My Two Cents: Super Bowl Glory for Brycen Hopkins, Who Just Kept on Working
One of the pure joys of the Super Bowl is that heroes are made — and they remain heroes forever. The biggest game in America's most popular sport does that.
It's an indelible stamp that never fades away.
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Rams won their second-ever Super Bowl title, and their first in 22 years. The postgame storylines were all about quarterback Matthew Stafford, who got his first ring after finally escaping football purgatory in Detroit, wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who won the MVP, and defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who just might be the great defensive player ever.
All great stories, but it's not even close to my favorite. Because it's a story of perseverance and belief. It's a story of hard work and blind faith. It's a story of maximizing the moment on the grandest stage of them all.
It's the story of Brycen Hopkins, an obscure third-string tight end to some, but a Super Bowl hero now. The former Purdue tight end had a huge day on Sunday, catching four balls for 47 yards, including two on the dramatic final drive that led to a 23-20 Rams victory.
Another Boilermaker is a 𝑺𝒖𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝑩𝒐𝒘𝒍 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒎𝒑𝒊𝒐𝒏.
— Purdue Football (@BoilerFootball) February 14, 2022
Congratulations @Itsbhop89! pic.twitter.com/1HZbUOXdD5
No one expected Brycen Hopkins to be a key piece of the Rams' title chase, because he's worked and worked and worked for two years in LA with no idea at all of when he'd ever see the field. After being drafted in the fourth round in 2020, he spent most of his COVID-interrupted rookie year on the inactive list on game days, and this year he barely played as well, making one catch for 9 yards in mop-up duty in a December game.
And none of that was surprising, considering where he landed after a great career at Purdue, where he caught 130 balls from 2016 to 2019 and had 16 touchdowns as one of the best tight ends in the game.
It was a bit surprising when he was drafted by the Rams last year, because they already had a two-headed monster at tight end in Tyler Higbee and Gerald Everett, who combined for 106 catches for 1,142 yards in 2019.. It didn't seem like there was much room for the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Hopkins, and he watched from afar as Higbee and Everett caught another 95 balls during his rookie year in 2020.
This seaon, Everett was gone, but Kendall Blanton got more of the second-team snaps ahead of Hopkins, who played in only five games and had just that one catch.
But Higbee got hurt in the NFC championship game two weeks ago, and the sprained MCL was too severe to suit up in Super Bowl LVI, and Blanton got the start. Hopkins was ready to go, too, and when Blanton was injured during the game, it was on Hopkins to deliver. He played in 39 of LA's 69 offensive plays, and kept making one big play after another
And he was huge, because the Rams were running out of bodies. Higbee and Blanton were out at tight end, as was No. 2 wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who had a first-quarter touchdown catch but was lost for the game with a knee injury.
The Bengals defense was double-teaming Kupp often, and Stafford needed to find other targets to get the Rams back in the game. That turned out to be Hopkins. He was targeted four times, and caught all four balls. His two catches on the game-winning drive were massive.
And when Stafford hit Kupp in the right corner of the end zone with the game-winning score with 1:25 to go, the Rams had their lead back. Donald and the defense closed it out, and Brycen Hopkins and the Rams were Super Bowl champions.
Forever.
"You end up losing some, and other guys are asked to step up," Rams coach Sean McVay said after the game. "I just can't say enough how much I love this group. They play for one another. There's something really powerful about being a part of something bigger than yourself. And you can see that the way these guys competed.
"I can't say enough about the resilience of this team. Guys stepping up when they had to. And it's going to sound like a broken record but that's what makes this team great. That's why they're world champs – our best players stepped up in the most crucial and critical moments."
It's a family affair for the Hopkins clan
This wasn't Brycen Hopkins' first Super Bowl. When he was 2 years old, he was at Super Bowl XXXIV watching — sort of — as his dad, Brad Hopkins, played in the game as the starting left tackle for the Tennessee Titans. Brycen was there with his mom, Kellie, and his little brother Collin and newborn little sister Gentry.
Fast forward 22 years, and the entire family was back at the Super Bowl — this time to watch Brycen. Brad and Kellie, both since remarried, were there with the large group of friends and family, a crowd that travels together everywhere.
