Deland McCullough's Birth Parents

Deland McCullough grew up a happy adopted child but always wanted to find his birth parents. As he rose the ranks in the NFL to become a coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, he set out on a life changing journey to find them. The answers he uncovered were more than he'd ever bargained for. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you hear that Chris Pratt is going to voice Garfield?
He can't voice Garfield and super Mario. That's like, that's
like a monopoly on cartoon voices, an iconic nineties cartoon characters.
That's outrageous. I'm just thinking about all of our voiceover friends.
When when is the when is the government going to
get involved in, big big voice coming in here, taking

(00:25):
over all these parts, giving them all to the one
per centers. Pratt's you know what's the big idea. I'll
be writing to my congressman this afternoon saying, excuse me,
I'd like something to be done about the Pratt situation
because he now has I would like a bill introduced.
Please has to have some kind of cute acronym, though,

(00:48):
work on that. It'll be the Pratt Act and it
will stand for people really aren't thinking this through. It's
three the Pratt Act. People really aren't thinking this through.
We did just learn that the voice of Triton and
Little Mermaid is Uh Inspector Kemp in Young Frankenstein. Yes,

(01:15):
I love him. Frankenstein is so good. That was one
thing we did for Halloween was watching Young Frankenstein. I
hope everybody else had a great Halloween, classic classic film,
Yeah so good. We also took this hike on Halloween
night called the dolls Head Trail, which is in Atlanta,

(01:35):
not far from where we live. Honestly, um short drive
and it's a super cool little trail out in the woods.
You feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, which
many spots in Atlanta. Atlanta is a forest if you've
never been here, uh so, there's lots of little spots
you can go into the woods and feel like you're
in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. It's called Constitution Lakes
Park and it's really like kind of a marsh, I

(01:59):
guess you could say, a lot of water there. We
were kind of like we would never come here in
the summer it would be like Mosquito Town. But in
the fall it was perfect, like peaceful. The colors are
really nice. And then you get through this trail and
there's this artist that did basically an installation made out
of litter that would have been dumped in this In
this park, it used to be like a brick works,

(02:20):
so there was all these clay pits that filled up
with water and that's where the ponds come from. Now
and stuff. So there's a bunch of litter there, a
bunch of bricks, like random stuff, and he kind of
came through and turned it into a trail, like an
art artist trail. And people still contribute to it, but
only with any other litter that's already there. Um, So

(02:40):
you know, the idea is not to bring more trash
to the park, obviously, it's just to turn it into
something fun to look at. And it was really cool
and super creepy because all these broken dolls and like toys,
weird toys and just tires and stacks of old misshapen
bricks and stuff that had been disc hearted and they
found out in the mud. Um, so really cool, like

(03:04):
little artsy path, beautiful day for it. It was perfect.
You can see for our dog two, who's old, so
it was like a perfect trail for him. You can
see pictures on either of our instagrams um of of
some of the highlights of this trail. But it's super cool,
a good time. But now we are we're done with Halloween.
It's November one. We're phasing into another season and I

(03:29):
hope that you all enjoyed our recruptulous romance series. We
want to do that. Every year. We just take our spookiest,
creepiest erieus stories and tell him in October to kind
of set the mood for the season. Yeah, and now
that that series has passed for we're we're coming back
with a bit of a palate cleanser today. Nice clean,

(03:52):
refreshing drink. Something you might say is the polar opposite
of like say, the Carl Tonsler story or ease, give
me the polar opposite of the story. Moster reikes all
those creepy growth stories. This one is wonderful and joyous
and happy and lovely, wonderful examples of humanity throughout. Absolutely,

(04:17):
so we're very happy to be kind of shifting the
mood for a minute. Now. Um Now, I gotta tell
you for our non American listeners, because I know that
we have some awesome devoted listeners all across Canada and Australia,
the UK. Y'all three are are vying for that number
to slots. So so thank you. Tell your fellow countrymen

