From a thrilling late touchdown drive that gave the Rams a 23-20 win over the Bengals, to Eminem taking a knee and Meadow Soprano driving an electric Chevy, here are the highlights from Sunday’s Super Bowl 56.
How the Rams won the Super Bowl
Down 20-16, the Rams went on a 15-play drive capped by Matthew Stafford’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp for the go-ahead score with 1:25 left.
Kupp’s touchdown catch came after three costly penalties on the Bengals’ defense.
After both teams were flagged only twice in the first 58 minutes, the Bengals were called for penalties on three consecutive plays.
Super Bowl ads mixed celebrities and nostalgia
Advertisers shelled out up to $7 million for 30-second spots during the Super Bowl, and they used their time to try to entertain with humor, star power and nostalgia.
T-Mobile reunited Scrubs stars Zach Braff and Donald Faison, while Verizon recreated the 1996 movie The Cable Guy to tout its high-speed 5G network.
And Chevrolet recreated the opening sequence to The Sopranos to tout its all-electric Chevy Silverado.
This time, however, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who played Meadow Soprano on the show that ran from 1999 to 2007, is in the driver’s seat instead of the Sopranos patriarch played by the late James Gandolfini.
An epic and edgy Super Bowl halftime show
50 Cent made a surprise upside-down entrance at the Super Bowl halftime show, and Eminem dramatically took a knee.
Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar spit a fiery medley of their hits.
As his rendition of “Lose Yourself” ended, Eminem took a knee and held his head in his hand in apparent tribute to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality during the 2016 season.
The NFL denied reports that it was attempting to stop Eminem from making the gesture.
The pregame national anthem
Mickey Guyton told The Associated Press this week that she’d earned the nickname “Quickie Mickey” for singing The Star Spangled Banner in a tight 1:30. She sang it in about 1:50 Sunday, 15 seconds over the projected mark of 1:35 set by oddsmakers.
Who else performed at the Super Bowl pregame?
About 40 minutes before kickoff, the Rams and Bengals lined the end zones and looked up at the big screen while outside, next to SoFi Stadium’s lake, gospel duo Mary Mary and the LA Phil’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles performed Lift Every Voice and Sing, a song that’s known as the unofficial Black national anthem.
Singer Jhené Aiko brought a novel combination of R&B and harp to her rendition of America the Beautiful.
And The Rock grabbed a mic on the field and put on his old wrestling persona to introduce the teams just before kickoff, in the style of an announcer before a big fight.
