Via Arizona Cardinals

History will be made with Super Bowl 50 — no matter what or who is in it. It is a golden year for what has become the biggest day on the American sporting calendar. And yet, if the Arizona Cardinals make the Super Bowl, a different kind of history will be made. Getting to Santa Clara wouldn’t be historic for the Cardinals franchise (though winning the game surely would) but it would make history for one man — as the only man to be directly involved in Super Bowl’s I and 50.

That man is none other than Arizona Cardinals pass rushing specialist coach, Tom Pratt.

How is that even possible? Well, when you are as old-school as Bruce Arians and have connections all the way back to the 1960’s in the game of football that’s exactly how it’s possible — and it might just be the best story that could be told in this crazy NFL season.

See, Pratt just so happens to have been a coach for the Kansas City Chiefs all the way back in 1966. At that time, he was just under a decade out of his collegiate playing days under Hank Stram at Miami (FL) and was a defensive assistant (mainly working with the line).

According to this bio, Pratt would coach the Chiefs from 1963-77. He would leave and coach with the New Orleans Saints and the Cleveland Browns in the 1980’s before returning back to KC and leading some of the biggest names of that decade on defense.

Pratt has coached NFL Hall of Famers like Buck Buchanan, Curley Culp and Derrick Thomas all while doing three different stints as a coach for the Chiefs.

His coaching career has even taken him to become an ambassador to the game in Osaka, Japan and to the IMG Academy in Florida as a specialist working with defensive linemen through the NFL draft process.

 

Arians plucked him out of that role for his defense and it has certainly paid dividends. The Cardinals have the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs and a real chance to do what no other Cardinals team has done — win the Super Bowl.

No, none of this is a misprint, and we are not joking with you. There really could be more than just retired players and coaches from that first and fateful AFL-NFL Championship game on hand in Santa Clara.

We could have a guy wearing an Arizona Cardinals coaching set up taking part in reminiscing and preparing for the game at hand as well. For his sake, it would be just his second shot at a championship ring in his 37-year NFL coaching career, and we’re guessing he hopes it all ends much better than the first time around.

[h/t reddit]

About Andrew Coppens

Andy is a contributor to The Comeback as well as Publisher of Big Ten site talking10. He also is a member of the FWAA and has been covering college sports since 2011. Andy is an avid soccer fan and runs the Celtic FC site The Celtic Bhoys. If he's not writing about sports, you can find him enjoying them in front of the TV with a good beer!