FMIA Super Bowl 56: Airport After-Parties And The Play That Won The Championship For The Rams In L.A.

HAWTHORNE, Calif. — No, this is not the place where Super Bowl LVI was won by the Rams, 23-20, in another coin-flip of a football game, the only kind the NFL plays these days. That dateline would be INGLEWOOD, Calif. This is the place where, in a private airport hangar, the Rams celebrated the first football championship by a team in the City of Angels since 1984.

“Was it all worth it?” I asked owner Stan Kroenke just after midnight this morning in L.A., just after 3 on the East Coast.

I meant: Was the gigantic risk of jilting St. Louis and then being handed the second-biggest market in the United States by the NFL and being told, Don’t screw this up, and then spending the insane sum of $5 billion for a football stadium, and then knowing that none of it would work if the team was middle of the road, and then hiring a 30-year-old coach to lead the franchise out of the doldrums … I meant, was this evening worth all of the risk taken to make it happen?

“Wait,” said Rams VP Tony Pastoors, overhearing my question. “Before he answers that question, let me go get the Lombardi Trophy for him to hold. Then you can ask him if it was worth it.”

Kroenke, the owner hated in Missouri but now loved in L.A., smiled wryly. “The great thing,” he said, “is what this does for Los Angeles. It’s just great for this city.”

Football in L.A. is back, in a very big way. Prince Harry was in the Rams’ locker room post-game, and now, Cardi B and Snoop Dogg were on the way to the party. As for the mega-decisions that awaited the fathers of the franchise—for instance, will Aaron Donald retire?—those could wait. This night was for celebrating the improbable.

Oh, and Matthew Stafford won the Super Bowl in year 13, after never winning a playoff game in