(04:40):
to get involved so you can really you know, Australia,
I want you to stick it to those Canadians. Canada,
defend your position. Get your friends listening with the number
two country at the end of the year is going
to get a special price one T shirt to share. Um.
But for for all of you non American listeners out there,

(05:03):
we're gonna be talking a lot in this episode about football,
but of course we're talking about American football. That's the
football that you hold in your hands. Uh yeah, very
few feet involved. Yeah, I mean, I have to admit
I really don't know very much about football myself. And yeah,
researching this story I did, there are some notes that

(05:24):
if you are a football, if you're a big sports person,
we're probably not going to hit. I'm quite like you
would because I just don't know what they mean. I
had to look up what rushing yards was, and they
talked about like somebody accepting a red shirt position even
though they were better than that, and I didn't know
what that meant. Well, a red shirt. Red red shirts
go down to the planet first before Captain Kirk, and

(05:48):
they get killed off by whatever threat is down there.
So you know that there is a threat, right, That's
that's what a red shirt does. Oh great, al right,
well then I do know what a red shirt is,
and this is going to be great. H But even
if you don't care about football. This story is absolutely wonderful.
It is about de Land McCullough, who had a loving

(06:09):
adoptive mother and brother and a wife and kids and
the job of his dreams as a running backs coach
for the Kansas City Chiefs football team. But he had
always wondered about his biological parents, and in seventeen he
got his adoption records unsealed and found his biological mother,
but there was no information about his biological father, since

(06:30):
his adoptive father had left his family when the Land
was only two. He was really searching for a father figure,
and he found one, but his search for his biological
parents would still change his life. So let's hear the
amazing true story of de Land McCullough's search for his
biological parents. Yeah, what do they say in football? But

(06:51):
they go game on? Okay, great, I don't know. Hey
their friend, Well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell.
There's no matchmaking a romantic tips. It's just about ridiculous relationships,
a love. It might be any type of person at
all and abstract const concrete wall. But if there's a

(07:12):
story with the second plant, ridiculous roles, a production of
I Heart Radio. Now. We got most of these details
from this really really great in depth article from ESPN
by Sarah Spain, so big shout out to her. This
is a very good article. That de Land mccullo was
born John Kenneth Briggs in December two in Pennsylvania. He

(07:38):
was up for adoption and the agency called Adele comber.
Adele lived in Youngstown, Ohio with her husband A. C. McCullough,
who was a popular local radio host, and their son Damon.
And tragically, Adele and A. C. Had lost their second
son at only twenty eight days old from an intestinal
birth defect. And after that happened, they decided to become

(08:02):
foster parents, and they were really looking to adopt another child,
which I think is so amazing to respond to a
tragedy like that being like, let me open my home
to right, babe, that's really cool. Um. And when the
agency placed baby John into her arms, she said it
was quote instant connection love mother's son. So they named

(08:25):
him to Land Scott McCullough and took him home. Amazing.
For a while, everything was totally fine, great life they
had for themselves, smooth salem. But then Adele's father had
a stroke and he was going to need dedicated care
and a lot of attention. So she brought him home
to live with the family, but her husband, A C.

(08:47):
Wanted to put him in a nursing home, and it
was a big fight. It was a whole thing. Um.
You know, we can't say specifically why, but speculation station.
You know, maybe A C. Wasn't interested in taking on
full time care of an elderly relative of his wife's
a job. Maybe he just didn't like the guy, maybe
each other. That would be tough though, if you really

(09:09):
hated your in laws and then you had to take
them in and I don't know, take care of them
and be nice to write. I feel like there's a
couple of sitcoms based around this idea. But it's like
you mentioned, you know, isn't that an important conversation to have. Yeah,
I think that is something you know that maybe you
wouldn't think of, especially if you marry kind of young

(09:30):
or something, or if your family is really healthy, like
our families are really healthy. I don't think we talked
about anything like that before. We have not discussed what
we would do if either of our parents, any of
our four parents suddenly needed care. I mean I would say, well,
I have a younger sister who could probably do better
than I could at assisting them. Molly. Yeah, by the way, Molly,

