23 hours ago
4
After setting out to find his biological parents, former NFL player Deland McCullough was left stunned after discovering one of them was closer to home than he could ever have dreamed.
McCullough, who played for the Cincinnati Bengals before becoming a running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs and now an assistant for the Las Vegas Raiders, found that his biological father was right under his nose the whole time. It was his longtime mentor and former coach Sherman Smith.
The 52-year-old recalled the astonishing story during a conversation with his dad and Kathy Park on Tuesday's episode of The Today Show, insisting he always felt a 'connection' to Smith, 70, when they worked together.
McCullough was raised by his adoptive mother, Adele, after being orphaned at birth. When he was 17 Smith helped recruit him to Miami University in Ohio, where both of them enjoyed success as players, while working as a running backs coach.
But not only did he serve as his coach, Smith was also a fatherly figure for McCullough without even realizing their biological relationship was exactly that.
'The statement I would make to the players as I coached them [was], "You may not be looking for a father but I'm going to treat you like my son,"' he explained.
Former NFL player Deland McCullough (right) discovered his biological dad was ex-coach and mentor Sherman Smith (left) back in 2017
Smith proved an influential mentor to McCullough when they worked together at Miami (Ohio)
When he suffered a 'catastrophic knee injury' in a preseason game, Smith held a deep and meaningful conversation with McCullough after becoming 'the steady father figure Deland never had,' Park said.
After he became a father himself in 2017, McCullough then went looking for both of his parents and first found his biological mother, who lived only 10 minutes away.
She told him his father was 'a man named Sherman Smith', he recalled. And the rest was history.
When they finally reunited, McCullough said his dad 'opened the door and he just opened his arms and said, "My son."'
Smith claims he was unaware that his son's mother, a former friend, had given birth to him all those years ago. He described their incredible story as 'divine'.
'There's no way to write this... you just have to believe this is God,' he gushed.
The similarities between the two are also endless. Both of them are Hall of Famers at Miami, while both of them saw their professional careers come to an end due to multiple knee surgeries.
The pair recalled their astonishing story during an interview on The Today Show this week
McCullough, a highly-respected running backs coach, won a Super Bowl on Kansas City's staff
His dad also enjoyed success in the same role with several teams, including Seattle (pictured)
Smith and McCullough also pursued careers in education after retiring from the NFL, before becoming coaches. 'Both of us go to the Super Bowl multiple times, and unfortunately both of us lose to Tom Brady,' McCullough joked.
The now-Raiders assistant, who has gained a solid reputation as a running backs coach, won a Super Bowl as a member of Kansas City's staff in 2020 before suffering defeat to Brady's Tampa Bay Buccaneers the following year.
Smith lost to the legendary quarterback's New England Patriots while in the same role for the Seattle Seahawks in 2017 having also got his hands on the Vince Lombardi Trophy the previous year.
Their remarkable tale is now a book, written by McCullough, titled 'Runs In The Family: An Incredible True Story of Football, Fatherhood, and Belonging'. Park also claims a movie is potentially in the works.
