Illinois Super Bowl Ties: Rams, Bengals Players Have Local Roots

CHICAGO — When the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals square off in Super Bowl LVI in the biggest game of the NFL season on Sunday, the greater Chicago area will be represented on both sides of the ball.

Two players on the Los Angeles Rams and one on the Cincinnati Bengals have ties to the city and its surrounding suburbs, providing local fans with plenty to cheer for when the NFL’s annual championship game kicks off at 5:30 local time on Sunday.

The Rams, who defeated Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship to reach Sunday’s game, have a pair of former suburban stars in starting positions.

Rams starting guard Dave Edwards was a quarterback at Downers Grove North for three seasons before he transitioned to the offensive line during his college career at Wisconsin. The 6-foot-6 Edwards, who was drafted by the Rams in 2019, lines up at left guard next to Brian Allen, who starred at Hinsdale Central.

Now, the two rivals who are both tasked with protecting quarterback Matthew Stafford, have the common goal of leading the Rams to their first championship since 2000 when they were playing in St. Louis.

“I mean that's what you dream of, right?" Edwards recently told The Daily Herald. "That's the ultimate prize and why you train your ass off in the offseason and you grind during training camp and go through the ebbs and flows of the season to get to this moment.

"To play in the Super Bowl and to win it would just make it all worth it."

For Allen, who played for Michigan State, Sunday’s game marks his second Super Bowl appearance. Allen was on the Rams team that lost to Brady and the New England Patriots in 2019 when Allen was just finishing his rookie season.

Allen moved into a starting role in 2019, but tore his MCL in his left knee and fractured his tibia head as well. After a long recovery that also included a bout with COVID-19, Allen – like his Rams teammate Edwards, is ready to play for a title against the Bengals.

"You dream of playing in the NFL, you dream of doing all this stuff, but the main goal, the main key to the mountaintop is to win the Super Bowl,” Allen recently told The Daily Herald. “To be able to say you're a part of one of those teams is history.

"At one point in time, you were a part of the greatest football team on the planet."

The Bengals’ local representation, wide receiver Mike Thomas, is well aware with Sunday’s opponent after the Chicago native was drafted by the Rams in 2016. Thomas, 27, played for the Rams for four seasons after playing high school football at DuSable before heading off to the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn before transferring to Southern Mississippi.

This season, Thomas has appeared in 12 games for Cincinnati, started one and made five catches for 52 yards in his second season with the Bengals. Cincinnati reached Sunday's game after knocking off the defending AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs to reach their first Super Bowl since 1981 when they lost to the San Francisco 49ers.

The Rams are a 4 1/2 point favorite heading into Sunday's game.

Between them, the 2022 Super Bowl teams have 107 former college football players, according to the NCAA. Together, the SEC and Big Ten are sending the most players to the game, with 46 players. NCAA Division I FCS and Division II schools are also represented.

According to the NCAA, Florida and LSU have the greatest representation in the 56th annual Super Bowl, with five each.

Washington, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson and Oklahoma each have four players on the teams' Super Bowl rosters.

Alabama, Texas A&M and Purdue have three representatives each.

And two players each come from Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland, Florida Atlantic, Delaware, Cincinnati, Florida State, Iowa, Penn State, TCU, Utah, Wisconsin, Stanford, Colorado and North Carolina State.