They did it! After the Los Angeles Rams took on the Cincinnati Bengals during the Super Bowl LVI matchup on Sunday, February 13, the Rams came out victorious at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
After a back-and-forth matchup, the Rams finished the game 23-20. After wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. earned the squad their first touchdown of the night, he left the field early amid a knee injury. The Rams eventually came back to take home the Lombardi Trophy.
“[I’m] so proud of this team, so many guys on our team that deserve it,” quarterback Matthew Stafford told NBC reporters shortly after the game’s conclusion. “We work together every single day.”
Before the second half, fans watched Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar sing a melody of their combined greatest hits during a star-studded halftime show. Mickey Guyton also sang the national anthem and Jhené Aiko crooned “America the Beautiful” at the top of the game.
“The opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show, and to do it in my own backyard, will be one of the biggest thrills of my career,” Dre, 56, said via a statement in September 2021. “I’m grateful to JAY-Z, Roc Nation, the NFL and Pepsi as well as Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar for joining me in what will be an unforgettable cultural moment.”
Super Bowl LVI marked the first time both teams’ quarterbacks — the Rams’ Stafford, 34, and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow, respectively — were in the running for the Lombardi Trophy. (Stafford previously played for the Detroit Lions before being traded to L.A. in 2021. Burrow, for his part, was drafted by the Bengals in 2020 after a successful college career.)
The Bengals’ Super Bowl LVI appearance is the first time the Ohio-based team has been in the championship game since 1988. The Rams, meanwhile, last played in the championship in February 2019 against the New England Patriots in which Tom Brady’s former team won 13–3.
Ahead of Sunday’s game, both quarterbacks faced tremendous pressure going into their first NFL championship.
“I am so excited for him, I mean he has worked his butt off for a long time,” the former Detroit Lions player’s wife, Kelly Stafford, told Good Morning America on Wednesday, February 9. “He had so much pressure on him. That team had so much pressure on them. And if they didn’t make it to the Super Bowl they were a bust, you know? So now that that pressure is kind of taken off in a way, he can just go play this game and have some fun, while he’s doing it.”