Matthew Stafford and the Rams charge back from a late deficit to beat the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI

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Trailing 20-16, and without injured receiver Odell Beckham Jr., the Los Angeles Rams and quarterback Matthew Stafford appeared to be out of luck against the Cincinnati Bengals in the final minutes of Super Bowl LVI on Sunday night. 

Instead, the veteran signal caller ended his first season with the club by tossing the most memorable pass of his 13-year career: a one-yard touchdown to receiver Cooper Kupp for a late 23-20 lead and, ultimately, a Super Bowl title watched by an estimated record 117million people. 

The score capped a dramatic 79-yard game-winning drive, which was aided by several costly Cincinnati penalties, but was nonetheless a priceless moment for both the team and the Stafford family. 

It was less than three years ago that Stafford’s wife, Kelly, was diagnosed with a brain tumor that threatened to jeopardize their happy life in Detroit, where he was playing at the time. A mother to the couple’s three daughters, the 29-year-old Kelly thought she was battling vertigo before her shocking diagnosis.  

The 12-hour surgery was a success, but recovery was painful as Kelly effectively had to re-learn to walk once the benign tumor had been removed. Ultimately, in June of 2020, she welcomed their fourth daughter, Tyler, who was in attendance for a post-game family hug on the SoFi Stadium turf Sunday night. 

And Kelly’s successful surgery was only the beginning of a major turnaround for the couple, who began dating when they were students at the University of Georgia.  

Stafford, the first pick of the 2009 NFL Draft, had always been known as a top quarterback with a bad supporting cast over a dozen years with the hapless Detroit Lions. The Rams, meanwhile, made it to the Super Bowl with solid-but-unspectacular quarterback Jared Goff three years earlier and saw their offense as lacking in 2019 and 2020.  

So, in a preseason move that now looks nothing short of prophetic, LA traded Goff, two first-round picks, and a third-rounder to Detroit for Stafford. 

The rest, as the football-loving world found out on Sunday, is history. 

‘We’re a freaking tough team, and we showed up late and got it done,’ Stafford said afterwards.  

Kupp, who finished with eight receptions for 95 yards and two touchdowns, was named Super Bowl MVP, but it was Stafford who may have had the biggest smile on his face after throwing for three touchdowns and a pair of interceptions.   

‘I’m just so proud of this team,’ Stafford added. ‘It’s such a team victory. Our defense played outstanding, special teams, timely and big when we needed it. Such a great game.’

For the Rams – a team founded in Cleveland in 1937 before moving to Los Angeles in 1946, to St. Louis in 1995, and back to LA in 2016 – the victory marks their second Super Bowl win and fourth NFL title. 

Los Angeles’ 23-20 victory on Sunday night was a remarkable story of perseverance through injury setbacks that would have crushed most teams – including the Rams, if not for one final scoring drive catalyzed by Kupp and Stafford.

The Rams played the fourth quarter of their home Super Bowl with rookies Ben Skowronek and Brycen Hopkins logging significant playing time. That’s because Odell Beckham Jr. went down with a knee injury in the second quarter, leaving the Rams to finish their final game without four of their top six pass-catchers by yardage from the regular season.

In their place, the Rams sent out their two rookies along with tight end Kendall Blanton, a borderline third-stringer when the season began. Running back Darrell Henderson, who hadn’t played since Dec. 26 because of an injury, was used extensively as a pass-catching target partly because the Rams had no other bodies to do it.

Improbably, they made it work: Stafford targeted Kupp repeatedly on the final drive, all the way to Kupp’s decisive TD catch with 1:25 to play.  

‘Those guys just did a great job,’ Sean McVay, the NFL’s youngest head coach at 36, said of his Rams. ‘They took over that game.’

They did so in their home, the $5 billion SoFi Stadium, making the Rams the second consecutive host to win the championship after Tampa Bay became the first a year ago.

‘As far as building this stadium,’ said Rams owner Stan Kroenke, the man who moved them back from St. Louis in 2016, ‘I think it turned out all right.’

The winning series, during which game MVP Kupp’s 4-yard touchdown reception from Stafford was negated by offsetting penalties, ended soon after with the NFL Offensive Player of the Year easily beating Eli Apple in the right corner of the end zone for the winning score. 