(09:53):
we're really counting on you. Everyone always has been here,
we go again. Yeah, but it does seem like one
of those things that, like people say, you should probably
talk about how you might react to a situation like that,
because there are some people who you know again speculation station.
Maybe Adele is like, it is so unfeeling to put

(10:15):
your father in a nursing home. You know he he
you know, raised me to care of meat and put
me in a home, and why would I do it
to you? Like, some people really don't like that idea
and have a very strong reaction against it. Um And
then also, homes are very expensive, so I wonder if
that was came up where she's like, I mean, sure,
put him in a home, but how we pay for that?

(10:36):
You panned for that, or my patent? How's that working?
Because we you know, that is not cheap. Right to
take care of another person. Child cares not cheap, elderly
cares not cheap. It's almost like that sounds like a
problem that needs to be fixed. It sounds like something
we should address. Well, whatever the reason, and we we
don't know what the actual rift here was. But they

(10:57):
didn't reconcile their positions and a c ended up moving
out of the house and they got divorced when the
land was only two years old. Adele got a number
of different jobs to support the family. She was a
social worker, a switchboard operator, a waitress, and a part
time short order cook at a bowling alley. She was working.

(11:18):
I'm imagining her doing all of these at once. She's
not like she's got something in the friar while she's
on the phone, like giving somebody life advice, and then
she's like, hang on, I have to switch your call
over Vondike nine. You know switchboard Klondike nine. I assumed
she was on the switchboard in the thirties. They had

(11:39):
an upgraded their equipment. So she's working a lot. I mean,
she's got a bunch of jobs. She's like an octopus
in the frame drodger rabbit and just like plailing around
it seems like. But still money was always tight um.
She worried constantly about keeping the lights on, paying the
rent on time. Sometimes she had to choose between the

(12:00):
power bill, getting paid and having a working phone. Um,
so you know this is a probably a lot of
people nodding to this. This is a common story, I
feel in America. You can have many, many jobs and
still have no money somehow. And it took her two
years to pay off a couch that she had put
on layway. But on the first day after she had

(12:23):
paid this couch off, she came home to find three
big gashes in it. And I'm sure she was like,
what the hell I just the off? Yeah right, my god,
I worked for two days. She's thinking of all the
short orders she had to fail to get that couch.
And it turned out that it happened because de Land

(12:43):
had gotten really upset because kids at school were teasing
him about being adopted, which common story also, I feel like,
so he accused Adele of not loving him as much
as she loved her quote unquote real son, Damon, and
she told him that she loved Damon and the Land
for different reasons. She loved Damon because he came from

(13:06):
her belly, and she loved the Land because she chose him.
And de Land rarely mentioned his adoption again. So Adele
kind of thought, cool, I I laid that to rescue him.
Figure that out. We're good here, I said the exact
right thing. I am good at this. Yeah, mom My,
damn good mom. But de Land said that he had

(13:29):
always still felt a void around that, but he just
got really good at hiding it is that he describes
it now. Adele had a few relationships after her divorce
from Macy. Some of them were described as quote combative
and abusive. Damon, who was her older son, um, he
would sometimes kind of try to intervene when these things

(13:50):
got bad, but the Land's way of coping with it
was kind of just shut down and shut out the world.
In that ESPN article, Adele admits that she can be
didto this chaos in the house. She called herself quote
the biggest drama queen in the world. And it sounds
like maybe she continued to date a little after that,
but she maybe stopped trying to have anything serious with anyone. Yeah,

(14:13):
that's it sounded kind of like she was maybe trying
to get remarried and like really have something serious when
they were younger kids, and then as they were getting older,
she was kind of like, I'm going to get them
through high school and get them right, you know, out
of the house on their own before I try to
address my love life's I'm already working eight jobs at once. Here.

