USA TODAY Sports
Back when the Rams lost Super Bowl LIII a few years ago, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was Los Angeles’ quarterbacks coach.
By Super Bowl Sunday, reports had filtered out that Taylor was set to head to Cincinnati as soon as Los Angeles’ season was over. So everyone knew what the deal was, even if it wasn’t official.
But because of the situation, Taylor essentially was no longer a Ram once the final whistle blew on the 13-3 loss to the Patriots. That presented what Taylor called in his Thursday press conference “a real conflict of emotion” in the aftermath of the Super Bowl.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever really processed the game in its entirety because you woke up the next morning and it was an exciting time for myself and my family,” Taylor said. “So that’s a hard question to ask. It’s a good question. I don’t even honestly have a great answer for you because it was such a wild conflict over, really, a 12-hour period for me. To get to where we were at — I still remember Tom Brady and Bill Belichick walking by me in the hallway after they won the game and the excitement on their faces. I’ve never forgotten that. It was crushing to see.
“Then again, to wake up the next morning and be on a plane to come here [to Cincinnati] for a press conference, that was exciting. So I’ve never really properly processed that.”
Regardless, Taylor is now going against his old team for a championship. And if things play out the way he’d like on Sunday, he’ll have a good conversation topic for Rams offensive coordinator and future Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell.
