DeAndre Hopkins Reflects on 'Long Road' to Super Bowl LIX

NEW ORLEANS – It has taken DeAndre Hopkins more than a decade and some divine intervention, but the accomplished wide receiver will be competing in his first Super Bowl this Sunday as the Kansas City Chiefs seek a historic three-peat in New Orleans.

Hopkins, 32, began the season with the league-worst Tennessee Titans before being traded to the Chiefs after a Week 7 loss against the Buffalo Bills in which he described as ‘one of the worst games of his career,’ he admitted on Super Bowl LIX Opening Night with the media at the Caesars Superdome.

After the loss, he approached then-Titans general manager Ran Carthon and expressed that he was ‘almost losing the love for this game’ before being mercifully traded to the Chiefs the next day.

“What’s deserving for you will come,” Hopkins said of the advice that he remembers receiving from his mother. “You just have to have patience and believe in yourself.”

The five-time All-Pro has been one of the most prolific wide receivers in the game since entering the league in 2013 while recording seven 1,000-yard seasons, but a championship a career achievement that has long eluded him.

“This opportunity to be here solidifies where I want to be with my career when I’m done,” he suggested. “It’s a lot of energy balled up in one. I’ve been playing in this league for 12 years, so it took a long road to getting here. Everything I went through in my career I appreciate.”

“This has a little bit more significance to me,” Hopkins explained. “I had all of the accolades being an All-Pro and Pro Bowler so many times, but I would give all that up to win a championship any day.”

When he arrives at the Caesars Superdome on Sunday, he will be doing it with his heart on a sleeve. Literally.

"My dad died in 1992 and he left me a couple of things,” an emotional Hopkins said at the podium during a media day conversation with Brandon Marshall. “One of the things he left me was a mink jacket so I always said I would wear that mink jacket to my wedding or the Super Bowl whatever happened first. And since I'm not married yet that's what I'll be wearing on Sunday."

As for motivation, he said he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get that elusive Super Bowl ring.

“My role with this team is wherever my role needs to be whatever I need to do,” Hopkins said. “If it’s going out blocking out one play or making one catch. And I think that’s just how this team is and why we’re where we are.”

That’s one of the qualities that Chiefs head coach Andy Reid values most about Hopkins.

"I knew we were getting a good player," Reid explained during a media session this week. "[We] played against him quite a little bit, but I didn’t know the leadership part. He’s been tremendous that way. He hasn’t complained that we’re spreading the ball around or utilizing other guys along with him. He’s willing to share in that way.

"So that whole senior leadership part that he’s brought, I really appreciate it,” Reid added. “He’s a unique route-runner. He knows how to set things up and he’s shared that with some of the guys.”

Since joining the Chiefs this year, Hopkins has 41 catches for 437 yards and four touchdowns as his age-related decline has seen him transition from an alpha WR-1 to a situational role player.

“They do a great job of scouting and knowing what players still have left in the tank," said Hopkins. "I'm just happy that I was able to be sought out by the Chiefs as a player that they want on this journey and I'm thankful to be here.”

His competitive nature as a player is one thing that’s been a constant throughout his career. Expect Hopkins to be ready to empty whatever he has left in that tank on Sunday.