(14:35):
I got time to to, you know, deal with some
some guy, right, especially if these guys are coming around me.
And yeah, out of an abusive and thanks. I mean,
I'm freaking dealing with French fries and social case social
worker cases leaving alone. So Adele's doing it. She's trying
to hold it together here, Yeah, for sure. And she

(14:56):
was a very dedicated mom too. Again, she's got all
these jobs. Keep that in my They were still very
active in church. She insisted on checking their homework every night, um,
not only to make sure they were doing it, but
also that they actually understood what they were doing. Um.
She shuttled them to all kinds of activities, including the
theater program at the Youngstown Playhouse, and to track and

(15:17):
basketball and football practice. So cool that he did theater.
I'm just I'm just glad that you let your kid
to do theater. Is so good because they get out
there in front of people and they learned there's nothing
to be afraid of, and you can talk and you
can present, and you can I don't know, Yeah, well,
not only that my theater pitch, but it's so rounding
because even in high school, like there's just this perpetual

(15:38):
idea that these two things are the opposites of each
other and they're polarizing, and that's like you either like
theater and art or you like sports. And when I
knew so many people who loved both, who still love
both as adults, who found a lot of value in
either one and have have grown as a person because
of what they learned from either one of those things.

(15:59):
And I've think this notion in high school. A lot
of it comes down to time, because if you're going
to do either one of those things, it better be competitively,
so you have to devote your entire self to it,
which sucks because you shouldn't know how to do that
in high school. But yeah, and at its best, we're
talking about two things that are about a big group
of people working together towards a common goal. And those

(16:22):
are that's great skills to learn, no matter how you
learn them. And even competition. We had some some steady
competition in theater. We went to we went to Thespian
Conference and and uh and tackled another theater Troupe the
Ground gave him all concussions and bye bye Birdie, but
bye bye bye bye Birdie because they weren't going to

(16:45):
do that show no more. So. Yeah, when a theater
kid in me was just very happy that he did
some theater. But de Land fell in love with football.
He loved it from early on. When he played peewee
football and he heard its name over a speaker, he
was immediately like, yet, so it sounds a lot like
an actor getting applause, but the first time and going, oh, yeah,

(17:05):
this is me the rest of my life. You're saying
my name. And he would even carry a football to
bed with him at night. I think it's cute. And
Adele would go to all his games and cheer for him.
She brought multiple signs. She run up and down the sideline.
She would holler d Matt, d Mat, d Mac from

(17:26):
the stands. She's just real into it. And the other
moms were like, okay, we all got kids in the game,
but okay, but still, de Land had no father figure,
and he was pretty thirsty for a male mentor. Fortunately, though,
he was able to have his pick because for a

(17:47):
while de Land played as a junior defensive back, and
he thought that he'd probably play for like a small
college or maybe enlist in the Navy and play with them.
But then he got moved to the running back position
and he really started to get some attention there. Suddenly
some of these really good colleges came a calling for him,

(18:07):
and he was now meeting with some of the top
coaches in the country. The then head coach, Jim Tressel
tried to entice him to Youngstown University. Bob Stoops, the
defensive backs coach at Kansas State, showed up with a
big bag of swag, like, hey, Kansas, you think about it,
because you've got to show up with a bag of swag.

(18:29):
You're going to try and get people to come to Kansas,
you know. And then Sherman Smith, the running backs coach
at Miami University of Ohio, he showed up too, and
to Land was sitting in class like a third period
high school, boring some class, sitting next to the window,
and out corner of his eye he sees this candy

(18:49):
apple red Mercedes tricked out gold rims pull up and
so he was like, okay, who's this person? And then
that person actually wanted to meet him, and it only
got better as they talked. It was Sherman Smith from
Miami University of Ohio, and he was an aspirational figure
for de Land. Sherman had been a star quarterback at

(19:13):
Miami of Ohio when he was in college. Then he
was the second round draft pick running back for the
Seattle Seahawks. He played professionally for eight years. He was
this powerfully built guy with like a booming voice. He
was a successful, confident, competent man, you know, walking around
looking like a boss in a really nice car. And

