The city of luminaries is looking for a legend in its first Super Bowl in almost 30 years

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford.AP

For two weeks, Rasheed Williams, 28, has been setting up his stall at the intersection of La Brea and Obama avenues, west of downtown Los Angeles.

He sells jerseys and flags for the Rams, the home team playing this Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals for the Super Bowl LVI football title.

"It's been crazy," says the seller.

Stalls like this have flourished in various parts of the city.

It's just a sign of the passions the game has aroused in a town accustomed to celebrities but orphaned for nearly 30 years of an NFL feat.

It's American football's turn in the stronghold of the Lakers and Dodgers, two teams with deep roots in the city.

The Rams, on the other hand, have this Sunday the opportunity to complete a long process of seduction after having returned in 2016 from a 21-year stay in Missouri.

There they won their only trophy in 1999. "If you were born in Los Angeles after 1995 you grew up without a team," reflected Kevin Demoff, one of the executives of the Rams, a franchise that reached the Super Bowl in 2019, but was defeated by Brady's Patriots.

A survey published this week supported this idea.

Only 26% of fans consider the Rams their team in the city they share with the Chargers.

56% of Americans believe that the Rams will be crowned on Sunday at SoFi Stadium, a project of 5,000 million dollars.

Seats at the top of the stadium cost $6,000.

The most exclusive spaces were sold through agencies dedicated to luxury.

One offered an 18-seat box set with food and drinks included for $1.1 million.

If the Rams win, it will be the second consecutive title achieved by a franchise at home, after Tom Brady's last feat in Tampa Bay in 2021. To achieve this, they must defeat the Bengals, a team born of heartbreak.

Its founding legend occurred in Ohio, where Paul Brown, a famous college coach, was hired after World War II to lead a team in Cleveland, a city in the north of the State.

He called them the Browns, who dominated an alternative league before moving to the NFL in the 1960s. Brown was fired in 1963. Upset and disappointed, he left the sport for five years.

He came back with a vengeance, and invested in a team from southern Ohio.

He named them the Cincinatti Bengals, which has the same initials as the Browns.

He doubled down on the boldness by wearing the same colors, orange and brown.

But two teams in one State have not brought too many wins.

The Browns have never played in a Super Bowl.

The Bengals have lost two against San Francisco in the 1980s.

The revival of this team happened last year.

They return to the final after 33 years at the hands of one of the great promises of the sport, Joe Burrow, a 25-year-old young man.

He is a model

in the United States: he won the 2019 college championship with the University of Louisiana, in a high-performance league considered the hotbed of great NFL talent.

He won the Heisman, the trophy for the best college player.

The poor results of the Bengals in the 2019-2020 season, where they had 14 losses in 16 games, allowed them to pick first in the

.

So they did with Burrow, who can become the first in history on Sunday with a college degree, a Heisman and a Super Bowl ring.

Burrow's first year as a pro was a complex one.

He suffered a torn ACL, which left the team without an offensive head, leaving the Bengals last in their division.

The star boy returned for 2021 posting a record of 10 wins and seven losses, enough to sneak into the postseason.

They have been rated as the underdogs, but they beat the favorites: Raiders, Titans and Patrick Mahomes' Chiefs.

Matthew Stafford (34 years old), Burrow's rival as

Rams

He has only allowed one interception in postseason games.

He has a great rapport with wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who has been unstoppable the past few games.

Another unbalanced factor is Odell Beckham Jr., a 29-year-old veteran who prefers parties to workouts.

The defense led by Von Miller and Aaron Donald holds the key to victory.

05:12

The keys to the SUPER BOWL 2022: the mystique of the BURROW Bengals or the DEFENSE of the Rams

The Vince Lombardi trophy next to the Rams and Bengals helmets.

Los Angeles has hosted seven Super Bowls.

The first in history was played here, in 1967. The 1972 Miami Dolphins forged their legend, winning the VII edition against Washington.

The last final played in the city was in 1993. OJ Simpson was in charge of tossing the coin to choose which team started with the ball.

Michael Jackson was at the halftime show.

On Friday, the Rams wrapped up their final workout with a stretch session.

, Tupac Shakur's classic theme,

was playing from the speakers in the field of Thousand Oaks .

The NFL has corrected years of omissions and has finally delivered the most watched event in America to rap.

Last year, the final was tuned in by 96 million people, the worst audience figure since 2007. The organizers are now looking to break the 2015 record (114 million).

For this they have brought together legends of the genre in the cradle of rap on the west coast.

Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar will take over the halftime show, the most sought-after time slot on American television.

A 30-second slot on NBC costs seven million dollars.

Prince St. Julian, owner of a barbershop in Compton, the origin of gangster rap groups like NWA, spoke about his expectations of the match.

“It's like a holiday.

My children will not go to school on Monday, ”said the 41-year-old man.

“Justice has finally been done.

Kendrick and Dre got out of here.

Snoop is from Long Beach,” he confesses while saying that the musical number is the only thing that will make him turn on the television on Sunday.

Miles away, at Rasheed's stand, the rappers also appear on T-shirts next to the names of Stafford, Beckham Jr., and Aaron Donald.

The Bengals, on the other hand, want to take Los Angeles by storm.

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