Not to worry. Here it is again, this national day of paying close attention to the score at the end of every quarter of a football game whose combatants would otherwise not register on your fan-o-meter.

Super Bowl. Numero LVI, I guess. Bengals-Rams. Hope your numbers line up every time the clock reads 0:00.

But, as always with the Saints not involved, I’m here to help guide you through this for a more meaningful rooting experience.

Just let me get my notes together.

Oh wait. Never mind. This time, apparently all I need to do is drop two words and then I can move along and get back to some exciting new experiments I’ve been mulling over for a truly revolutionary seven-layer cheese dip.

It involves oregano, maybe a dash of paprika, and maybe a game-changer (with ground-floor investment opportunities available). But that’s about as much as I can say right now. Top secret.

Oh, the football game?

Sure. No problem.

Two words: Joe Burrow.

It seems to be all you need to know in Louisiana. Burreaux, in these parts to his Cajun cousins.

He has this habit of turning losers into winners, Tigers into Bengals, Who Dats into Who Deys, 18-point deficits into AFC championships.

Who knows? Maybe water into wine to go along with the purple, gold and green king cakes suddenly turning black and orange.

Unless the NFL’s uniform police nab him today, check close and you’ll see he still wears a discreet LSU wrist band.

Yeah, it’s just about impossible not to pull for Joe Burrow.

He can be the first human quarterback ever to win a college national championship, the Heisman Trophy and a Super Bowl.

Never been done. Tom Brady won seven Super Bowls, but none of them could get him a retroactive Heisman or national title from his Michigan days.

Burrow would be doing it in a span of three seasons, just a hair over two years elapsed time.

Pretty short work.

And if anybody wants to match that trifecta in the future, Burrow could always ratchet it up by adding first overall NFL draft pick to the mix.

In that short time frame he’s also managed to work in a major knee surgery, which might explain how a mere second-year player can win the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award after previously playing in 10 games.

He’s one win from becoming the Face of the NFL, still somewhat of a baby face at age 25.

The Rams?

There’s Andrew Whitworth, another former national championship Tiger (2003) who has paid 14 more years in dues than Burrow has while this year becoming, at 40, the oldest NFL player ever to start a game at left tackle.

It would be a heartwarming story for sure for the West Monroe native.

There’s another LSU-Rams connection in Odell Beckham, albeit one who’s serving a two-year ban from the Tigers’ football facility for his financial role in that 2019 national championship game. You may recall he was making it rain $100 bills in the postgame afterglow, which caught the attention of the NCAA when a fair share of his generosity ended up in celebrating Tigers’ hands.

Not quite the warm and fuzzies you might feel for a Whitworth, especially coming a few days after Whitworth won the NFL’s prestigious Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.

Maybe they even out.

But the Bengals also have Offensive Rookie of the Year Ja’Marr Chase and defensive lineman Tyler Shelvin from LSU’s 2019 team.

The purple and gold don’t float your boat?

Former Tulane star Cam Sample is also a Bengals defensive lineman and Louisiana Tech’s Trent Taylor is a receiver.

Forget all that, though.

But never forger that the Rams are still the team following the 2018 season that would not refuse to accept the Super Bowl berth following the worst no-call in the history of sports rather than insisting the Saints go in their place.

a

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU

athletics. Email him at

scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com