It was an unimaginable experience, one generation later.
At the age of 2, Nashville's Brycen Hopkins (@Itsbhop89) was at Super Bowl XXXIV watching his dad, @B_Hop72, play for the @Titans vs the Rams.
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) February 12, 2022
Now he's set to play in #SuperBowl with the @RamsNFL.
"It's going to be surreal in the most positive way."
▶️ https://t.co/tw42wpNFXy pic.twitter.com/ABeTbEspVI
"He was (2), so I know he wasn't entrenched in the game," Brad Hopkins said with a laugh for a story earlier in the week. "Maybe he remembers the hot dog that he had that day, but that's probably about it."
Kellie Hopkins told Jim Wyatt of TennesseeTitans.com that she remembered parmesan Goldfish were the "magic snack" that got Brycen through that first Super Bowl. And now?
"We're just so blessed," she said. "Just something you'd never think would happen in a million years. I don't remember a whole lot about (Super Bowl XXXIV) – it was kind of a blur. I just remember it was an amazing experience. You're sitting there thinking, 'I can't believe I'm here. This is incredible.'
"Now, to be going again, and to see my son on the field, it's going to be surreal in the most positive way."
Brad Hopkins was a starter for the Titans for all of his 13 years, and is an all-time fan favorite in and around Nashville. He still is.
Now, he just gets to be the dad.
"He's blessed to be in this situation," Brad Hopkins said of Brycen. "Back when I played, I didn't really think about things like how big a game it was. But I'm a 51-year-old father now, and I understand the magnitude of this game."
A Super Bowl champion forever now
The magnitude? Well, it's the Super Bowl, so it's off the charts. But to then play such a big role in that final 15-play, 79-yard game-winning drive, well, that's something. He had a 9-yard catch on the first play of the drive to get it rolling, and also had a huge 6-yard grab on an important third-and-2 situation to keep the drive alive. He also blocked well.
It's the culmination of a lot of hard work, too, and the toughest of all kind of work. There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears that goes into it, and it's all done on blind faith because Hopkins had no idea if — or when — he'd ever hit the field.
But he worked and worked anyway, making sure he was prepared in case the opportunity came.
And it did — right there in the Super Bowl, in the second half of one of the greatest games in history. And now, Brycen Hopkins has a Super Bowl ring and a memory that will never fade away.
Never.
It's that way for the entire family, too, because all of them are great about being there for the Hopkins kids, a busy brood, driving up from Nashville all the time to see their games. Brycen had a great career at Purdue and they never missed his games. Collin has been the starting catcher on Indiana's baseball team the past two years and is now in the Minnesota Twins' organization. Even Gentry, the little sister, is a competitive title-winning cheerleader at Tennessee.
And Brad and Kellie and their spouses don't miss a thing. That's just how this family works, and I couldn't be happier for all of them.
Kellie always joked about having a closet full of Purdue AND Indiana gear and always making sure she packed right for every trip. And Brycen was good about sneaking into Bloomington to watch Collin play baseball, too. The entire extended family was there for senior day to support Collin last May, all decked out in Indiana red except for Brycen, who rooted hard in a solid black sweatshirt.
"I love my brother and I'll always support him, but he knows I always have to draw the line on slipping on any red Indiana stuff. That's just not me,'' Brycen told me last spring. "My guys back at Purdue, they would never forgive me for that.''
Those Purdue fans get that, too, because Hopkins has been one of their favorite players in recent history, too, because he caught EVERYTHING during his four years at Purdue.
And now, he's a Super Bowl champion.
That's what is wonderful about football, too. On Sunday, Brycen Hopkins became a Super Bowl champion. And now, he's a Super Bowl champion forever. That's the adjective now every time he gets introduced, "Super Bowl champion Brycen Hopkins.''
I couldn't happen to a better kid — especially how it happened. All that work, without ever knowing if he'd ever play or even suit up, and then playing great on the biggest stage. That was just phenomenal.
It couldn't happen to a better family, either.
Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who's worked at some America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star. He also owns the book publishing company, Hilltop30 Publishing Group, and he has written four books and published 16 others.