WATCH: Michael Irvin breaks down Super Bowl 56 matchup
Dallas Cowboys legend Michael Irvin broke down this year’s Super Bowl matchup between the Bengals and Rams from his perspective. Irvin explained that he was excited to watch the storylines for both teams unfold, but claimed the NFL would be the biggest winners no matter which team wins on Sunday.
Michael Irvin on Super Bowl 56
“Let’s look at it from the NFL’s perspective,” began Irvin. “The NFL is sitting over there saying ‘Yes! Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals showed the world that our system works. You can get here by drafting players if you draft right.’ They have to be so happy with that. But on the other side they’re like ‘oh, the Rams is this super team.’ The NFL is like ‘nah, we don’t really want people to be holding out contracts, doing what Odell Beckham did to get out of contracts so they can try to come together and make a super team.’ They don’t want that.
“So in one sense, they want Cincinnati to win and promote their system of how to do it. But in the other sense, they have to look at the Rams and say ‘even though they’re a super team, they’re in LA. And we need this market. We want this market.’ And if they win a championship, people will be making stories in this market about the NFL and the year they won a championship because this is Hollywood. This is the city of stories, and the NFL wants that. So they must be torn between both of those stories right there. And it’ll be great to watch.”
Irvin’s comments seem to be a direct reflection of fans around the league heading into the season’s final game. The Rams have plenty of star power, will be playing at home, have veteran players who are seeking a championship and have the Matthew Stafford comeback story. Meanwhile, the Bengals have a fresh young star duo in Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase who are building a reputation as winners. Both teams have knocked off teams that were considered the favorites heading into the playoffs, and fans on both sides are excited to see what happens.
More on Super Bowl 56
The Super Bowl matchup is set between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams, and now, so too are the betting lines for the biggest game of the year.
The Rams opened up as 3.5-point favorites over the Bengals in the Super Bowl 56 odds but that number has risen to -4.5 over the past week. The Super Bowl MVP award is among the most hotly contested with Matt Stafford leading the way at +115. Joe Burrow lands just behind him at +225 odds. Postseason hero and Bengals kicker Evan McPherson is tied with several other with the long odds of +10000.
At the end of the regular season, the Bengals sat at 10-7 as AFC North champions. Cincinnati beat the Las Vegas Raiders in the Wild Card round and the top-seeded Tennessee Titans in the Divisional round. They took down the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime, after going down 21-3 early then losing the OT coin toss.
On3’s James Fletcher III contributed to this article.