The Los Angeles Rams, SoFi Stadium and the wife of quarterback Matthew Stafford take center stage in the Season 1 finale of "Earnin' It: The NFL's Forward Progress," a five-part docuseries from NFL Films that highlights the roles and careers of some of the more powerful and influential women in football.
The streaming series profiles female team owners, coaches, officials, players, agents, reporters and more, and is available on Peacock. The series is narrated by Ciara Wilson — wife of Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson — and executive produced by Jane Skinner Goodell and Teri Wagner Flynn.
The finale was shot during Super Bowl LVI and focuses on Mary J. Blige, the only female headliner in the halftime show; Dionne Harmon, the halftime show's executive producer; NBC sideline reporter Michelle Tafoya; Cathy Lanier, head of NFL security; Hannah Epstein, NFL Films' first female cinematographer; TV producer Lakisha Wesseling, who lost her husband, NFL podcaster Chris Wesseling, to cancer last year; and Kelly Stafford, who was mic'd up for her husband's winning performance against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Goodell, wife of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, said the final episode was something to a "love letter" to Los Angeles and was almost poetic in the way it came together, with the Rams winning the Super Bowl on their home field.
"People talk about this fairy-tale ending for this season, but it all kind of fell into place, between having the Rams playing at home, and then that halftime show which was so reflective of L.A. and culture and those artists who had been waiting for their time," she said. "It was their time, the Rams' time, L.A.'s time, SoFi's time. It all came together.
"That was a dream episode for us. We had talked about it at the beginning of the year, how to make that last episode — we knew we were going to shoot the majority of it on Super Bowl Sunday in L.A., but we didn't know who was going to be playing. But we wanted to make it special and reflective of the change that L.A. has seen in just the last several years and just how special it all feels to be standing at that stadium and at that site."
In an Instagram post, Kelly Stafford said she initially was hesitant about watching the game while mic'd up. Wesseling had similar concerns.
"For Kelly and Lakisha it was so personal," Jane Skinner Goodell said. "They had to trust that we were not there to exploit them in any way but really only there to allow a viewer to share their emotions and their passion.
"Lakisha said she wanted be able to show this to their son someday and say, `People got to know who your dad was.' So that's super powerful. To be able to do that through the game of football, I felt very fortunate."
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