Frankfort's Allegretti Savors Journey, Third Super Bowl Experience

FRANKFORT, IL — Many NFL players go their entire career without reaching a Super Bowl, but for Nick Allegretti, the feat of reaching a third in four years certainly doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of this week’s championship excitement.

Allegretti, the fourth-year Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman and former Lincoln-Way East and University of Illinois star, again finds himself in the middle of another weeklong build-up to the NFL’s annual title game.

After being part of a Chiefs team that captured a Super Bowl title during his rookie season, Allegretti has seen his role with the Chiefs change during his brief, but eventful NFL career. Allegretti started a career-high nine games at left guard in 2020 when Kansas City made their second straight Super Bowl appearance, losing to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-9, a year after beating the San Francisco 49ers.

This season, the 6-foot-4, 315-pound Allegretti has started three games and scored a touchdown — a rarity for an offensive lineman — in a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Allegretti hasn’t made an appearance during the Chiefs’ playoff run, which culminates on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Ariz. But the former local high school football and wrestling star hasn’t allowed his lack of time on the field to get in the way of finding joy in the journey to what could be his second Super Bowl championship.

“Obviously, (it’s been) a different role this year than it has been in previous years,” Allegretti, a seventh-round draft pick in 2019 told reporters earlier this year after scoring his first career touchdown in the Chiefs’ 42-21 AFC Wild Card win over Pittsburgh in January. “But I’m just trying to do whatever I can to help the team. I’m prepared to play anywhere inside (on the offensive line) that I need to and helping guys I can in (preparations), but still, playing in the playoffs in the National Football League is incredible.

“I definitely don’t take any of this stuff for granted regardless of my role and I’m happy as heck to be a part of this and to win again.”

Kansas City is currently a 1 ½ point underdog against the Eagles. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who suffered a high ankle sprain earlier in the playoffs, has said that his ankle is fine, which means that the start quarterback is likely to again play a key role for the Chiefs.

Mahomes also now has a special connection with Allegretti, who was on the receiving end of a 1-yard touchdown pass, which he said was the first touchdown pass he has caught since the eighth grade. He told reporters that Mahomes signed the ball for him and that the memento will hold a special place in his collection of football memorabilia.

“It’s so cool – each moment that I’ve had throughout my career,” Allegretti told reporters. “There are specific moments that you remember… but the memory of going over and looking right over the tunnel and hearing my mom and my wife screaming my name and getting to go give them a hug before I went in the locker room and knowing they were there for that is pretty cool.

“I got a couple of texts that said, ‘Dream come true’ but honestly, it wasn’t even a dream I had. I didn’t have a dream to catch a pass in the league. I didn’t dream that far and so that was pretty cool.”

Between them, the 2023 Super Bowl teams have 104 former college football players on their rosters. They played ball for 63 colleges, with the Oklahoma Sooners sending the most — six — to the Super Bowl.

Allegretti is one of two Illinois natives playing in Sunday's Super Bowl, joining Philadelphia Eagles kicker and Western Springs native Josh Elliott.

Florida, Michigan, and Mississippi State are all sending four players each; Alabama, Cincinnati, Florida State, Louisiana Tech, Nebraska and Washington State are sending three players each; and Auburn, Memphis, Middle Tennessee State, Old Dominion, Rutgers, SMU, Texas Tech, USC, and Wisconsin are each sending two players.