Will Cris Collinsworth Ever Do a Super Bowl Again

NBC's Cris Collinsworth has watched so much NFL video in his career every bit his network's top color analyst that it could be calculated in years. Counting his career as a Cincinnati Bengals receiver, you could wrap the globe in all the moving picture and video he'due south seen.

Simply there'due south something he nevertheless won't watch: his two Super Bowls every bit a player.

Collinsworth entered the NFL in 1981, when the Bengals ended the season with a Super Basin loss to San Francisco, and retired in 1988 after a second loss to the 49ers on the NFL's biggest stage.

Nevertheless can't bear to look.

"Y'all're thrilled you're in it," Collinsworth told The Los Angeles Times this week. "It's obviously a résumé kind of thing to say you were in two Super Bowls, just the reality of it is, I've never watched either game. I can't. Simply can't make myself watch either ane. I probably don't retrieve details of information technology to the extent that I'1000 sure fans or other people who were around football can."

What'due south more, he won't wear either of the AFC championship rings he won.

San Francisco safety Ronnie Lott (42) stops Cincinnati receiver Cris Collinsworth during Super Bowl XXIII in 1989 at Miami. The 49ers won 20-16.

(Peter Read Miller/Associated Printing)

"I wore i in one case to a party," he said. "And I spent the entire night talking about those two miserable days of my life.

"Nobody was e'er talking about the AFC title game, or what got the states to the Super Bowl. It was, 'Oh, you guys made this mistake, and you did that.' I put that ring in a closet and I've never worn it since."

Collinsworth has enough of thoughts on the Super Bowl LVI game betwixt the Bengals and Rams at SoFi Stadium that he will call Sunday with play-by-play partner Al Michaels:

This Super Basin very easily could be 49ers-Bengals for a third time in your career. Was that running through your head?

It'south funny because I was thinking that if it concluded upwards being San Francisco, which it looked like at i point in that game then I was going, "Oh, my goodness, now the unabridged two weeks I'm going to have to tell stories about the ii worst days of my life: losing to the 49ers in the Super Basin."

Then, from a Bengals perspective, how do y'all look at this matchup confronting the Rams?

If the Bengals can go information technology protected, these are iii keen receivers the Bengals have. I'g not so certain that this isn't the all-time collection of wide receivers in a football game game that we will see all year.

Ja'Marr Chase is incredible. He's taken more 10-yard catches and turned them into lxx-m touchdowns where not simply did they not tackle him, they never touched him. And then the catch-and-run possibility is very existent with him. Tee Higgins looks like an NBA ability forward out there on the field. He's really big, strong, physical at the catch point. And Tyler Boyd is just a street fighter of a guy. He is their clutch, get-to guy in the most difficult of all situations. And Joe Mixon tin play too.

This is an explosive offensive team. A lot of people were thinking it was going to exist Kansas Metropolis confronting L.A., and that pass rush against Patrick Mahomes. Simply there'due south a reason the Bengals are in this game. Considering all season long, when they had to have it, these playmakers only proceed making plays. At present the evolution of the defense is starting to get there every bit well.

Now, can they hold up against this Hall of Fame defense with Aaron Donald and Von Miller and Jalen Ramsey? I don't know. That's clearly been the upshot when there take been issues for the Bengals. Can they get it protected?

The Bengals' Ja'Marr Hunt (1) catches an eighteen-yard touchdown pass as Chiefs cornerback Charvarius Ward (35) defends. The rookie receiver has been a touchdown maker this season.

(David Dermer / Associated Press)

When you put it that style, the receiver talent on both teams — with Cooper Kupp and Odell Beckham Jr. on the other side — might make this Super Basin unique, right?

No question. When I looked at it, that was the starting time thing that jumped out at me. I think that'south the way the game has evolved. Certainly you've got to have a top-end quarterback. But the rules beingness what they are, the ability to hold every bit an offensive lineman, these guys are going to get opportunities to get down the field.

Now when you're talking about Donald and Miller and Leonard Floyd, holding may not be enough. You may demand to tackle them in order to go on them off of Joe Couch. Only that'south what the game is. The great teams can run multiple wide receivers out there, so even if you have a Ramsey and he's doing a job on Chase or Higgins, you still have those other threats you take to worry about.

What kind of reward will the Rams take playing on their home field?

We only accept one sample to deal with on that, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looked pretty darned expert playing on their home field. But the Rams' stadium is one of the loudest stadiums that there is. At present whether or not information technology will have that same feel not existence a habitation game, I don't know how that works from the league's perspective as far as cranking upward the racket.

But you lot have to remember that the Cincinnati Bengals have won this year in Pittsburgh, in Baltimore, in Kansas City and in Tennessee. So it's not incommunicable to think this team'southward going to have that aforementioned kind of success, despite the fact that it actually is the Rams' home stadium.

Is it special and poetic that you lot're getting to call a Bengals Super Bowl?

Yeah, it is. I know what goes with it. At that place's going to be 2 story lines. Either I'm completely biased for the Bengals, or why do I hate the Bengals? I get that regardless. It could be whatsoever two teams. It could be the Texans and the Colts, and basically your whole goal during the broadcast is that the social media has equal amounts of, "Why exercise you hate this team?" or "Why practice you hate that squad?" Nobody is going to say, "Oh, man, what a slap-up betoken Cris just made on the Cover 2 defense." That never happens.

That'south part of it regardless. Does information technology go ratcheted up a little bit because it's the squad I used to play for? Maybe. I don't know.

neffitoponed.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2022-02-08/qa-cris-collinsworth-super-bowl-losses-bengals

Share this post