Super Bowl 2022: Here’s why the Rams will be the ‘away’ team in their own stadium when they face the Bengals

NFC Championship - San Francisco 49ers v Los Angeles Rams
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Despite becoming the second team to play a Super Bowl in their home stadium, the Los Angeles Rams will be the “away” team for Super Bowl LVI. The reason is simple: the AFC and NFC alternate which conference is the home and away team for every Super Bowl. The AFC is the home team for even-numbered Super Bowls, and the NFC is the home team for odd ones. That is why the Bengals, despite being nearly 2,200 miles from Cincinnati, will be the designated home team for Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium.

Traditionally, the Bengals would be privy to the Rams’ home locker room as the home team. But the Rams will have their typical locker room for Super Bowl LVI, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, while the Bengals will presumably use the Chargers‘ (who share SoFi Stadium with the Rams) locker room, per Rapoport. 

As the home team, Cincinnati will get to choose whether they will wear dark- or light-colored uniform tops for the game. While the Bengals’ normal home jersey includes a black top, Cincinnati may elect to wear its all-white uniforms that it wore during road playoff wins over Tennessee and Kansas City. The Pittsburgh Steelers made the decision to wear their white tops for Super Bowl XL after winning their previous three playoff games on the road. 

As the visiting team, the Rams will call the coin toss to start Super Bowl LVI. By doing so, Los Angeles can break a current trend as it relates to the team that wins the Super Bowl coin toss. The past seven teams that have won the coin toss have lost the Super Bowl, as the 2013 Seahawks are the most recent team to win the Super Bowl while also winning the coin toss. 

The Rams will be the away team for the fourth time in their five trips to the Super Bowls. Super Bowl LIII (a 13-3 loss to the Patriots) was the only Super Bowl where the Rams were the designated home team. The Bengals will be the home team for a second time in three Super Bowl appearances. The Bengals lost Super Bowl XVI wearing their black tops and came up just short in Super Bowl XXIII wearing all-white uniforms. 

Los Angeles is trying to match the 2020 Buccaneers as the only teams to win the Super Bowl on their home turf. The Rams moved into SoFi Stadium after playing their home games at the Los Angeles Coliseum the previous three years. The Rams are looking to win their first Super Bowl in Los Angeles; the 1983 Raiders are currently the only team to win a Super Bowl as a Los Angeles-based team. 



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