American football Along the Bypass Winners: Joe Burrow and Matthew Stafford are Super Bowl stars no one believed a year ago

Sight was one that no follower of American football would want to see. The defender rumbled from the front directly onto the support leg of the young talented quarterback, and his left leg bent into an unnatural position.

Thus Joe Burrow’n the incoming season ended in disaster in its tenth match on November 23, 2020.

The knee of Cincinnati Bengals ’first spring reservation was scrapped. The front bandage and side bandage ruptured, and in addition, the debris damaged the rear cross bandage and articular spiral, among other things.

Should the knee ever be properly intact again? Would the case leave mental scars?

A few hundreds of miles north was enough for a player chosen like Burrow to be the number one player of his own booking year. Matthew Stafford had once again spent one of his years playing in the Detroit Lions, who appeared to be doomed to eternal nullity.

Stafford filled in at the time in February 33 years, and every year he seemed to receive more and more blows from his opponent’s defense. Which would betray first, the body or the motivation?

The Stafford Lions won five of the 16 matches, Burrow’s Bengals one less.

Now, just a year later, the roads of these quarterback players intersect on Monday in the biggest of the matches.

How did this happen?

Before Joe Burrow’s arrival in the Cincinnati Bengals had been tumbled for three decades in the bottom line of the NFL Football League.

Ranked quarterback in 2003 Carson Palmer threatened to end his career seven years later to get out of Cincinnati. Palmer’s successor Andy Dalton took the team to the playoffs in their first five seasons – and never won there.

The second year was the time of Burrow. Bengals decided to use the first reservation for a player who had played one of the best college seasons in the sport at Louisiana State University (LSU) before becoming a professional.

However, Palmer and countless other examples had shown that amateur merit and first-place status in the NFL are no guarantee.

Matthew Stafford had expressed behind the scenes to the Detroit Lions leadership that he would like to move elsewhere, to a place where he could win.

The Lions were about to start rebuilding in the 2021 season, knowing how many times, and even Stafford could no longer have the temper to be involved.

Read more: Like Lions playing in the World Cup final every year – Why is the Super Bowl such a huge event?

Numerous teams were listed among those interested in the media. The rumors included the Los Angeles Rams, which had been a losing party in the Super Bowl in February 2019.

After that disappointment, Rams and head coach Sean McVayn dissatisfaction playmaker Jared Goffiin had grown year by year. At the same time, the Rams had sunk farther and farther from the elite of the series. Rams was still not considered the top candidate for the Stafford yacht.

In January 2021, however, something happened that, according to the official story that is still valid, was a pure coincidence: McVay and Stafford ended up at the same hotel at a resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

In discussions in the hot tub and at dinner, among other things, a connection was made between the two real Yankee football nerds. Soon the player deal was officially completed.

New the Rams, who took shape, was one of the biggest championship favorites before the start of the season.

The season got off to a great start, but in the middle stages the game between the team and Stafford started to get stuck badly. Winger Robert Woodsin the injury that ended the season was a setback that was believed immersed Rams in the championship dreams.

Rams shares had fallen over the period, but for Bengals they were not high at any point. The Bengals fought to the end to reach the playoffs at all, and reaching that place was believed to be the culmination of the season for it.

In the playoffs, this assumption turned out to be wrong. The Bengals first defeated the equal Las Vegas Raiders, then surprised the Tennessee Titans in the away field, and finally a real sensation emerged in the conference finals with a victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

In the first round, the Rams took a convincing victory over the Arizona Cardinals, which rallied during the season. It then fought fierce battles against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the San Francisco 49ers, earning a place in the Super Bowl.

Burrow and Stafford have both found a wing striker on their teams as a radar pair that they can count on in any situation.

In the former case, it is the fifth player booked last year Ja’Marr Chasesta. The connection between the duo had already been established at LSU, where Chase caught a third of the 60 touchdowns Burrow threw in a record-breaking season.

Chase’s arrival season was exceptionally good, but Stafford’s radar pair has been even better than him. Cooper Cup was the best in the entire NFL in terms of interceptions, capture yards, and captured touchdowns.

Kupp and Stafford realized in good time how important the connection between them would be to Rams. The discussions at the joint breakfast gave them a strong foundation for a collaboration that made the Cup one of the best NFL players this season in particular.

Burrow is already a big hero in Cincinnati thanks to his playoff success in recent weeks.

The radius is further strengthened by the fact that he is almost “the son of his own village”. Burrow lived much of his childhood in the city of Athens, Ohio, about 200 miles from Cincinnati.

Staffordin the acquisition is part of Los Angeles ’entire sports culture: stars must be brought to teams by any means. Succeeding this very season is especially important to Rams because the Super Bowl will be played in Los Angeles on Monday, February 14 for the first time in nearly 30 years.