Super Bowl LVI: Rams and Bengals seek Hollywood ending to NFL season

A Los Angeles Rams team bristling with star-power will seek to deny the giant-killing Cincinnati Bengals a Hollywood ending in the Super Bowl on Sunday as an NFL season full of plot twists reaches its climax.

The first NFL championship game of the post-Tom Brady era sees the Rams play host at their gleaming $5.5 billion SoFi Stadium against a Bengals side chasing a first Super Bowl crown.

At the heart of a perfectly scripted season finale is a duel between two talented quarterbacks playing in the Super Bowl for the first time.

For the Rams, veteran Matthew Stafford has the chance to finally cash in on his talents after spending 12 seasons with the hapless Detroit Lions before securing a blockbuster move to Los Angeles last year.

The Bengals, meanwhile, are led by the precocious Joe Burrow, who bounced back from a horrific knee injury that ended his rookie season in 2020 to carry Cincinnati to a first Super Bowl appearance since 1989.

A Bengals win would also mark the culmination of one of the most striking turnarounds in NFL history.

Last season, the team finished with four wins and 11 defeats, only slightly better than their 2019 campaign, which ended in a dismal 2-14 record. Not for nothing were they ridiculed as the "Cincinnati Bungles."

But under head coach Zac Taylor, and buoyed by the arrival of No 1 draft pick Burrow in 2020, the Bengals have become a team transformed.

A dogged, never-say-die approach characterised their post-season campaign, which saw them shock AFC top seeds Tennessee before another upset on the road over mighty Kansas City sealed their Super Bowl berth.

Head coach Zac Taylor aims to lead Cincinnati Bengals to their first Super Bowl victory. AP

While the 25-year-old Burrow delights social media