(19:35):
de Land was like, that's the kind of guy I
want to be around. That's the kind of guy I
need in my life. You know, I need to model
myself after somebody like this. This is a successful person.
And Sherman also was really impressed with de Land. He
thought he was very intelligent and expressive. So they really
wanted to work together. So, even though there was a
lot of interest from other schools, de Land chose to

(19:57):
attend Miami of Ohio and when he got there, they
kind of pushed him to become a wide receiver and
he declined just because he really wanted to work with
Sherman and Sherman was the running backs coach, so he's like,
I'm running back. I'm working with Sherman, so I'm doing
and in a lot of ways, it seemed like Sherman
was kind of coming into fill this father figure position

(20:18):
that de Land had been trying to fill throughout his
whole life. DeLand told ESPN quote, if anything was going on,
I was going to go talk to Coach Smith. Everybody
gravitated towards Coach Smith, just because that's the type of
person he was, and Sherman encouraged it. He says in
the article quote, I would tell the players, you may
not be looking for a father, but I'm going to

(20:40):
treat you like you're my Son's I just looked at
every guy like he was my son. I wanted to
exemplify what I thought my father exemplified for me. And
that's so cool. I mean, like, what a great coach figure,
you know, to kind of take on that role and
imagine to Land, you know, freshman at university and his
coach says, you might not be looking for a father,

(21:00):
but I'm treating you like you're my son. And He's like,
I am is exactly what I've been looking for. I
wasn't gonna ask, but if you can fill that position,
that's that's perfect for me. So even though after that season,
Sherman actually left Miami to become a tight ends coach
at Illinois University, he and the Land stayed in touch.

(21:21):
They were just that close. He was that important to him.
So again, that's just such an awesome relationship for him
to find. And despite him not knowing who his biological
parents were, the Land had finally found this father figure
that he was looking for, and he now had like
college ahead of him. He knew he was on this

(21:41):
way to a career and professional football, but his search
wasn't over. He still wanted to know who his birth
mother and father were, and we imagine so do you.
So we're going to come back to it right after
we take this quick commercial break. Welcome back to the

(22:04):
second quarter here where the score is the Land one
father figure, one that adopted mother, and no biological parents
identified as of yet. That's we're on the UH first
and three uh with it two yards to go. Very exciting. Wow,

(22:28):
I don't know what any of that means. Well, I
certainly do. Well, I'll tell you who does probably know
how ridiculous now was and that's Delanne McCullough. Yeah, he
had a great career in college. He set a school
record with four thousand, three hundred sixty eight rushing yards.

(22:49):
I got a real quick just for our non American
listeners around the globe, four thousand three rushing yards is
three rushing meters. Put that in context. Now we know
almost the same number, so close. Yeah, this is a

(23:13):
Hall of Fame showing apparently of rushing yards, which I
guess is just how much I've looked it up, all right,
and how much. It's how much ground you gain without
getting a pass. So it's just you ran a lot
without touching the ball, I guess being stopped. And so
you're fast and you got far. Good. That's good in football.

(23:34):
It's very good in football. And so people were like, oh,
that guy got fast and went really far. We like him.
He's good. It's a hall of famer. I'm sure that's
how the conversation. I think that was it. That's all
they do so because it's so impressive. He was very
surprised that his name was not called in the draft,
but he was invited to some workouts and he ended

(23:57):
up signing with the Cincinnati Bengals, and he was leading
the NFL in preseason rushing when at the last exhibition
game he suffered a season ending knee injury. He played
a few seasons in Canada with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers,
and he underwent several knee surgeries, but in two thousand
one he had to accept that he was never going

(24:19):
to be able to play professionally, which just sucks. Like
I'm just like, imagine that movie where he's leading and
everyone's like, oh, this guy is going about to go
really far in the NFL, and in the last game
before you actually are playing professionally, everything's over. I mean,
I would feel like such a dany mom. That's so tough,