Kupp had four receptions for 39 yards, and a 7-yard run on fourth-and-1 from the Rams’ 30 on the championship drive. Cincinnati was penalized the second-fewest times (72) for the fewest yards (620) in the regular season but flags on three consecutive plays hurt badly – including interference on Kupp in the end zone.

‘I don’t feel deserving of this,’ Kupp said. ‘The guys standing here challenged me, they pushed me. I am just so grateful.’

Even with that brilliant, decisive march to the Lombardi Trophy, it was LA’s ‘fearsome fivesome’ that made the difference. 

Led by Aaron Donald and Von Miller, they sacked Joe Burrow a Super Bowl record-tying seven times, shutting down Cincinnati’s offense after the Bengals took the lead and then added to it with a field goal during a 22-second spurt to start the second half.

Fittingly, Burrow was under pressure on fourth-and-1 and threw incomplete, setting off a football fiesta this city has not seen since the LA Raiders won the 1983 championship.

A tearful Donald said after the crowning achievement of a certain Hall of Fame career, ‘I wanted it so bad. I dreamed this.’

Added McVay: ‘For the offense to be able to find a way, and then Aaron to be able to finish it off, it’s poetic, man.’

The 10 quick points at the outset of the third quarter put Cincinnati ahead for the first time. Tee Higgins’ 75-yard score made it 17-13 and was followed one play later by Chidobe Awuzie’s pick. Evan McPherson tied Adam Vinatieri’s postseason record with his 14th field goal, a 38-yarder.

Higgins beat All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey on the first play of the second half — the receiver clearly tugged Ramsey’s face mask on the play. After Stafford was intercepted on the next play, the Bengals got McPherson’s field goal.

Then they tried to hold on as all of southwest Ohio held its breath.

But LA’s relentless pass rush, led by its two biggest stars, Donald and Miller with two apiece, allowed nothing more.

Then came the 15-play march in which Kupp also converted the fourth down with his run.

‘We wanted to be in attack mode and pressure them as much as possible,’ Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. ‘Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.’

Kupp even earned the MVP honor despite often being double-teamed after fellow wideout Odell Beckham Jr. – who had a touchdown catch on Los Angeles’ second drive for the game’s first score – went out with a knee injury in the second period. Kupp finished with eight receptions for 92 yards.

One fear for Rams followers was ill-advised throws by Stafford, and he had two. His deep pass moving left was picked in the end zone late in the first half by Jessie Bates III. On his second interception, rookie Ben Skowronek could only deflect it — directly to Awuzie.

Other than Matt Gay’s 41-yard field goal later in the third quarter, it was all defense until the Rams’ relentless drive to win it.

Energized from the outset, the crowd of 70,048 at the stadium that opened in 2020 roared to introductions of each team by The Rock. Then the Bengals fans, far louder than their Rams counterparts early on, got to rocking when Trey Hendrickson sacked Stafford, leading to a punt.

LA’s defense responded by holding on third and fourth downs with a yard to go at midfield. Ernest Jones knocked down a pass for Ja’Marr Chase to turn over the ball, and the excellent field position set up the first touchdown.

Beckham, who joined the Rams in Week 10 after being exiled from Cleveland, easily beat Mike Hilton on a corner pattern for the 17-yard score on third down. Then Beckham showed off his moonwalk in the end zone.

Kupp’s first touch, also on third down, was a short throw from Stafford he turned into a 20-yard gain when Jessie Bates III fanned on a tackle. That would not be the last whiff by the Bengals, and it cost them mightily at the end.

The most intriguing matchup of this Super Bowl, Offensive Rookie of the Year receiver Chase against All-Pro Ramsey, got real juicy late in the opening quarter. Chase brilliantly tracked Burrow’s throw and made a one-handed grab over Ramsey for a 46-yard gain to the LA 11. The drive went no further and rookie McPherson kept intact his spotless field goal streak in the postseason with a 29-yarder.

Unlike the Bengals, the Rams turned their early big plays into touchdowns. Beckham took advantage of two defenders colliding to pick up 35 yards on the next drive, Darrell Henderson got 25 while covered by Hendrickson dropping back – huh? – and Kupp was wide open in the right corner of the end zone for his 11-yard score.

‘It just comes down to this team and the way we prepared, they way we loved on each other, trusted each other,’ Kupp said.

