CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati weather isn’t getting any friendlier, so the Super Bowl-bound Bengals plan to arrive in Los Angeles five days early to prepare for the Feb. 13 game.
The Bengals will land on Feb. 8. They’ll practice at UCLA’s Drake Stadium.
The temperature in L.A. should be in the 70s by the time the Bengals get back at it next week.
Although it was an unseasonable 60 degrees and pleasant in southern Ohio on Tuesday, nobody is fooled. A storm heading this way is expected to hit the area with freezing rain and then snow on Wednesday and Thursday.
Next week will bring highs around the freezing mark in Cincinnati, still not the best conditions in which to prepare for a game that will be played in SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
“I think it will be important that we (go early), but it’s always easy to transition from not-so-great weather to good weather,” Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo said Tuesday. “Doesn’t take long to figure that part out, and the guys will get accustomed to that quick.
“I think it will be good to get the lay of the land, but when the weather is good like that it’s an easier transition than going to to play in 8, 9, 10 degrees or something like that,” he said.
The 2-year-old SoFi Stadium is, of course, the home field of the NFC champion Los Angeles Rams, as well as the Los Angeles Chargers. It’s the second straight year one of the Super Bowl participants ended up playing in their home stadium. The venues are set years in advance.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in Super Bowl 55 at Raymond James Stadium. The Chiefs didn’t arrive in Tampa until the day before the game because of COVID-19 protocols.
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