Super Bowl LVI has many story lines

The Super Bowl often produces a number of firsts.

Among the unprecedented aspects of this year's National Football League championship game on Sunday is that whether the Los Angeles Rams or the Cincinnati Bengals emerge victorious, it will be the first time that a team from either city has won the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The Rams as a franchise did win the title game in 2000, but that was when they were based in St. Louis, not Southern California.

It also will be the first time that consecutive Super Bowls will feature a team with a home-field advantage. The spectacular SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California — the house of the Rams — is the setting for Super Bowl LVI (56).

Last year's title game was played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who defeated the Kansas City Chiefs.

Super Bowl venues are selected years in advance and usually are held in warm weather locales, so it is entirely coincidental when a team gets to play the game "at home".

Speaking of warm weather, this year's game could be the hottest on record, with the National Weather Service forecasting temperatures as high as 90 F (32.2 C), 20 degrees above normal, in the Los Angeles area this week.

The Rams are around a 4-point favorite in the game, scheduled for a 6:30 pm EST kickoff on NBC, and the betting action will be heavy as more US states have approved sports betting, accessible through competing smartphone apps.

Both teams have outstanding quarterbacks — Matthew Stafford of the Rams (12-5), and Joe Burrow of the Bengals (10-7).

Stafford, 34, who played 12 years for the Detroit Lions before joining the Rams this season, never made it to an NFL championship game during his days in Michigan.

Burrow, known as "Joe Cool" for his calm demeanor and flashy outfits, already has an outstanding football resume at the age of 25. He not only led his college team, the Louisiana State Tigers, to an undefeated national championship season in 2019-20, but he also won college football's top award, the Heisman Trophy.

Burrow was born in Iowa and grew up in south central Ohio, about 130 miles as the crow flies from Cincinnati, and has electrified the Rust Belt city with his rise to the top of the NFL.

Stafford will look to connect with the NFL's most productive receiver, Cooper Kupp. And the Rams' ferocious pass rush, led by Aaron Donald, will try to pile up sacks on Burrow, who in turn will look to get the ball to his college teammate, Ja'Marr Chase. The Bengals have made it this far also due to an opportunistic defense, which has produced timely turnovers.

For those who want to see the game in person, the current average price for a ticket online, according to the SeatGeek website, is $9,635. The cheapest seat was going for $3,300, as prices actually were dropping closer to kickoff when it's time to put up the money.

That is some spectacular inflation over the first Super Bowl in 1967, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The face value of tickets for that game ranged from $6 to $12, in which the Green Bay Packers, coached by Lombardi — whom the Super Bowl trophy crafted by Tiffany is named for — defeated the Kansas City Chiefs.

Some tickets at Super Bowl I, which at the time was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, were handed out free of charge to local students. College bands, a local high school drill team and trumpeter Al Hirt provided the halftime entertainment.

But starting in 1991, when New Kids on the Block performed, the entertainment at intermission has been a major stage production. Sunday's halftime headliners are hip-hop legends Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Mary J. Blige.

Because the game is in Los Angeles County and is an event that will be attended by more than 5,000 people, a mask mandate will be in effect for ages 2 and up.

The requirement has rankled many, particularly because Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti were photographed unmasked at SoFi Stadium (capacity 70,240) during the NFC championship game between the Rams and the San Francisco 49ers on Jan 30.

County Supervisor Kathryn Barger has called for a modification of the mask mandate at outdoor mega events, as L.A. Public Health officials have indicated "we have not observed any COVID-19 spikes resulting from prior games this season from games at that stadium", deadline.com reported. She said the county should follow state guidelines, which call for masks only when eventgoers enter indoor sections of a venue.

Barger said not making the change would "call into question why we have stricter county mandates in place that are neither followed nor enforced, causing more feelings of frustration for residents who have been subject to masking requirements more strictly enforced in other settings like schools, restaurants, and retail".

Fans at arenas in LA County also are required to show proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test.

Some people watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials.

New advertisers like Crypto.com will join longtime advertisers Pepsi, Budweiser and Doritos, businessinsider.com reported, which said that NBCUniversal is charging advertisers $6.5 million to run a 30-second spot.

Margaret Johnson, chief creative officer at advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners, expects to see ads with more high-brow humor this year.

"People are tired of this we're-all-in-this-together-pat-on-the-back spirit," she told Business Insider. "But sophomoric humor won't play well this year. I'm encouraging more sophisticated humor, especially considering the pandemic."

And those legendary, food-and-booze-fueled Super Bowl parties are going to be a lot pricier come Sunday. Food items for the bashes will cost between 8 to 14 percent more than they did a year ago, according to Wells Fargo Chief Agricultural Economist Michael Swanson, in the bank's Super Bowl Food Report.

Prepared boneless chicken wings are 26 percent more expensive year-over-year, while ground beef is 17 percent pricier.

Swanson suggested switching to pork: "Although prices are up 7 percent, it's a bargain for your meat this year. Things to chew on: pork tacos, pork meatballs, and pork sliders."

Another Super Bowl party staple — guacamole dip — will cost more to make as avocado prices are surging. The price of a 20-pound box of avocados from Michoacan in Mexico was $26.23 as of Feb 3, $6 more than it was last year, the New York Post reported.

And while this Super Bowl will have many firsts, it also will have lasts.

Sportswriter Jerry Green, 93, of the Detroit News is the only newspaper reporter of the 338 credentialed journalists who chronicled Super Bowl I to still be tapping the keyboard. But Green conceded that the demands of travel will likely make Sunday's big game his last.

"I'm the last one," he told Newsweek. "How about that?"