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 pm 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.”
Cooper Kupp waves to fans during the Disneyland parade @celebcandidly/ MEGA
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.
