Nick Goepper is such a Cincinnati Bengals fanatic, he wore a team jersey during a slopestyle competition in January.
So imagine his anguish when he discovered the Winter Olympics qualifying round for slopestyle will conflict with his beloved team’s Super Bowl game against the Los Angeles Rams on Feb. 13 at the Rams’ home stadium.
Goepper, who won bronze at the 2014 Games and silver in 2018, told USA Today he’s waging “an extremely terrible internal battle.”
Goepper grew up about 25 miles from the Bengals’ stadium and has never seen the team in the big game. He was born in 1994 and Cincinnati last played in the Super Bowl in 1989.
So how tight is time on the big day?
The qualifying competition is scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. Los Angeles time. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m.
Goepper said a poor Bengals performance could influence his attitude if he tried to watch the first half.
“I think I’m going to opt out of paying attention to the game on qualification day and just praying that they win,” he said.