(24:39):
And it's tough when your your job is to kind
of punish your own body. But if your if your
body is too punished, you can't do your job anymore.
Like that's such a tight blind walk. It's so difficult. Wild.
I have a friend who's a professional dancer, and it's
a very similar conversation with her is like, okay, like
when she was twenty eight, she's like, well, I'm a

(25:00):
little old now for ballet or something, And I was like, what,
But it's it is very hard on your body when
you're an athlete. It's a tough path to walk. But
it sucks for him. Of course, he took it very
well and he was like, you know what, I got
to show that I could have played on a professional
level and everyone knows it, so I feel good about that.

(25:24):
And he ended up turning his attention to coaching. So
he went and taught and coached part time at Harmony
Community College and that kind of game the bug to
coach more. So he called Miami of Ohio and was
kind of like, hey, what you got for me? Maybe
in the coaching arena and they were like hell yeah,
I get over here. And so before hit the job started,

(25:45):
he called his old coach, Sherman Smith, because of course
that guy already had the job before. So he's like, hey,
what what should I know about this? And Sherman had
a similar career path to coaching as de Land. After
he played professionally, he started coaching with high schoolers and
then he went on to Miami of Ohio and then
he worked his way up to becoming a coach with
professional teams including the Houston Oilers and the Washington less

(26:10):
offensive team name coming in early two we swears and
he was the running backs coach with the Seattle Seahawks
when de Land called for advice about Miami of Ohio.
So of course he's like, you know, I'll tell you
everything I know. And by de Land had done great
at Miami of Ohio, he'd moved on to coaching at

(26:31):
Indiana University, and Sherman then invited de Land to join
him with the Seahawks for a coaching internship. So he
was like really kind of ushering him into the professional arena,
professional football arena, and was like, I can tell this
guy's gonna be really good coach. But then off the field,
de Land was still consumed with the search for his
biological parents. It always bothered him not to know, but

(26:55):
he had obviously been able to push that aside until
eventually he got married and then he had his first child.
At this point he really started thinking about this issue
again with not knowing who his parents were. He wanted
to know who his sons took after, who they looked like,
and of course he's trying to tell them like their
family medical history, but he doesn't have that obviously, because

(27:16):
he doesn't even know who is you know, biological family
before him was so this was difficult for him. But
he was still struggling, you know, in this search because
he was adopted in Pennsylvania, and they had laws against
unsealing adoption records, even for the person who had been
adopted out. But in two thousand seventeen the law changed

(27:39):
and the Land was able to get his hands on
his adoption records. He read his birth certificate eagerly, and
he discovered his birth name, John Kenneth Briggs, and he
found out his biological mother's name, Carol Denise Briggs. Next
to father's name. The line was blank. Oh that must

(28:01):
have felt so crazy, just like, here's all the answers. Oh.
The Land went ahead and reached out to Carol, his
biological mother. She opened up her Facebook one day to
find a message waiting for her that just said, quote,
did you have a baby in nineteen seventy two in

(28:21):
Allegheny County that you placed for adoption? What a message
can you imagine? Uh? Just opened your Facebook one day? Oh,
new message request, probably spam or like somebody I knew
trying to get me into an MLM or something. And
then uh so it's just like he's into it a

(28:42):
little buddy. Hey, I have a question for you. I
think we might know each other something like that. Instead
of just straight out the gate, hey do you have
a baby that you gave up for adoption? Would be like, damn,
how long you've been watching me? Whoa for real speculation station?
Maybe he found like fifty Carol Briggs. Yeah, in in

(29:02):
Allegheny County or something. It was just like you know what,
copy paste, So he's got like forty nine people answered
no or ignored it left him on red because like,
I hope you're not my mom? You left me on red. Yeah,
So she was obviously shocked by this message. She told
Sarah Spain in ESPN quote Luckily, I was already sitting

