Los Angeles is the world's leading exporter in drama, and the highest of all drama will play out Sunday afternoon at SoFi Stadium.
When the LA Rams host the San Francisco 49ers, the Canyon of Consequences between victory and defeat will be among the largest of any team in recent memory.
With a win, the Rams will -- obviously -- advance to the Super Bowl, which would be a long time coming in more ways than one.
In Greater LA's first Super Bowl since Jan. 31, 1993, the Rams would become the second team to host the Big Game.
While the St. Louis Rams won the Super Bowl in the 1999 season, the Los Angeles Rams have never won the Super Bowl, last winning a pre-merger NFL title in 1951.
A victory on Sunday means Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford would become the most experienced quarterback to make his Super Bowl debut. To be clear, there have been older quarterbacks to make their Super Bowl debut than Stafford, who turns 34 six days before kickoff. But no quarterback will have put in more blood, sweat and tears than Stafford, whose first Super Bowl would come in his 189th career start.
So, that's what the Rams stand to gain with a victory on Sunday.
As for what they stand to lose, look out.
First of all, no team more leveraged themselves to get to this point than these Rams. To get Stafford out of Detroit, the Rams had to sacrifice two first-round picks, plus a third. Von Miller cost two second-round picks to get out of Denver, and he becomes an unrestricted free agent the moment the Rams' season ends.
The Rams will enter the offseason $5 million over the cap, but they also have next to no help arriving from the draft.
LA took nine players in the 2021 draft, but their first pick didn't come until No. 57, which happened to be their only selection in the top 100. They also didn't have a first-round pick in 2017, 2018, 2019, or 2020, and they won't have one in 2022, either. The club's last first round pick, Jared Goff, cost them their '22 first rounder,
But all that salary leverage pales in comparison to the Rams' emotional leverage.
Consider the following. A loss Sunday would not only mean the Rams would lose the NFC Championship on their home field to their oldest rival, it would be their seventh straight loss to their oldest rival, and they would then have to turn around and host their rival in the Super Bowl to weeks later. Now consider that the 49ers wouldn't have even made the playoffs if the Rams hadn't blown a 17-0 lead on their home field in Week 18.
Think about it from San Francisco's perspective. Does it get any more dramatic, any more thrilling, any more satisfying, than clinching a playoff spot with a 17-0 rally past your rival on their home field, then winning at Dallas, at Green Bay, and at Los Angeles, then turning around and winning a Super Bowl on your rival's field?
That's twisting the knife in your enemy's chest so far that it comes out the other side.
That's a screenplay that would catch the attention of studio executives across town.