Let’s pause for a moment to appreciate how perfect a match this city and its new stadium were for this spectacle. After a decade or so of Super Bowls held in Indianapolis, Detroit, Minneapolis, Jacksonville, Santa Clara, and East Rutherford, this year the big game returned to its roots in Los Angeles County. L.A. hosted the first-ever Super Bowl in 1967, but none since 1993. After Sunday, there will definitely not be another 29-year gap.
Goodell had already said as much in his press conference, asserting that Los Angeles will be a “regular Super Bowl stop.” Maybe it should be even more frequent than regular: Everything about the week out here made me think it should be the permanent location. The weather was unseasonably warm without a cloud in the sky. The social scene felt pandemic-free. And wherever I went, pretty much anywhere in the greater L.A. area, I was surrounded by visiting fans from Cincinnati, who reminded me what the Super Bowl once was and was initially meant to be all along: a warm place for people from cold places to go in February.