Inside Cooper Kupp’s unreal Super Bowl 2022 through his parents’ eyes: ‘Bedlam’
The drive of so many lifetimes, the drive of their son’s lifetime, was here and now.
Craig and Karin Kupp were seated in a suite with family members near the 10-yard line on the opposite side from where a boyhood dream would soon be realized.
Their boy Cooper’s dream.
Their boy Cooper, who wasn’t good enough for USC or Stanford or the University of Washington, who began proving the doubters wrong at Eastern Washington and never stopped once he became arguably the best receiver in the NFL.
And now, late in the morning after Cooper caught the 1-yard TD pass from Matthew Stafford that made the Rams Super Bowl 2022 champions, and made Cooper the Super Bowl MVP — proud parents Craig and Karin Kupp were on their own drive of a lifetime. It’s the drive a father and mother get to make when their son — along with his two little children and Matthew Stafford and Aaron Donald and their children — shout out to the world on their postgame field of dreams, “We’re all going to Disneyland!” Mom and dad were going to Disneyland, too.
The parade in Anaheim was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Pacific time and it wasn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world that it might have to begin without them.
“We’re still in Los Angeles, we’re dropping Karin’s mom [Linda Gilmer] off at the airport in Burbank, and then we’re heading down to Disneyland trying to make the parade for Coop’s little thing,” Craig was saying a little before noon PST. He laughed a father-of-the-MVP laugh and added: “I don’t think we’re gonna make it though.”
I cautioned him not to get a speeding ticket and Karin said: “Maybe we’ll get a police escort!” and they both laughed.
It was Bengals 20, Rams 16 when the Rams began their forever drive from their 21-yard line with a little more than six minutes left at SoFi Stadium on Super Sunday night.
“I was telling my son Ketner and my wife,” Craig began, “I said, ‘They’ve gotta put this in Matthew’s and Coop’s hands (chuckle) on this drive.’ And then live and die with the results. I’m just so happy how it turned out obviously, and I’m so happy for Matthew being able to do what he did, and for Coop to come up big the way he did, too. And then for the defense to close it out. We were ecstatic.”
You bet they put it in Matthew and Coop’s hands. The Rams were in business following Stafford’s 22-yard missile over the middle to Kupp.
“That was a heckuva throw,” said Craig, a quarterback at Pacific Lutheran, a fifth-round draft choice of the Giants who got to realize his NFL dream, if only briefly. “For Matthew to step in and deliver that ball, he had to wait just a second for him to clear. Yeah, that was a great one. We were super-excited on that. They’ve done it a bunch of times this season, did it again.”
Before long, Stafford and Kupp stood 1 yard from the Lombardi Trophy.
“I’m thinking if it’s gonna get in the end zone, I’m thinking Cooper’s a pretty good bet,” Craig said.
A much better bet than Eli Apple keeping Cooper from catching the winning TD. Craig was asked about the scene in the suite.
“It was just bedlam,” he said. “Matthew Stafford’s family was in the suite right next to us, so yeah, between the two of us, there was a lot of high-fives, a lot of hugs, a lot of tears. Yeah, hugs in between the two suites. It was really a special moment.”
Cooper’s wife, Anna, left the suite to take their boys, 3-year-old Cooper (they all call him Juney) and 1-year-old Cyrpress down to see their father and play in the confetti.
“People talk about maybe dreams coming true. … You watch him, everything he’s gone through since eighth grade, just working hard and putting the time and effort, and just trusting that’s where God placed him to be,” Karin said, “and it’s just cherry on top of all the frosting and everything else. It’s like it’s just been layer upon layer of extra sprinkles, and to win that MVP’s just that cherry on top … doesn’t get any better than this, really. Just unbelievable — believable but unbelievable, is what I would say.”
Cooper eventually came up to the suite for hugs and kisses and picture-taking. “Lots of joy,” Karin said.
Craig and Karen chuckled as they recalled Cooper’s first trip to Disneyland after joining the Rams.
“He’s 24 or whatever and he’s got a first-time visitor button and stuff,” Craig said, and laughed.
Craig paused when he thought about what watching Cooper’s journey from then to now means to him:
“I don’t know. … It still kinda seems a little dreamy to me. It’s settling in and sinking in. But to think back on the road that Cooper’s been on, and the work that he’s put in. … All the people that have been placed in his life along every step of the way to be able to help him accomplish like this. … It’s just really gratifying. Every parent wants their kid to go for it, and to do the best that they can, and for Coop to be able to do that and find his thing and kinda reach the pinnacle of the pinnacle with this latest deal, you just can’t ask for anything more. I’m so proud of him.”
Craig and Karin did not make the trip from Yakima, Wash., to attend the Rams’ 13-3 loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta because Cooper (torn ACL) could not play in it. Craig’s father, Jake, once a guard who played 12 years in the NFL, mostly with the Saints, got to enjoy this one, too. “Ohmigosh, he’s on Cloud 9,” Craig said. “He didn’t have really even a playoff celebration in his 12-year NFL career, and to be able to celebrate something like this, with family and with Cooper. … It was very very, very special for him.”
Kupps Runneth Over one more time.
At 1:17 Pacific Time, Craig Kupp texted: We made it to Disneyland.
