Super Bowl LVI Preview: Bengals can realise their potential and seize glory

'The AFL-NFL World Championship Game' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, so it's just as well Lamar Hunt introduced 'Super Bowl' into the sporting lexicon to describe the showpiece of the NFL season.

The Kansas City Chiefs owner and sports impresario told NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle that it was a name "which obviously can be improved upon", but by Super Bowl III in 1969 it had been officially embraced.

Hunt's Super Bowl suggestion stemmed from his children's fondness for a toy known as a Super Ball.

Super Bowl LVI - Hunt was also the man behind the adoption of Roman numerals - returns to the city which staged the first NFL decider in 1966, with SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles the venue.

It took 54 years for a team to enjoy home advantage in a Super Bowl, but we've not had two in back-to-back years.

Home advantage has eroded since Covid and it's a trend that's continued even with the return of fans.

The A-listers and the event junkies will descend from the Hollywood Hills for the big game, but for its size LA isn't a sports town in the way Cincinnati is.

The Bengals fans will be there in numbers as they bid to win a first Super Bowl and they're likely to be the louder fanbase from what, for any other game, you might refer to as the cheap seats.

Team owner Mike Brown won't be in the cheap seats, but arguably deserves to be given his legendary parsimonious approach to handling the franchise.

The Bengals are the road team, but they're nominally the home team as the designation alternates between conferences for each Super Bowl.

The NFL prides itself on the level of competitive fare served up each season that the draft system is designed to provide. This year has felt like a particularly open one. Any of the eight teams from the