‘IT WAS WRITTEN’: Cooper Kupp Buries the Rams After L.A. Reportedly ‘Urged’ Him To Retire

Cooper Kupp did not just beat the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. He scored the touchdown that held up in a 31-27 NFC Championship Game win, sending his former team home and putting the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl.Then the postgame reporting made the moment sharper. According to The Athletic’s Michael Silver, Kupp believed Los Angeles pushed him toward retirement and even tried to steer other teams toward lowball offers after he hit free agency.Seattle advanced to its fourth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history by beating the Rams by four points, per The Sporting News. Quarterback Sam Darnold led the way with 346 yards and three touchdowns after a rough regular-season history against Los Angeles, but Kupp landed the headline play.Kupp scored Seattle’s final touchdown in the third quarter to make it 31-20. That ended up being the winning score once Puka Nacua narrowed it to 31-27. Kupp finished with four catches for 36 yards and a touchdown, fourth on the Seahawks in receiving behind Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Kenneth Walker, and Rashid Shaheed.After the win, Kupp posted “IT WAS WRITTEN.” on social media.The reporting around Kupp’s exit paints a breakup that went beyond football decisions. In February, Kupp said the Rams intended to trade him and added, “I don’t agree with the decision and always believed it was going to begin and end in L.A.” He was later released in March and eventually landed with Seattle.Silver reported that “rather than trying to negotiate a salary reduction with the former All-Pro, the Rams had unceremoniously cut ties, urging him to retire.” Silver also reported that Kupp “came to believe that some L.A. officials had cautioned potential suitors against paying him anything more than the veteran minimum, suggesting that age and an accumulation of injuries had provoked a steep decline.”Kupp acknowledged the relationship was strained by the end. “When it ended with the Rams,” he told Silver, “we weren’t in a good place.”Now, the Rams have to sit with the optics: the player they could not trade, then released, just helped knock them out of the NFC title game and is headed to Super Bowl LX against the New England Patriots.