An amazing race featuring some prominent Los Angeles Rams debuts on Wednesday night. Speed will be a factor, but Steven Jackson, Eric Dickerson , and Marshall Faulk won't be involved.
Instead, Mattie Lynch and Quinton Peron are set to compete in the 34th season of the reality competition series "The Amazing Race," which debuts on Wednesday night (10 p.m. PT, CBS). Formerly of the Rams' cheerleading squad, Lynch and Peron make up one of 12 competing pairs for the coming season, including former NFL head coach Rex Ryan, who is competing alongside close friend Tim Mann.
Lynch and Peron describe themselves as best friends and respectively hail from Vista and Pasadena. The professional dancers spent several seasons in blue and yellow, with Peron making history when he became the first male cheerleader to appear in a Super Bowl (doing so when the Rams took on New England in Super Bowl LII).
The pair will look to make further history in the form of a million-dollar prize, whose previous winners include Anaheim Mighty Ducks draftee Bates Battaglia and his brother Anthony, who won the 22nd season in 2013.
Even if it's revealed that Lynch and Peron aren't the eventual cashiers of the seven-figure check, the two managed to pick the winner of an amazing experience, one that appears to have only been strengthened by their experiences.
"We are going to laugh our way through this. We are going to have a good time," the duo told KFMB-TV, San Diego's CBS affiliate. "Yes, the money is great, but it's really about the experience and trying to soak it all in."
Longtime "Amazing Race" host Phil Keoghan described the pair as "two Energizer bunnies," referencing the battery mascot's propensity to "keep going and going and going."
"They literally are bouncing off the walls like Tigger," Keoghan told Parade, conjuring the "Winnie the Pooh" character in another reference. "They're so excited and bouncy. It's like Quinton has got springs in his legs; he just bounces around all over the place."
"The Amazing Race" debuted in 2001 on CBS. Of note, this season will be the first to commence beyond American borders, with Wednesday's premiere kicking off at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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