'The AFL-NFL World Championship Game' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, so it's just as well Lamar Hunt introduced 'Super Bowl' into the sporting lexicon to describe the showpiece of the NFL season.
The Kansas City Chiefs owner and sports impresario told NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle that it was a name "which obviously can be improved upon", but by Super Bowl III in 1969 it had been officially embraced.
Hunt's Super Bowl suggestion stemmed from his children's fondness for a toy known as a Super Ball.
Super Bowl LVI - Hunt was also the man behind the adoption of Roman numerals - returns to the city which staged the first NFL decider in 1966, with SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles the venue.
It took 54 years for a team to enjoy home advantage in a Super Bowl, but we've now had two in back-to-back years.
Home advantage has eroded since Covid and it's a trend that's continued even with the return of fans.
The A-listers and the event junkies will descend from the Hollywood Hills for the big game, but for its size LA isn't a sports town in the way Cincinnati is.
The Bengals fans will be there in numbers as they bid to win a first Super Bowl and they're likely to be the louder fanbase from what, for any other game, you might refer to as the cheap seats.
Team owner Mike Brown won't be in the cheap seats, but arguably deserves to be given his legendary parsimonious approach to handling the franchise.
The Bengals are the road team, but they're nominally the home team as the designation alternates between conferences for each Super Bowl.
The NFL prides itself on the level of competitive fare served up each season that the draft system is designed to provide. This year has felt like a particularly open one. Any of the eight teams from the divisional round could have made it here, with walkoff field goals deciding three of the games, while the fourth was only won in overtime.
The conference games proved just as tight. The Rams are 4.5-point favourites, but it's easy to envisage yet another coin-flip finish in the fourth quarter.
The Rams have been shorn of offensive lineman Joe Noteboom and tight end Tyler Higbee, with the latter a noticeable absentee.
The Bengals have pretty much a clean bill of health and CJ Uzomah is expected to suit up and play despite his status as questionable.
Aaron Donald's pump-up speech to himself before Super Bowl LIII will get you fired up. 💯 @AaronDonald97
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The understandable view that the Rams are a bad match-up for the Bengals can be summed up in two words: Aaron Donald. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year could feast on the Bengals' awful offensive line.
Quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked a league-high 51 times during the regular season and nine times by the Tennessee Titans in the divisional round. Just remaining vertical could prove a challenge for the Bengals signal caller.
However, that Titans encounter is likely to have informed the coaching staff's approach to the showdown with the Rams. The personnel at the Bengals disposal in the offensive line may be limited, but good coaching should help negate some of the talent edge that the Rams enjoy in this area.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor worked under Sean McVay at the Rams from 2017 to 2018. It's now a very different roster, but Taylor has an expert understanding of his opposite number's strengths and weaknesses.
On the topic of rosters, there's a stark contrast in how the Rams and the Bengals have gone about building their teams.
The Rams are a win-right-now outfit, which has favoured making trades and acquisitions, while the Bengals have gone down the draft route. They're the youngest team to reach a Super Bowl and remain a work in progress, but one with huge potential.
The odds imply the Bengals have just under a 35% chance of pulling off an upset, despite accounting for opposition in the play-offs that has looked stronger than the Rams faced.
Underdogs have overperformed in recent Super Bowls, but one of the interesting features concern the handicap line, or what is referred to stateside as 'the spread'.
When the outsider covers the spread, they've generally won the game, while the favourites have often recorded blowout wins in their victories.
A repeat of either of those two distinct trends looks probable given concerns over the Bengals pass protection.
The Bengals can shade this one, but only if they've heeded the lessons from the win over the Titans.
