The Los Angeles Rams are heading back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2019 after coming from behind to defeat the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.
Awaiting them is a matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals, who are coming off back-to-back road victories against the AFC No. 1 seed Tennessee Titans and No. 2 seed Kansas City Chiefs.
The Rams and Bengals share many connections, including Zac Taylor, who served as an assistant on Sean McVay’s coaching staff for two seasons before Cincinnati hired him as their head coach in 2019.
Andrew Whitworth also spent the first 11 years of his career with the Bengals before joining the Rams as a free agent in 2017. The 40-year-old still has many friends within the Bengals organization and couldn’t be more excited to play them in the biggest game of the year, per Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“Obviously I’ve heard from a ton of people over there,” Whitworth said during a video conference with reporters Monday. “And yeah, it’s really cool and really special. I mean, having a relationship with a lot of the staff over there still, and also some of the players, and then obviously, all the relationships that we had over our time there in the city, it’s a really special place to us. And I think I told (Bengals head coach) Zac Taylor this last night when we spoke, is (that) both places have my heart and both places have people I believe in.”
Whitworth was selected by the Bengals in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft. During his time with the franchise, he was a three-time Pro Bowl selection and started in 164 of 176 possible games over 11 seasons.
Since signing with the Rams, Whitworth has helped shore up the left side of the offensive line while earning a Pro Bowl nod in 2017 and winning two NFC championships.
Although he hasn’t discussed his future, Super Bowl LVI could very well be Whitworth’s final game, and he presumably would love nothing more than to end his career by winning his first championship against his former team.
