angeles County officials would not just clear a portion of the site to make sure fans walking to the Super Bowl would not be disturbed. Many residents were left without the mattresses and couches they had used to sleep on for months or even years. They were quite literally left alone on the curb.
LA is set to host the 2028 Summer Olympics which will require the use of many more complexes than just a football stadium. If they must address their homelessness problem for one game for one weekend, then what will they do when the biggest sports tournament comes to town where different games are played from sunup to sundown for two weeks? Also, as one of the most visited cities in the US with 50 million people coming in every year, you would think LA would put money into programs to combat their homelessness issue rather more permanently than pay millions of dollars to host a football game that will uproot people from the only semblance of shelter they know.
LA has received some backlash for their handling of the Super Bowl, but it does not seem like any accountability or consequences will result. Celebrities and influencers going to the Super Bowl for brand deals will continue to be seen as exciting rather than disturbing. Marginalized groups will still be overlooked for the greater monetization of their cities. Football fans will still tune in to the game every year from all over the country, but they will be the only ones concerned with Odell Beckham Jr catching a touchdown pass on his home field, or Evan McPherson never missing a kick. The Super Bowl has become more than just a football game, and it does not seem like that is changing anytime soon.
