AUSTIN, Texas — Alex Okafor, a former standout at Pflugerville High School and an All-American for the Texas Longhorns, visited the KVUE studio Thursday to reflect on winning the Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Okafor did not play in the game after his season ended in week seven due to being put on injured reserve for a torn pectoral injury, but nonetheless, he was on the sidelines for the game and still gets a ring for his contributions to the Chiefs' season.
RELATED:
"You hit it right on the head. I wasn't able to be out there on the field and that was hard within itself," Okafor told KVUE. "[It] made the whole experience a little bittersweet, but at the end of the day, people get hurt every day in this sport and not many of them get to say they were a part of a championship team. I look at it that way. I've just been blessed throughout this whole situation. This whole run has been unreal and I appreciate it every step of the way."
Okafor's contributions to the season helped bring the Kansas City Chiefs fan base its first Super Bowl win in 50 years.
"Like you said, it has been a while," Okafor said. "Chiefs have so much tradition that people don't necessarily realize. We hadn't been to a Super Bowl in almost over 50 years. That tells you the type of excitement that came around once we won the game. That parade was unreal. The whole city shut down. Kids were let out of school. I want to say there were two million people at the parade."
RELATED:
As a fellow player who grew up playing high school football in Texas, Okafor said Whitehouse product Patrick Mahomes is incredible to watch in practice. Okafor told KVUE Mahomes makes spectacular plays on a daily basis.
"You almost have to step away and not get numb to it. At practice, he'll do something crazy and a couple people notice it, but not everybody because we're just used to him doing stuff crazy" Okafor said. "He's an unreal athlete – an unreal person. I'm glad he's on our side."
Okafor also talked with KVUE about the many coaches he's played under, including Andy Reid and former Longhorns coach Mack Brown.
"I'm not going to get into philosophy or anything like that, but they're genuine people and I think it would be hard to find anybody that's ever played for them to say anything negative about those two guys," Okafor told KVUE. "Those are kind of the consistencies between the two. They genuinely care about their players and it shows."
Okafor said he should be ready to return to the Chiefs from his torn pectoral injury by next season.
WATCH FULL INTERVIEW HERE: Former Texas Longhorn, Super Bowl champion Alex Okafor joins KVUE in studio
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: