The LA Rams faced the Kansas City Chiefs in the wheelchair “Super Bowl.” Gordon Tokumatsu reports for the NBC4 News on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022.
The first thing you notice is that these guys are playing for keeps. This is not just a series of "exhibition" games, with a wheelchair twist.
The hits are hard. The helmets are real.
And the stakes for the LA Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs Wednesday morning, could not have been higher.
"This is our Super Bowl today, you know?" said Bart Salgado, of the USA Wheelchair Football League Rams.
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Salgado is both coach and player for the team and a U.S. Marine who served in Desert Storm, Desert Shield and Somalia.
Colton Kincaid's Chiefs won the game Wedesday, which allowed them to advance.
But since it's a tournament, if you win, you play again. And sometimes again.
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These "adaptive sport" athletes, as they're called, are playing a harder game, Kincaid explained.
Hands and arms do most of the physical work.
But you're also playing on asphalt, not astro-turf.
And you're moving a specially designed wheelchair down-field to block and score.
"You definitely have to do more with less," Kincaid said.
Since starting in 2020, the USA Wheelchair Football League has 700 athletes, coaches and volunteers.
The NFL and the Bob Woodruff Foundation partner through these games to raise money for military vets and call attention to the fact that football may be the ultimate physical team sport.
But you can play it with your hands, if you're just tough enough.
