Super Bowl 2022 LIVE: Los Angeles Rams vs Cincinnati Bengals result as Cooper Kupp wins MVP

Cooper Kupp doesn’t have the typical profile of a record-breaking receiver. An unheralded high school recruit who played his college football at Eastern Washington, Kupp was taken in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams, and has since exploded into one of the NFL’s most dangerous receiving threats.

A precise route-runner, Kupp is a man coverage killer, all subtlety and skill in manipulating defensive backs with his footwork in and out of his breaks. He has proved virtually unable to stop one-on-one this season, and adds so much value to the Rams offense with his ability as a blocker, allowing Sean McVay to stay in his favoured 11 personnel and still create favourable match-ups in the run game. Voted NFL Offensive Player of the Year after a season that saw him finish with the second most receiving yards in history, Kupp could be set for another huge game - the Bengals don’t really have anyone with a hope of staying with the wideout, and look for Matthew Stafford to throw his way early and often.

Check out Bengals linebacker Germaine Pratt’s rather unique set of cleats.

If the Bengals season is a story of how an NFL team can stumble on to a winning formula and make the Super Bowl, then the Rams are the archetype of going all-in on reaching this stage. 12 months ago, Sean McVay assessed his roster and decided he was done with the limitations forced upon him by Jared Goff - a great offensive innovator wanted a new, better toy to play with.

He convinced Les Snead to swing a trade for Matthew Stafford, the beleaguered big-armed quarterback who had had enough of Detroit. Stafford arrived in exchange for Goff and two first-round picks - a lofty price for a player without winning experience in the playoffs, but a statement of the Los Angeles Rams’ intent.

That approach has continued throughout the season, with the Rams eschewing future draft capital and cap mobility to add as much talent as possible. Requiring a front-seven pass-rusher to complement Aaron Donald, Von Miller was lured west from Denver. Recognising the value and variety a second blue-chip reciever of Odell Beckham’s talents could give his offense, McVay took a chance on the at-times troubled wideout.

It has worked. At every stage of the season, the Rams looked like a likely Super Bowl contender, even as Stafford struggled through a midseason dip, but the quarterback has been back to his best for the playoffs, and added an extra dimension to the Rams offense, accentuating the play design that took McVay and his team to their first Super Bowl three years ago. They are a complete team full of stars - and enjoy home-field advantage for Super Bowl LVI.

Of course, Joe Burrow has elevated a limited roster and head coach before. At the start of the 2019 NCAA season, Burrow was a player of limited profile, off the back of an average first year at LSU after transferring from Ohio State. In an SEC dominated by Nick Saban’s all-conquering Alabama, and with a young roster without swathes of established stars, their hopes of a National Championship looked slim.

But behind a record-breaking season from Burrow, they just kept winning, beating the Crimson Tide on their way to an undefeated season and dispatching powerhouses Oklahoma and Clemson in the College Football Playoff. Burrow threw five touchdowns and ran for another in a virtuoso title game performance against Clemson - the quarterback is a big game player.

Even the most ardent Cincinnati Bengals fans would admit that this has been an unlikely run to the Super Bowl. Simply put, the Bengals were not contenders at the start of the season, with an under-pressure head coach, a makeshift defence, a patchwork offensive line and a young quarterback coming back from a torn ACL. The hope, it seemed, was for tangible improvement, growth for Joe Burrow, and the chance to set themselves up for another opportunity to build in a competitive AFC North.

How differently things have panned out. The other-worldly confidence and charisma of Joe Burrow has energised this team, reunited with Jamarr Chase to make sweet offensive music and overcome the offensive line issues. A defensive unit comprised mainly of free agent signings has gelled better than anyone thought, elevating their level as the season reached its pointy end and carrying the Bengals through the playoffs. It may not look much like a Super Bowl roster, but the Bengals have earned their place on this stage, as Jack Rathborn explains:

You suspected that Joe Burrow would have some fresh threads ready for the big stage, and the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback has not disappointed.

For the first time in 29 years, the Super Bowl is back in the City of Angels, SoFi stadium sparking in the California sunshine with kick-off an hour-and-a-half away. The longest season in NFL history all comes down to four quarters.

Joe Burrow has enjoyed a fairytale run to get his team here to the big game after a serious injury to his knee a year ago.

Returning after extensive reconstructive surgery Burrow helped the Bengals go from the foot of the AFC North all the way to conference champions.

Burrow, the first pick in the 2020 Draft, now hopes to guide Cincinnati to a first Super Bowl in franchise history.