The Los Angeles Rams kick-off the NFL season against the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night - and they have been warned it is “very, very difficult” to win two straight Super Bowls.
The Rams lifted the Vince Lombardi Trophy last season with victory over the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium. They now enter the new season with a target on their backs and face a mouth-watering opener against the pre-season favourites.
Osi Umenyiora knows all about trying to defend the NFL’s top prize having twice won the Super Bowl with the New York Giants. And he has told the Rams it will be far from easy to achieve a repeat of last year’s success.
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“It’s a very, very difficult thing to do in the NFL,” Umenyiora warned. “It’s very, very hard to repeat.
“You go from being the hunter to the hunted. Everybody is gunning for you, every single game that you play, it becomes their Super Bowl.
“It’s very difficult to repeat, that’s why we haven’t seen it for so long.”
Despite Umenyiora’s warning, his fellow ITV NFL Show pundit Jason Bell is still high on last year’s winners after the addition of wide receiver Allen Robinson.
“I like the Rams,” Bell says. “I think with Allen Robinson, their receiver, they got better after they lost Odell Beckham Jr and I think this team has the hunger to repeat.
“They’re going to be one of the top two teams in the NFC.”
Bell is also a huge fan of their week one opponents and is backing Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills to be right in the mix once again.
“They have all the heat on them,” says Bell. “They have a quarterback that could win MVP, they have one of the best rosters from top to bottom, but it’s the exit of Brian Daboll.
“We’re going to see how the play-calling goes, do they have a problem? I’m going with the Bills now because I like their complete roster, but we know you’ve got to stay healthy and the season is long.
“When you look at their second string defensive line, that would be a decent defensive line on some teams, so they fixed their problems.
“Now it’s all on Josh Allen to go out there and take them to the promised land. We’ll see what happens, but this one makes for a good storyline.”
Watch Laura Woods, Jason Bell and Osi Umenyiora on ITV's The NFL Show every Friday evening, starting on September 9.
