How San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl Demise Serves Los Angeles Rams A Cautionary Tale
Most would agree that as February ends and March begins, the Los Angeles Rams are currently in a less emotional spot than the San Francisco 49ers. The Super Bowl loss is only a few weeks old and as the 49ers come to grips with succumbing in the fifth quarter of the final game of the season to Patrick Mahomes, the Los Angeles Rams have already turned the page to 2024.
However, before diving in headfirst into next season, it is worth doubling back to take a lesson from the San Francisco 49ers. Heading into the game, LAFB was present at the San Francisco 49ers’ team hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. At the team’s press conference, I asked both Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey about their preparation for the Big Game.
One of the biggest rules of sports preparation dictates that professional players explore every avenue of preparation to glean any edge they can. However, both Christian McCaffrey and Brock Purdy essentially laughed off one avenue of preparation that may have done wonders for getting a bit of artificial Super Bowl experience.
For just tens of dollars, both players could have gotten a somewhat photo-realistic simulation of what it was going to look like to walk into Allegiant Stadium for the Super Bowl. The method, of course, would be to boot up a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X with the Madden video games. LAFB asked both players about the game’s role in the week.
How San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl Demise Serves Los Angeles Rams A Cautionary Tale
I asked Christian McCaffrey to compare the experience of playing in the Super Bowl to what it’s like to play in Madden’s version of the Big Game. He answered, “This is much more exciting.” It was a rejection of the game at its core and indicated that he ignored the game’s potential to help.
