The Rams are set to make history in Super Bowl 56. They will face the Bengals at SoFi Stadium and will become just the second team, along with the Buccaneers in 2021, to play a Super Bowl on their home turf.
However, that doesn’t mean that they will be the designated home team for the game.
Oddly enough, the Rams are set to be the visitor in their home stadium when Super Bowl 56 kicks off on Feb. 13, 2022. This isn’t a joke about the team’s lacking representation at either of their final home games of the season. It’s all about the NFL’s rules for choosing the home team at the Super Bowl, which is technically played on a neutral field.
Here’s everything to know about the process of choosing the home team at the Super Bowl.
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How is the home team chosen at the Super Bowl?
The method for choosing the Super Bowl home team is simple. It alternates from the AFC to the NFC year by year.
A year ago for Super Bowl 55, it was the NFC’s turn to host the Super Bowl. As a result, the Buccaneers were the designated home team while playing at Raymond James Stadium, their usual home. However, that was purely coincidental, and now, the Rams are on the other side of the coin.
Because the NFC was the home team for Super Bowl 55, it is now the AFC’s turn to be the home team in Super Bowl 56. As such, the Rams will be the visitors and it will be interesting to see how — if at all — this impacts the team.
The Rams were actually 7-2 on the road this season, better than the 5-3 mark they posted at home. Meanwhile, the Bengals split their results evenly, going 5-4 at home and 5-3 on the road. These trends don’t matter much given that the Rams are the de facto home team in this matchup, but they are interesting nonetheless.
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Does the home team matter at the Super Bowl?
Yes, it matters for uniform choice and the coin toss. Here’s why:
Uniforms
The home team gets to choose which uniforms it will wear during the Super Bowl. This will give the Bengals the option of wearing their colorful orange and black jerseys for the big game or choosing their white tops for this game. If the Bengals choose their orange and black jerseys, the Rams will have to wear white. If the Bengals choose white, the Rams will have to wear blue.
Some athletes have superstitions about certain uniforms, so perhaps the Bengals will do what the Bucs did in 2021 and wear their white uniforms after finding success on the road. Either way, being the home team gives them the choice in this area. And while it may not prove consequential, it’s still a choice the Rams don’t have.
Coin toss
Ah, yes. The beloved coin toss. The visiting team gets to call the coin toss at the beginning of the game and during overtime. That means they get direct control over their destiny, and if they win the opening coin toss, they can set themselves up to get the ball either to start the game or in the second half, depending on what they choose.
Of course, a coin toss is a 50-50 proposition, so there’s not really an advantage to being able to call it. Still, that’s a benefit that the Rams will enjoy, especially if the game goes to overtime as many of these playoff games have.
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Why are the Rams playing Super Bowl 56 in their home stadium?
The answer is simple. It’s purely a coincidence that the Rams are playing Super Bowl 56 in their home stadium, as SoFi Stadium was selected to host the Super Bowl back in 2017. The league couldn’t have foreseen the Rams making this type of run that far back.
That said, the Rams got a bit lucky with this, as SoFi Stadium was originally set to host Super Bowl 55 before construction issues delayed its opening until 2020. NFL stadiums must be open for two seasons before they can host a Super Bowl, so the league awarded them Super Bowl 56 instead and switched Super Bowl 55 to Raymond James Stadium.
Ironically, that benefitted both the Buccaneers, who played on home turf in 2021, and the Rams, who are doing so now. That switch could prove serendipitous for the NFC.