(29:27):
over real. Can you imagine falling on your ad just
fallen out because of that? It would be so crazy.
So Carol Denise Briggs was only sixteen years old when
she found out she was pregnant with the land. She
spent most of her pregnancy at the Zore Home from
Mother's Babies and Convalescence in Alison Park, Pennsylvania, so hardly

(29:50):
anyone outside of her immediate family knew she was pregnant.
On December one, she spent the day sledding with some
other girls after a big snow stor arm and then
woke up at two am in labor and she had
already planned to put the baby up for adoption with
her parents blessing. She told ESPN that at that time,

(30:11):
you know, her mother was still cleaning up her room
for her once a week and stuff like that. She's like,
I just knew I was not ready to be anybody's mother.
And she also was kind of thinking, like, I'm young,
you know, what kind of chance does this kid have
with me? Um? She told ESPN quote, I just didn't
want him to get cheated out of anything, um. And

(30:32):
she kind of was like, my parents had given me
a very loving, stable home, and you know, I just
felt like I wasn't in a position to offer that
to another another person. So she's like cool, very at
peace with her decision to adopt this child out until
right before she's going to sign the papers, she thought
of the father. Now, the father was a teenage fling

(30:54):
who had left for college before she ever found out
she was pregnant, so he did not know a thing
about it, and she kind of was like, Okay, should
I tell this guy? Does he have a right to
know or whatever? And she ultimately decided not to tell him.
She says in the article quote he was just a
kid too, so she kind of felt like she would

(31:15):
be derailing his life for no reason, maybe making him
feel bad or some or or more connected to her
than she felt like he needed to be. Something like that.
She's just like, I don't know, it felt like a
waste of time. Maybe if she's not keeping the child.
Maybe I don't know. I guess that, Yeah, speculations station Indeed,
I think that, you know, she thought, well, I'm giving

(31:37):
this child up for adoption. It's not going to be
part of my life. It's not going to affect my
life anymore beyond this, So why why just tell him that,
just to like right somewhere, Yeah, just to rattle his
brain for something that's not going to ultimately matter sort
of in the long run. Yeah, So I can I
guess I can see that. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, I don't.

(31:58):
I don't really know. I have never had to make
that decision, fortunately, right. She also said she thought she
kind of got herself into the situation and she'd get
herself out of it. Which felt a little like self
blameing to me because it takes two people to make
a baby. So I know, she was like, I shouldn't
have had sex outside of wedlock or whatever, but come on,

(32:21):
you didn't do that on your own. But yeah, so
she she ultimately was like, Okay, no not telling him,
I'm going to sign these papers. The next day, she
was back home in her hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, and
she was ready to be a teenager again. And her
last contact with the adoption agency was when they told
her they placed her baby with a doctor and his

(32:44):
wife in Columbus, Ohio. But she had never forgotten John.
She would wish him a happy birthday on her Facebook
wall every year. Um she checked adoption sites to see
if he was searching for her. So she was even
maybe kind of hope one day to get that Facebook message,
and her mother started to tell her, you need to

(33:06):
find that boy. More and more, she got older, even
though you know, her parents had been totally down with
her decision to have, you know, put the baby up
for adoption. But Carol never married or had any other children,
so I'm like, probably her parents were getting older, like
we do have a grandkid, out there and we want one,
and we want him. We'll know where he is. Yeah

(33:27):
and uh. Carol used to joke that one day John
would walk up to her house and quote find her
home alone dancing around the house to Funkadelic. But instead,
here he was on her Facebook page. Sliding into someone's
d m s is the twenty one century version of
walking up their house and seeing I'm dancing alone to Funkadelic. Right.

(33:50):
Carol's brother warned her this could be a scam. Good brother,
because it was smart. This guy might just want some money,
but or whatever, you know, he might be. You know
that old trick. Yeah, I get those messages all the time. Hey,
I'm your son. You have been ignoring me all these years.
Uh why did you slammed the door in my face?

