The true measure of a player’s greatness is this:

When everyone from the opposing defensive players to the fans in the stadium to the vendors selling beer and hotdogs to the parking attendants know the ball is going to him and still no one can do anything to stop him.

Cooper Kupp was kept relatively quiet by the Cincinnati defense for 3 ¹/₂ quarters in Super Bowl 2022 Sunday night at SoFi Stadium, but when the Rams receiver was needed most he took over the game.

This is the core definition of the letters M-V-P — Most Valuable Player.

There were several reasons why the Rams overcame the Bengals 23-20 to win the second Super Bowl in franchise history.

Their all-world defensive lineman Aaron Donald, willing his way to a first Super Bowl ring after years of personal excellence, clinched the victory with one final harassment of Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow.

Their quarterback Matthew Stafford, for whom the Rams mortgaged the present and future to acquire in an offseason trade because they believed he was the missing piece to winning a title, engineered another game-winning drive.

But in the end, it was Kupp who was the star. That’s why he was named the MVP. No one deserved it more.

Kupp, who led the NFL in receptions (145), receiving yards (1,947) and receiving touchdowns (16) this season, finished the Super Bowl with eight catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns, including the game winner with 1:25 remaining in the game.

With 6:13 left and the Rams trailing 20-16, Rams coach Sean McVay had these words for Stafford on the sideline: “You and Coop go get this thing done.”

They did.

“That’s hard work, that’s hours together,” Stafford said afterward. “Coach kept calling plays for him, kept finding ways to get him the ball. He made unbelievable plays. That’s what he does.”

Odell Beckham Jr., the star receiver on the other side of Kupp and who draws coverage away from him because he’s also a big play waiting to happen, was lost for the game with a knee injury suffered in the second quarter. That enabled Cincinnati to put half of its defense on Kupp and it still didn’t matter.

Nobody can cover Kupp, who caught four passes for 40 yards on the game-winning drive, but as he has all season he was about so much more than simply catching passes.

It was Kupp’s 7-yard gain on a jet sweep on fourth-and-1 from the Rams own 30-yard line trailing 20-16 with five minutes remaining that kept the dream alive. It was his only rush of the game and it saved the Rams’ season.

If that first down isn’t converted the game is over, the Bengals are Super Bowl winners for the first time in franchise history, McVay is 0-2 in the big game and we never see the rest of Kupp’s heroics on this memorable night.

On the game-winner — a 1-yard Stafford back-shoulder pass to Kupp — he turned former Giants cornerback Eli Apple around on the right side of the end zone and secured the ball, the victory and MVP honors.

“Odell went down and Coop made some unbelievable plays on that last drive,” Stafford said. “On that last play, I was so happy they were playing man [coverage], I was going to throw the ball to my man and he made a great play.”

Kupp was in his second year with the Rams in 2018 but missed the Super Bowl following that season because of an injury, left to watch helplessly in street clothes on the sideline as the Rams failed to produce a single touchdown in a 13-3 loss to the Patriots.

It was that night when he had a spiritual moment and saw his future, saw Sunday night.

“In 2019, when we walked off the field after losing to the Patriots, I don’t know what it was but I had this vision that God revealed to me that we were going to be a part of that again, we were going to win it and somehow I was going to walk off field as MVP of that game,” Kupp said. “As I walked off field and I turned around before I got to the tunnel, it hit me — it was a clear as I can see you guys [reporters] here right now. Pretty incredible.’’

Just another incredible chapter to a story ripped straight from a Hollywood movie script that began with playing his college ball at obscure Eastern Washington to becoming a third-round draft pick in 2017 to becoming Super Bowl MVP.

After it was all over, Kupp was so humbled he was near tears.

“I don’t feel deserving of this,” he said when handed the MVP hardware. “I’m so thankful.”

Not as thankful as they are for him.

MVP.