It's time for the crowning moment in any NFL season, the Super Bowl, and following an NFL play-off series filled with big upsets, we are left with a match-up that few expected.
In Super Bowl LVI, we have the Los Angeles Rams, the often amazing but sometimes inconsistent team from the NFC West who have made their second Super Bowl in four years, and from the AFC North division, the Cincinnati Bengals who are back in the big game for the first time in more than three decades.
In any Super Bowl, it's natural to focus on the quarterbacks and this year is no exception, starting by looking at who hasn't made the decider.
The retirement of Tom Brady, after the play-off exit of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the drama around the future of league MVP Aaron Rodgers at the Green Bay Packers and the shock loss of Patrick Mahomes's Kansas City Chiefs all robbed the Super Bowl of a few big storylines.
But we are left with an intriguing match-up, of a rising star in the Bengals' Joe Burrow and a veteran quarterback in the Rams' Matthew Stafford — who for different reasons would not have even been mentioned as the QB pair for this game before the last 12 months.
Burrow and Stafford, a tale of two number ones
The NFL draft is designed to even things out and avoid teams of generational failure.
As with Australia's AFL, the team with the least wins in the NFL gets the first pick of the entire American college football talent pool, allowing teams to draft for need with the best at their position.
There is, however, a limit to how much you can even things out. Since 1970, 26 quarterbacks have been taken with the number one pick in the draft. Of those, just eight have gone on to win a Super Bowl.
But now, with Burrow facing Stafford, we are guaranteed to have a ninth winner when the clock runs out on Super Bowl LVI.
Stafford was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 2009.
In Stafford's more than a decade with the Lions, they made the play-offs three times but never won a single post-season game.
He was a solid but not brilliant quarterback, throwing 282 touchdowns in that time, averaging a tick over 23 touchdowns a season. But the team as a whole never shaped as a real contender.
Then, before this season, the veteran Stafford was traded by the Lions to the Rams, who felt they needed one more piece to add to their puzzle to get them a Super Bowl win in LA.
This season? The 34-year-old Stafford has thrown a whopping 41 touchdowns, second only to the great Tom Brady at Tampa Bay.
Joe Burrow was the first name called in the 2020 NFL draft by the Bengals a mere two years ago.
The man who led Louisiana State University (LSU) to a national college championship before joining Cincinnati was given the nickname of "Joey Franchise", but after playing in six games in his rookie year Burrow tore two knee ligaments against Kansas City, ending his season.
Burrow made it back for the first week of the new season.
What did he do on return? in his first full season he threw for 34 touchdowns, but it's not just the positive numbers that are important, it's the ones that are normally seen as negative.
The Bengals have big problems with protecting the quarterback — Burrow has been sacked more than 50 times this season, and he still wins for his team. Against the Titans in the play-offs, he was sacked nine times in one game. And Cincinnati still won.
The ones who could win it:
Cooper Kupp and Odell Beckham Jr — Rams wide receivers
The Los Angeles number 10 Cooper Kupp has crazy pace, great hands and has proved almost impossible to stop this season.
He has caught a mind-boggling 145 passes, 16 for touchdowns and Kupp has gained nearly 2,000 yards for the season. It's no real surprise he has just been named the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year. If the Bengals can't stop him, they probably can't stop LA.
Then again, the spotlight on Kupp has some people forgetting the attacking ability of Odell Beckham Jr. OBJ made his name with the New York Giants, now he's playing second or third banana at the Rams, which only makes him more dangerous.
Ja'Marr Chase — Bengals wide receiver
The only reason people aren't shouting even louder about Ja'Marr Chase is Kupp's ridiculous numbers.
In his rookie season, Chase caught 81 passes and 13 touchdowns from Burrow — the same quarterback he played two seasons with at LSU before turning pro — including five of more than 50 yards.
Their understanding may be the counter for the Rams' experienced partnership of Stafford and Kupp, but he will have to have a huge day for Cincinnati to get up.
Evan McPherson — Bengals kicker
In a game that shapes as a pass-heavy shootout, the guy kicking the extra points (conversions after touchdowns) wouldn't normally be in the conversation as an X factor.
However, if the Bengals can keep the game close, they have a rookie kicker with apparent ice in his veins. In the play-offs, McPherson is a perfect 12-from-12 with field goals (worth a handy three points).
The ones who could stop them:
Aaron Donald — Rams defensive tackle
In his eighth season in the league, Donald is the man you want if you want offensive weapons hit hard. He tackles, he sacks the quarterback, he forces fumbles from the opposition — he just plain disrupts.
If Donald gets going against the Bengals, watch out.
Trey Hendrickson — Bengals pass-rusher
If Cincinnati want to stop a steady stream of balls being thrown Kupp and OBJ's way, they will need to find a way of getting to Stafford at quarterback.
For the Bengals, the job will largely fall to Trey Hendrickson, who plays the edge (or outside) position that aims to break through the lines for sacks.
If he can stop the flow for the Rams, this game gets a lot harder for the men in blue and gold.
Jalen Ramsey — Rams cornerback
Ramsey is one of the league's best defensive backs — ask him and he probably says the best.
He wants to go up against Ja'Marr Chase and take out the Bengals' big aerial threat. He'll likely get his wish.
Bengals want to break Super Bowl duck, Rams looking for second win
Any superstitious Cincinnati fans will be glad not to be facing the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVI — the Niners fell to the Rams in the NFC Championship game a fortnight ago.
The only two times the Bengals have got to the Super Bowl in team history, they lost to the 49ers and their legendary quarterback Joe Montana.
In Super Bowl XXIII, Montana led the 49ers 92 yards in less than three minutes to score the winning touchdown with 34 seconds left.
The Rams at least have a Super Bowl win to their credit — but not as Los Angeles. The Rams started in the 1930s in Cleveland, then moved to LA where they contested their first Super Bowl (XIV) in 1980, going down to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They made the big game again 20 years later, this time with the franchise based in St Louis. They barely held off a fast-finishing Tennessee Titans side to win Super Bowl XXXIV, thanks to a defender's desperate grab of the ankle of Tennessee's Kevin Dyson to stop him short of the end zone on the final play.
Two years later the Rams faced Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI, losing 20-17.
Since then they moved back to Los Angeles at the end of the 2015 season. Three years ago, led by quarterback Jared Goff, they came up against Brady and the Patriots once more. They lost again.
