Super Bowl Preview: Los Angeles Mikal’s vs Cincinnati Cam J’s

The Super Bowl matchup has been determined and it’s divided the Phoenix Suns locker room… in good fun.

Mikal Bridges and his Los Angeles Rams fandom has long been known in the Valley. He loves to tease Suns fans – many of whom are also Arizona Cardinals fans – about the Rams’ dominance in the divisional matchup against the Cardinals, and loves to tweet about his squad as well:

He also rocked a Jalen Ramsey jersey during Sunday night’s post game presser, the same night the Rams punched their ticket to the Super Bowl with this game-clinching interception by Travin Howard:

The matchup added another twist after Devin Booker and Chris Paul showed face at the WM Phoenix Open on Friday. Booker, hailing from Detroit, was rocking a Matthew Stafford Lions jersey, implying he may be siding with the Rams for the big game.

On the other end of the twinship, Cam Johnson is rooting for the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals. Just ahead of the game against the Chiefs, Johnson mentioned a story about legendary Bengals receiver Chad Johnson being his favorite player growing up, and even wanted to wear “C. Johnson” on his jersey like Chad did:

Chad got wind of this, and sent out his appreciation over Twitter:

Bengals were the upset of the weekend, beating the Chiefs in overtime, despite losing the coin toss (change the rules please, NFL). Cincinnati used this interception by Vonn Bell:

…to set up this game-winning field goal by rookie kicker Evan McPherson, who moves to 12-12 on kicks this postseason, the most in any postseason without a miss:

Staff Polling

Staff is in agreement. Dave King, Khaleel Abdullah, Kyle Glazier, and John Voita are all vocally (via the Bright Side Slack channel) rooting for the Bengals, but Glazier and Voita clarified that they want the Bengals but actually think the Rams will pull it out.

Glazier’s primer:

The Rams just have a lot of weapons on offense, and Cincy doesn’t have the firepower to answer. The Bengals are a scrappy team, but they will have to play near perfect to win and capitalize on every Ram’s mistake. It reminds me a lot of Super Bowl XXIX where the scrappy Chargers who had 4 pro bowlers (kicker included) clawed their way to Super Sunday against this 49ers super team that had like 10 pro bowlers.

Voita even shared a poem sharing his feelings about the matchup:

I don’t want it be true, as I’m anti-Rams, thru and thru.

Holes in the Cincy line, will be ravished by big number nine-nine.

It may hurt me to say, but expect a TD from OBJ.

The beating will be thorough, two picks from Joe Burrow.

Akers scores on a screen, Rams 27, Bengals 13.

As for myself, I’ll side with Joe Burrow. I’ve been a big fan of his – and Bengal teammate Ja’Marr Chase – since his dominant season at LSU. Bengals – and Cam Johnson – will be the ones celebrating Sunday night, mark my words…

Which is what I would say if I believed in good things happening. But, like Glazier said, the Rams have too much firepower for the Bengals to deal with. LA’s philosophy of a top-heavy roster has really shown it’s benefits during these playoffs. Stars make plays when it counts, whether it’s Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp, Jalen Ramsey, or any of their other numerous stars. Rams 31 Bengals 23.