'It's a God thing': Adopted NFL coach stunned to learn father's identity

Deland McCullough, the running backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders, found his biological father at 45 — and was shocked to learn he was someone he already knew.

Key Takeaways:

• McCullough was adopted as an infant, and he always felt like there was something missing.

• He found refuge in football, and while in high school, he met a running backs coach at Miami University, Sherman Smith. They developed an instant bond.

• McCullough went on to play football in the NFL for the Cincinnati Bengals and then became a coach like Smith.

• After McCullough met his biological mother, she revealed that a man he already knew was his biological father.

An Unplanned Pregnancy

ESPN recently published an article featuring McCullough's story, which began in 1972 in Youngstown, Ohio. His mother, Carol Briggs, was 16 when she became pregnant, and she never told the baby's father, not wanting to upend his life.

"He was a kid too," she said. "He was off at college on a scholarship. I think I may have felt that I kind of got myself in this, I'm gonna do what I need to do to work my way through it."

Briggs named her son Jon and placed him for adoption, hoping to give him the stable family life that she could not.

"I wasn't in a position to be anybody's mother," she said. "I thought this was best for him, that I allow him to be placed with some family that would be able to give him all the great things that I had coming up because I had a mother and a father. I just didn't want him to get cheated out of anything."

Instant Adoption Connection

Baby Jon was adopted by A.C. McCullough and Adelle Comer when he was six weeks old. "He was asleep in a bassinet," Comer said. "And she put him in my arms, and when he woke up, his eyes were looking straight at me. It was instant connection. Love. Mother-son."

Jon was renamed Deland, but the McCullough's marriage deteriorated after Comer's father got sick, and the couple divorced when Deland was two. Comer tried to do everything she could to be there for her son, even as he struggled with being adopted.

"The void was there," he said. "I wish that it wasn't, but I think I did a good job of hiding it."

Finding Football

Comer insisted her children take their education seriously and encouraged them to pursue extracurricular activities, which is how McCullough found football, which became his refuge. "It was an escape," he said. "When I was out there practicing, you didn't think about the electric is off, you know? You didn't even think about anything like that. You were just out there balling, doing your thing and competing and bonding with your friends."

McCullough flourished in high school as a defensive back, as well as a running back. He was pursued by numerous college scouts, including Sherman Smith, the running backs coach at Miami University in Ohio.

Father's Day Special: Story of football coach DeLand McCullough discovering his real dad | The Pivot

Smith, who was married and had two children, connected with McCullough immediately.

"It was just something about his personality," McCullough said. "The way he presented himself. He had things that I hadn't seen out of a man or mentor. He was on top of his details. He was successful. He had played in the NFL. He got his degree. I wasn't around that type of person."

McCullough's adoptive mother felt drawn to Smith as well and McCullough agreed to play football at Miami and pushed to play as a running back for Smith.

"He was everything," McCullough said. "If anything was going on, I was going to talk to Coach Smith. Everybody in that room gravitated towards Coach Smith just because that's the type of person he was. What he's about rubs off on you, so I always wanted to be around that."

Smith later left Miami to coach at the University of Illinois, but he and McCullough stayed in touch. McCullough went on to play in the NFL for two years, and when that career didn't take off, he turned to coaching, first at the high school level and then college, before moving up to the NFL. He even earned a Super Bowl ring as the running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs. But even as his career took off, he still wondered about his biological parents. After some digging, he found Briggs, and reached out to her.

Finding His Father

Briggs, meanwhile, had never forgotten her baby boy, and always hoped he would find her, even writing birthday messages to him on her Facebook wall every year. She was thrilled when he reached out, and the two felt comfortable and connected right away. When he asked who his father was, she felt he had a right to know, and she told him... it was Sherman Smith, his coach and mentor.

"If you would have told me to pick who my father was, there's no way I would have picked him because I might have thought I wasn't worthy for him to be my father," said McCullough. "I felt like my blessings came full circle because I'd always wanted to be somebody like him."

McCullough said so many things began to make sense. "'Man, you and Coach Smith look alike.' 'Man, you all walk alike.' 'Y'all this, y'all this,'" he said. "There's no reason to connect those dots because you weren't even thinking about them. A sense of pride that went through me, like, 'Wow, that explains these things.' And then I also start thinking about all the similarities of our path. That just blew me away."

When Smith found out McCullough was his son, he struggled with guilt and shame that Briggs had to go through the experience on her own. But ultimately, both he and McCullough were thrilled.

"I look at it, and I just say it's a God thing," Smith said. "It's grace. It's undeserved. And that's what's made it great for Deland and for all of us, how everyone has embraced this and is excited about our new family."