As has been their wont when behind in the playoffs, though, the Bengals responded with a 75-yard drive capped by the trickery of Joe Mixon. He was so efficient running that the secondary was sucked in when Burrow handed off, and Mixon lobbed a 6-yard TD pass to Higgins.

It remained 13-10 until halftime, with Beckham’s left knee injury most notable; he had to be helped off the field and didn’t return. 

There was about as much hip-hop as a stadium can hold at Super Bowl halftime, with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar splitting a fiery medley of their hits as expected, and a surprise appearance by 50 Cent.

It was a rare Super Bowl halftime show performed in the daylight, but it still had a feeling of a nightclub at SoFi Stadium on Sunday, with a set made up to look like the houses of nearby Compton and South LA.

Dre and Snoop opened the show with ‘Next Episode’ and ‘California Love.’

50 Cent, not among the announced performers, started his ‘In Da Club.’

Blige was decked out in silver sparkles and surrounded by backup dancers as she sang a medley of her hits.

Eminem was surrounded by a rock band as he performed ‘Lose Yourself,’ at one point taking a knee in apparent tribute to Colin Kaepernick’s protests.

The set was surrounded by what looked like a lit-up cityscape from above, with classic convertibles and a replica of the sculpture outside the Compton Courthouse.

The crowd had lanyards with LED lights that flashed in coordination with the show´s beats. 

Super Bowl LVI nearly made history at kickoff before either the Rams or Bengals began their opening drives.

The temperature two hours before kickoff was 85 degrees, but cooled down to 79. The record of 84 was set on January 14, 1973, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. California has been dealing with a heat wave with eight locations in the region posting record temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s earlier this week.

And aside from the heat, getting into Sunday’s Super Bowl was equally frustrating.

StubHub says the get-in price Sunday was $3,800, a jump of 10 percent from Saturday, and the average price for tickets sold was $6,136. That’s a dip of 8 percent from Saturday.

The site still had more than 1,400 tickets available Sunday morning.

Fans from California bought nearly 40 percent more tickets over the last 24 hours and also nearly 35 percent of new tickets sold in that span.

The Cincinnati faithful were busy as buyers from Ohio accounted for 8 percent of sales. 

Matthew Stafford’s wife Kelly, 29, issued stark warning about self-care to other moms as she recovered from brain tumor surgery

Kelly Stafford, wife of LA Ram’s Super Bowl winning quarterback Matt Stafford, in 2019 urged her fellow mothers to make time for their own self care as she continues to recover after having major surgery to remove a brain tumor. 

Former cheerleader Kelly, 29, confessed that she initially ignored telling signs, like feeling dizzy and lightheaded, putting her weak spells down to caring for three daughters under the age of two.   

Now, six months since her 12-hour surgery to remove a benign tumor known as acoustic neuroma, Atlanta, Georgia-born Kelly has spoken out to urge other busy young moms to ‘take some time to make sure you are OK’. 

In a personal essay penned for ESPN, Kelly said, ‘If there’s anything I want people to take away from my story, it’s for mothers.’

‘If you ever feel the slightest bit off, you need to take the time to get it checked out. You don’t have to put everything on your back. Sometimes, you need to take some time to make sure you are OK.’  

Kelly added gravely that if she had of put things off any longer, she would have lost her hearing.  

Kelly went into detail about ignoring the tell-tale signs that something was off.    

She recalled, ‘The first moment I was really concerned was last January. I was in Michigan, and had just gotten a massage. When I walked out, I just didn’t feel right. 

‘I was lightheaded and it felt like the world was spinning around me. I texted Matthew: “I might need you to come pick me up.” But then I waited a little bit in my car, and started feeling better, so I drove home myself.’

However, one week later, Kelly felt lightheaded again but this time she was holding her infant daughter Hunter, one. 

‘The room started spinning around me and I felt like I was going to fall down. I almost threw Hunter to Matthew, because I didn’t want her to go down with me.’ 

‘Looking back, there were other moments over the past year where I was feeling off,’ Kelly added. 

‘Like when I would show my girls how to do a front roll or twirl in ballet class, then immediately felt dizzy, or like I couldn’t balance. I mean, those were things I had done my entire life, and suddenly they were difficult. 

‘Maybe I’m just aging, I had figured at the time. My mom quickly shot that down. I wasn’t even 30.’

While Florida-native Matthew, 31, urged Kelly to get checked out, but being so busy caring for her three young daughters, she put things off.   

‘As a mom, you’re always on the run. You’re chasing after your kids or worrying about your family. You tend to put yourself on the back burner. So I didn’t feel the urgency to go to the doctor,’ she wrote. 

As well as baby Hunter, Kelly and Matthew are also parents to identical twins, Sawyer and Chandler, two. 

The day she almost dropped Hunter, she was due to go to California on a family vacation. While she initially thought she was too busy to go to the ER, she went to get checked out before the flight. 

‘My blood work looked great. My vitals were fine. Doctors offered to do an MRI, but I said I didn’t have time. So they gave me Antivert, which is a medicine for vertigo, and we left for vacation. The problem was, the medicine wasn’t having any effect on me.’

While in California, Kelly scheduled an MRI after Matthew talked to the Detroit Lions’ team doctor about what was going on. 

Kelly wrote that she was terrified when she received the results.   

‘A few days after the MRI, we got the results. The medical term was an acoustic neuroma or vestibular schwannoma. There was a tumor sitting on some of my cranial nerves. I was told I needed to have surgery to remove it. And I was terrified.’

‘Not at first. At first, we didn’t have any idea of where this was going to go, and we just needed to figure out how to deal with it. 

‘But as the day went on, my fears started to show themselves. What if this thing gets taken out and something goes wrong? What if something happens before that? My biggest fear is not being here, and not being here to raise my girls.’

When the surgery was scheduled for April, Kelly was told that there was a 50 per cent chance she would lose her hearing. 

Thankfully, everything went as planned and Kelly praised her doctor, Dr Greg Thompson, for his patience.

‘I can’t say enough good things about him. A few times, he stopped the surgery because my audio waves went dead. His patience is what saved my hearing. He made everyone stop and wait until the wave return.

She continued, ‘Matthew told me, “If it’s good news after the surgery, I’ll be standing on your right side. If it’s bad news, I’ll be on your left.” I don’t remember much after waking up, but I do know he was standing on my right side.’

After surgery, Kelly had to relearn how to walk with the help of a physical therapist – something that she initially couldn’t manage.  

‘I remember looking at her and I was like, “Nope.” I felt dizzy just sitting, there was no way I was getting up. I felt really defeated that day. She said she would come back tomorrow. I was dreading it, dreading it all morning, waiting for her to come back. 

‘I grew up playing so many sports, putting one foot in front of the other should be second nature for anybody. But for me at that point, it was really tough,’ Kelly continued. 

Not being able to see her daughters for two weeks after surgery was also a difficult part of the recovery, but she praised her husband for his selfless care throughout. 

‘Matthew was incredible during the whole process. He was literally by my side at every step,’ she said.

Kelly admits she sometimes ‘still has bad days’, but in the last six months she has taken to boxing for exercise. 

‘Boxing is the best workout I can do. It’s not only so tiring physically, but for me, it’s exhausting mentally. 

‘My brain is having to figure out all these moving parts… and at a very fast pace. Sometimes I get dizzy, but I know that’s my brain learning and it’s good for me to push it,’ she wrote recently on Instagram. 

Football games, or anywhere that involves loud crowds, are no longer a major part of Kelly’s life.

‘I’ve only gone to one football game this year. They’re exhausting for me…but the noise and constant action would be tough for me. 

‘This football season, in general, feels different for us. We have a different outlook. 

‘Matthew is still going out there and doing everything he can for the team, but going through this, you realize that in the end, family is the only thing you have,’ she said.

‘These days, I feel pretty good. Days are longer. Some days are hard – some mornings I wake up a little foggy, and know I have to take the day a little slower. 

‘It’s rarer for me to get dizzy. Background noise can be tough (but also good – sometimes I don’t hear what I don’t want to hear).’ 

‘I’ll probably look into hearing aids for safety reasons soon. I do hope to go to football games again, but I don’t want to injure the ear we worked so hard to save,’ she added.

‘The doctors said it would take about a year for me to feel symptom-free and have the same energy I had before.  October 17 marks six months. I’m really excited to hit that marker.’