L.A., sports host with the most
Super Bowl heads to Las Vegas next, but SoFi could be not far behind
GLENDALE, Ariz. — With Super Bowl LVII in the books, the Arizona host committee was able to exhale Monday morning and passed the football — figuratively and literally — to its counterparts from Las Vegas, where next year’s game will take place.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who only hours earlier had presented the Lombardi Trophy to the Kansas City Chiefs, meant to make reference to Las Vegas in his introductory comments but accidentally said “Los Angeles” before laughing and quickly correcting himself.
Since he raised the topic, when is L.A. getting its next Super Bowl?
Although Goodell isn’t saying, the most likely window for a second Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium is at the end of the 2025 or ’26 season, meaning the games would be played in early 2026 or ’27.
The World Cup in 2026 will be a factor, as L.A. is one of the host cities, as will the Olympic Games in the summer of 2028. It’s highly unlikely the league would award L.A. a Super Bowl to be played in the same year as the city is hosting the Olympics.
As it stands, the NFL has its next two Super Bowl cities lined up — Las Vegas and New Orleans — and more plans are expected to come into focus this year.
Goodell said the league will be announcing one if not two future Super Bowl cities this year.
“They need more planning, more timing, so we need, actually more years, because they just get bigger and bigger,” he said. “And so we need to have a little bit more of a runway to try to do some of the planning that we now do around [the] Super Bowl.”
Prime’s time
Amazon Prime Video took over “Thursday Night Football” in the fall, and although the schedule looked pretty strong heading into the season, the viewership numbers for the streaming service were half of what the over-the-air networks did.
That creates an interesting challenge for the NFL. Should it give even better games to Amazon in the upcoming season to continue to grow that audience, or save those games for the networks, who will get twice as many eyeballs?
Amazon Prime averaged 9.58 million viewers in Nielsen Media Researchonly audience numbers for the inaugural 15-game package. The year before, Fox’s peak viewership on Thursday nights averaged 11.3 million, with those numbers skyrocketing for Sunday games.
Weird f lex
The league’s policy of trying to give every team a Thursday game makes it even more difficult to stoke interest because for every Dallas-Green Bay game, there’s a full helping of games with more regional interest such as Carolina-Atlanta or Indianapolis-Houston.
Goodell set off alarms among schedule-makers when he suggested at his news conference that the league could start flexing games to Thursday, moving them once the schedule already has been set.
In the upcoming season, the NFL will reserve the right to flex out of bad games on Monday nights and move them into that slot, instead of just doing that reshuffling on Sundays.
“It wouldn’t at all surprise me at some point that we have it on Thursdays, at some stage,” Goodell said. “Not today, but it will certainly be something that will be on our horizon.”
Ramsey on the trading block?
The Rams aren’t going to take a 5-12 finish in stride.
Watch for them to make a splashy move or two this offseason. That could mean trading All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey, among their most valuable assets. The team needs another edge rusher to line up opposite Leonard Floyd, and that’s the most pressing need.
The Rams also could use some help along the interior of their offensive line, as guard is more of a need than tackle. With Cooper Kupp coming back, they can figure it out at receiver.
As for the Chargers, they need to figure out what to do with Pro Bowl receiver Keenan Allen, and it could mean cutting him for salarycap reasons. Another big item on their to-do list is extending quarterback Justin Herbert, who will be entering his fourth season and is in line for a blockbuster deal.
Rodgers set to move on from Packers
After 18 seasons, Aaron Rodgers is likely moving on from the Green Bay Packers. Where the 39-year-old quarterback will wind up figures to be a major topic of discussion among NFL fans. There are a host of teams that could use him: Las Vegas, the New York Jets, Tennessee, Tampa Bay…. It’s the Tom Brady saga all over again.
But a move that could be more consequential is what happens with Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. He’s looking for a fully guaranteed contract, and that could set the market. The Cleveland Browns gave Deshaun Watson one of those last year, signing the controversial quarterback to a deal that pays him $230 million over five years.
Of lesser impact, but still interesting, is where longtime Raiders quarterback Derek Carr lands. He rejected a trade to the Saints and likely will be waived this week.
Like Herbert, Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow is in line for a monster second deal, and like the Chargers, the Bengals are not a franchise that’s flush with cash (relative to other NFL teams).
A Chiefs Super Bowl repeat?
Kansas City already was getting the upcoming draft, and now that the Chiefs are Super Bowl champions, the city also will host this year’s Kickoff Opener. That could be a rematch of Sunday’s game, as Philadelphia is on the Chiefs’ schedule.
In terms of players, Kansas City should be able to keep its team pretty much intact. The team could lose JuJu Smith-Schuster, who signed a one-year deal last March, and fellow receiver Mecole Hardman is due to become a free agent. The club is expected to use its franchise tag on left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.
Meanwhile, in the traditional Monday morning news conference with the Super Bowl’s winning coach and most valuable player, Kansas City’s Andy Reid gave a cryptic answer when asked whether he’s considering retirement.
“I haven’t put much thought into it,” he said, sitting alongside quarterback Patrick Mahomes. “I’ve got this guy over here that’s a pretty good player, so I’m doing OK.”
Mahomes was a bit more affirmative.
“I’ve said it before, but as long as Andy Reid’s coaching us, we’re always going to have a chance,” he said. “So I’ll keep the big guy around a couple more years at least and we’ll try to get back to this game as many times as possible.”