Super Bowl 2022 Ultimate Guide: ‘Draft joke’ flips NFL on its head

The Cincinnati Bengals’ superstar second year QB Joe Burrow may get most of the plaudits but it’s a draft gamble that paid off huge.

The Cincinnati Bengals go into its first Super Bowl since 1989 on the weekend with a weapon which is not so secret any more.

Placekicker Evan McPherson has made waves in the NFL post-season as he has been perfect and helped the side to where they are now.

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But way back on draft night, no one thought the Bengals were about to take a kicker with the 149th pick of the NFL Draft.

Incredibly, McPherson was just the fifth kicker taken in the top 150 picks during a draft in the past 15 years.

And in the past five years, just 10 kickers have been selected at all and just one is at a team that selected him.

The pick raised plenty of eyebrows, especially as quarterback Joe Burrow’s offensive linemen have raised question marks.

SB Nation termed McPherson “a draft joke” and the team were ridiculed.

“It was universally panned for a team that had so many more pressing needs,” the story read. “Fast forward 10 months and McPherson is one of the Cincinnati’s biggest difference makers. The Bengals are now the ones who are laughing.”

While it wasn’t because of McPherson’s talents, rather the Bengals selections, but the kicker has more than proved his worth.

Evan McPherson has been perfect in the post-season. Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images

Last time the Bengals picked a kicker, was in 2017 when they selected Jake Elliott, who lost a pre-season kicking competition to Randy Bullock and then ended up at the Philadelphia Eagles, kicking the longest kick by a rookie in a Super Bowl during the Eagles’ championship winning season.

But McPherson is proving to be a sharpshooter in the biggest moments.

He has now kicked an incredible 12 from 12 in the post-season, including a 52-yarder against Tennessee where Burrow revealed: “He was talking to Brandon (Allen) as he was going out to kick, he gave a little warm-up swing and said, ‘Ahhh, looks like we’re going to the AFC Championship’.”

And McPherson revealed that it was practice that really did make perfect.

“You’ve really got to walk out there and know in your mind that there’s really no way you can miss the kick,” McPherson said.

While the kickers and the punters may not grab the headlines many other positions do, it’s clear which way the Bengals will go if the Super Bowl goes right down to the wire.

Super Bowl LVI Ultimate Guide

Who is playing?

The Cincinnati Bengals have been the fairytale of the NFL, making the Super Bowl for the first time since 1989 and just the third time in the franchises’ history.

They face the LA Rams who won the 1999 Super Bowl as the St Louis Rams but were last in the Super Bowl in 2019, a 13-3 loss to Tom Brady’s New England Patriots.

When is it on?

The Super Bowl is scheduled to start from 10.30am AEDT

Around different time zones in Australia, that follows as:

— Brisbane — 9.30am

— Adelaide — 10am

— Perth — 7.30am

— Darwin — 9am

The match will be played from SoFi Stadium, the home ground of the LA Rams. It’s just the second time in Super Bowl history the match has been played at one of the Super Bowl teams’ home ground, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the first in 2021.

Joe Burrow is in just his second year. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Matthew Stafford is the veteran. Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

How to watch?

ESPN and Channel 7 will have the live coverage of the day while NFL Game Pass is another way to be able to catch the game live.

ESPN will have 12 hours of live coverage of the game, starting at 2am and including an exclusive Australian and New Zealand broadcast from ESPN’s Monday Night Football team.

ESPN SportsCenter host Phil Murphy and journalist Neroli Meadows will also be on site in Los Angeles for exclusive coverage dedicated to Australian and New Zealand NFL fans.

ESPN and ESPN2 are available on Foxtel, Kayo Sports, Fetch TV and Sky NZ.

Stream all the action from Super Bowl LVI with ESPN on Kayo. Cincinnati Bengals vs Los Angeles Rams Live Monday 14th Feb from 10AM. New to Kayo? Try 14-days free now >

Who is playing at halftime?

Dr Dre will lead a hip hop heavy show during the break.

He will be joined by Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige and Eminem but there are always surprises so expect this list to potentially expand as well.

“We have 11 or 12 minutes to go out and do something spectacular,” Dr. Dre said at the announcement.

“We have to figure out, creatively, how we’re gonna blow people’s minds.”

Odds

The Rams are rightfully the favourites on TAB at $1.48 to the Bengals’ $2.65.

But there are markets galore including the MVP, while the Rams’ Matthew Stafford favourite at $2.10 over the Bengals’ Joe Burrow at $3.50 and LA’s Cooper Kupp at $5 the only three under $10.