Sunday’s Super Bowl matchup between the American Football Conference champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference champion Los Angeles Rams provides all sorts of symmetry. Or is it irony? Perhaps a bit of both.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who purchased the team in 1994, is credited with blocking a plan by prior ownership to move the franchise to St. Louis. The team that instead moved to St. Louis was the Los Angeles Rams.

In 2002, in Super Bowl XXXVI, a surprise AFC champion Patriots team faced that St. Louis Rams franchise, led by future Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, winner of the Most Valuable Player award in 1999 and 2001. The Patriots quarterback was Tom Brady, a former sixth-round draft pick in his second year. Brady had spent year one on the bench, gaining the chance to play only after star starter Drew Bledsoe was injured.

The Rams, labeled the “Greatest Show on Turf” for their high-scoring offense, had won the Super Bowl two years earlier and were 14-point favorites. During warm-ups, Rams wide receiver Ricky Proehl turned to NFL Films’ cameras and proclaimed, “Tonight, a dynasty is born!”

He was right. The Patriots dynasty was born with a 20-17 upset.

The New England Patriots' appearance Sunday in Super Bowl LIII will be its eighth NFL championship game since it met the Rams in 2002, winning four and losing three. The personnel on the team have turned over several times. The only player to take the field in all those championships is Brady, directed by the same head coach, Bill Belichick.

In stark contrast, this is the Rams' first appearance since 2002.

The Patriots have gone from a team in danger of having to move because the crowds it was drawing were so small and its stadium so sadly outdated, to one of the most powerful and valuable franchises in sports, valued at $1.4 billion by Forbes.

In 2016, the Rams abandoned St. Louis, the city that almost stole the Patriots, to return to Los Angeles. The Rams play in the 95-year-old Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, awaiting their new stadium in Inglewood in 2020.

So, do the Patriots win a bookend victory over the Rams for a record-tying sixth Lombardi trophy? Or do the Rams start a new era with a long time coming revenge win?

How can you not watch?