Super reunion - Los Angeles Rams' Andrew Whitworth excited to face former Cincinnati Bengals team in Super Bowl LVI

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — As the Los Angeles Rams warmed up at SoFi Stadium before Sunday's NFC Championship Game, the giant video screen hanging above the field was showing the Cincinnati Bengals storming back from an 18-point deficit against the Kansas City Chiefs before prevailing on a walk-off field goal in overtime.

Andrew Whitworth couldn't stop looking up.

There was enough drama in the Bengals' last-second win to capture anyone's attention but especially that of the ageless left tackle, who spent the first 11 seasons of his NFL career in Cincinnati. And after the Rams pulled off their own comeback against the San Francisco 49ers to set up a date in Super Bowl LVI with his old team, Whitworth's phone was predictably blowing up.

«I have obviously heard from a ton of people over there and it's really cool and really special,» Whitworth said earlier this week. «Having a relationship with a lot of the staff over there still and some of the players and obviously all the relationships that we had over our time there in the city, it's a really special place to us.»

The way Whitworth talks about the Bengals and the city of Cincinnati suggests he doesn't view this as a revenge game. More like a reunion.

A second-round pick out of LSU in 2006, he made 168 starts for the Bengals during a time in which they were often good enough to win at least 10 games but never quite good enough to win in the playoffs, suffering wild-card-round exits in all six of their appearances during Whitworth's time in Cincinnati.

When they beat the Las Vegas Raiders in the wild-card round last month, it gave the Bengals their first playoff win in 31 years.

«It's been amazing,» Whitworth said of the their run to Super Bowl LVI under third-year coach Zac