L.A. Rams put a ring on it
Fred Jeter | 2/17/2022, 6 p.m.
Put a ring on it.
As an exclamation point to winning Super Bowl LVI, the Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald triumphantly pointed to the ring finger on his left hand. Now the NFL’s most ferocious pass rusher will have a Super Bowl ring to go with his extensive collection of individual awards that include three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
Donald’s finger pointing came after he forced Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow into a feeble fourth-down incompletion that sealed the Rams’tense 23-20 victory Sunday over Cincinnati at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
The Bengals were at midfield and driving for a potential field goal that would have tied the game with 45 seconds left when Donald slammed the door.
Later, the 30-year-old Donald was asked about rumored retirement plans. “I’m just in it for the moment,” he told the media as his daughter, Jaeda, 8, bounced on his lap. “I told Jaeda that someday she’d get to play in the confetti, and now she has.”
Donald has three years and $55 million left on his current Rams contract.
Sooper Dooper Cooper: While Donald sparkled brightest on defense, Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp was the Super Bowl’s overall MVP, with eight catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns.
Kupp had four grabs for 39 yards on the Rams’winning touchdown drive, and the Bengals were flagged three times for penalties trying to defend him.
Motor City remembered: After 12 mostly fruitless seasons with the Detroit Lions, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford struck gold after moving to Los Angeles in a trade. He hit 26 of 40 passes for 283 yards against Cincinnati.
Afterward, in an emotional moment, Stafford dedicated the championship to his loyal fans in Detroit, who have supported him in his new city. Maternity ward: Receiver Van Jefferson was excused from the Rams’ postgame celebration.
He was better needed elsewhere. Soon after the game, Jefferson rushed to a local hospital to assist his wife, Samaria, in the birth of his son.
“I won three prizes today,” Jefferson said, “my wife, my son and the Super Bowl.”
History lesson: While Jackie Robinson is widely celebrated as breaking the color line in major league sports in 1947, it was actually two Los Angeles Rams players who beat him to it.
Ken Washington and Woody Strode, who were teammates of Robinson’s at UCLA, debuted with the Rams in 1946 as the NFL’s first Black players. A year later, Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Home field advantage: The first 54 Super Bowls were played on essentially neutral fields. Now the home team has won two years in a row.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers prevailed last year at its home stadium and now the Rams have done the same at the $5 billion SoFi Stadium that opened a year ago.
Wait till next year: The countdown has started for Super Bowl LVII that will be played Feb. 12, 2023, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.
That means the Arizona Cardinals, a playoff squad this year, have a chance to make it three years in a row for home team advantage.