OHIO — Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach Deland McCullough has been working his tail off to make a name for himself in the NFL. 

“Learn and then earn respect — those are my biggest things,” he said. “Learn and earn respect on this level."

And it’s safe to say he’s done that, as the Chiefs are headed back to a second-straight Super Bowl appearance. 

But if you dig a little deeper, you'll find that McCullough has an incredible backstory. 

He played his high school days in Youngstown, and then he was recruited to play tailback at Miami University in Oxford, where he would become the second-leading rusher in program history.

“When I graduated, I was the number one guy,” McCullough said. “When I graduated, I was the all-time guy.” 

After a brief stint in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals, he began coaching, ultimately leading him to his role with the Chiefs.

But along the way, he was searching for answers in his personal life. 

McCullough was adopted when he was a baby and never knew his birth parents. 

“I just lived my life and was grateful that I had an adoptive family who did a phenomenal job forming a foundation across the board,” McCullough said. “But (I) was definitely super happy that God opened the door for me to find my biological family and close the circle.”

That's when he reached out to Carol D. Briggs. 

“It kind of threw me for a loop because it was so out of the blue and so totally unexpected,” Briggs said. “It was such a long shot and something I had hoped for was here — the possibility of it was right here in front of me and I just jumped in.” 

Soon after, she explained his father was Sherman Smith, the coach who recruited McCullough to play at Miami, without even knowing their personal connection. 

That’s when everything started falling into place. 

“Once he made his appearance — he reappeared in my life — let me put it that way,” Briggs said. “Once he reappeared in my life, it seems like things just opened up for everybody.” 

Briggs said it’s been wonderful connecting with the entire family and seeing her biological son succeed. 

“He is such a wonderful person,” Briggs said. “He is such a wonderful man. I couldn’t — I can’t even put into words how proud I am of him. Even if he wasn’t at the Super Bowl two years in a row, I would still be overjoyed with knowing him as a person. Because he is absolutely fantastic. I could not, could not have hoped for a better person to run into after 45 years and say that he is my son. I couldn’t be happier.” 

McCullough encourages others in a similar situation to pursue closing that circle. 

“Go into it with your eyes wide open because you don’t know what’s on the other side of that door,” McCullough said. “I was able to walk through there and find an unbelievable situation where I was embraced, and I embraced what was on the other side of the door. But you don’t know, that might not be the situation for everybody, but you just gotta have an open mind when you go into it.”