- The LA Rams inadvertently helped their Super Bowl opponent Joe Burrow, the Cincinnati Bengals' quarterback.
- The Rams team doctor repaired Burrow's torn ACL last year, and introduced him to the team's captain Andrew Whitworth.
- Burrow bonded with Whitworth over their love of cigars, and said he gave him advice on fighting inflammation after surgery.
Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals are now all that stands between the Los Angeles Rams and an historic second Super Bowl victory in their home stadium.
The Bengals, one of the worst teams in the NFL for the past three seasons, have been the underdog story of the NFL playoffs this year. They upset higher seeded teams in their last two playoff games, and now face the Rams, who are looking to nab their first championship since returning to Los Angeles in 2016.
Burrow is poised to lead an upset thanks to his skilled passing and durability.
But he may not have been in this position if it weren't for two critical figures in the Rams organization: head physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache and offensive captain Andrew Whitworth.
After Burrow suffered a season-ending ACL and MCL tear in November 2020 — and the Bengals stumbled into last place without him — he went to LA, to be operated on by ElAttrache. ElAttrache then introduced the 24-year-old quarterback to the 40-year-old Whitworth, who was rehabbing an MCL injury of his own as a calming presence for Burrow's recovery.
"It's always good to have people around that would be good for them to encourage them and get their mind off the negative things in the darkest times of that recovery," ElAttrache told Insider. "Everything seemed to me that that would be a perfect situation for both of them."
Burrow bonded with Whitworth over cigars, and left with valuable diet advice
ElAttrache tapped into one of Burrow's unhealthier habits to create interest in meeting Whitworth: smoking cigars after big wins.
—Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) January 2, 2022
"I said, 'he's got a good cigar collection,'" ElAttrache said to Burrow of Whitworth. "'I don't know that I want you to smoke right now at this point in your physical therapy, but I think that it'd be nice to go up there.'"
Moving on from cigars, Burrow tapped into Whitworth's health knowledge as a veteran professional athlete. Whitworth, who became the oldest player in the NFL after Tom Brady announced his retirement last week, follows a strict personalized that is formulated through DNA testing, according to ElAttrache.
Burrow said Whitworth gave him a suggested change to his diet after surgery, that he said would help fight inflammation, which was critical to his recovery
"It allowed me to attack rehab a little more intense than I would have otherwise," Burrow told Insider during Super Bowl media access.
Fighting inflammation is a top priority of several renowned professional athletes' diets, including Tom Brady, Ndamukong Suh, Kevin Love, and Whitworth himself who goes so far as to restrict fruits and vegetables that he believes cause too much inflammation.