(34:11):
I like that never happened. Never happened. But Carol was like, no,
I'm going to respond this message. She She answered him
back anyway, and they ended up setting up a meeting
to speak on the phone. In the meantime, she googled
his name and she read everything she could find about
this guy, and when he called, they spoke very easily
to one another. She learned that he hadn't actually gone

(34:34):
to Columbus, Ohio at all, but he had actually grown
up only a few miles away from her in Youngstown.
They might have even passed each other in the grocery store.
I mean, that is so crazy to me, Like if
you gave up a child for adoption, thought they were
hours away and found out they were literally your neighbor.
So wild, basically your neighbor. She even felt like her father,

(34:56):
who was at this point de ceased, but he had
been a huge Warts fan and he probably followed de
Land's high school football career amazing, just like he would
his grandson. The Land was of course, just so happy
to reconnect with his birth mother, but he'd always had
a mother in his life, you know. Adele had made

(35:18):
sure that he was fed and educated and cheered on
and loved. So he was so happy to have met Carol,
but he was still missing his father. Within ten minutes
of their phone call, he asked her point blank, all right,
who's my father. Carol obviously knew that he was going

(35:42):
to want to know, and she'd only ever told three
people the guy's name before because she was afraid that
you know, this guy would learn maybe through careless gossip
that he had a kid out there. She didn't want that,
she wanted control over this info. But she decided, you
know what, de land has a right to know. So
she told him, your father's name is Sherman Smith. Can

(36:09):
you imagine? Oh my god, Oh my god. I mean
it made me cry when I first read it. He's
just this college football coach, you know. I think he
was at Miami of Ohio for a while. Yeah, de
Lande thought he might pass out obviously, like I do
right now. Carol describes it quote, I could hear him

(36:32):
take a big breath, and I could kind of hear
him choke up a little. And finally he says, well,
I've known Sherman my whole life. Oh my god. That
just gets me so hard. Like how crazy to have
been longing for someone who is standing right next to
you for a lot of your life. It's just insane.

(36:53):
And for de land a lot of dots were connecting
throughout his years long friendship with Sherman. People had told
them all the time they were carbon copies that they
looked alike and talked alike and carried themselves that like,
they were always joking about it and the land had
always dismissed it. He told ESPN, quote, if you would

(37:14):
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.
I mean, look, you've got stack, every stack, all these
feelings up at once, because not only have you got
I just learned who my father is. Let's just take
that base level. That alone is a very emotional experience.

(37:36):
Who Okay, not only that, but it's someone I've known
my whole life. Okay, let's put that on top of it,
Like I already knew this guy and it turns out
he's my father. Let's put another layer on top of that.
This guy was already a father figure. He was everything
I would want my dad to be, and he is

(37:56):
my dad. It's like he wished on a coin and
threw the well and was like, you know, I wish
Sherman Smith was just my father, and then woke up
the next day and they were like, granted, there you go.
I'm so amazed by this. I mean, just it's I mean,
it's insane. No, it sounds made up, it does, but

(38:17):
it is fucking real, incredible well, obviously this isn't the
end of the story, because there's another big conversation to
be had, and that is when the Land contacts Sherman
to let this guy know who didn't had a son,
that his son figure was his son. And I think

(38:41):
that we're going to have to save that for right
after this commercial break, and we're back with the fourth
quarter of the de Lane McCullough story. Scores one adoptive mother,
one biological mother, one biological father. Um. But maybe the

(39:04):
biological father doesn't know he's playing the game. They might
need to go get him. Yeah, from the locker room.
Areas exciting game? It sure is. It's one for the book.
So de Land searched for his biological father, brought him
right back to the man who had already been his
mentor for twenty eight years, this guy who had helped

(39:26):
him along his career path, the man he had looked
up to since he was sixteen years old. He had
a photo of him and Sherman from when the Land
was in high school, just beaming as the Land signed
his letter of intent to play at Miami, and the
Land had kept that photover over two decades. He kept

(39:46):
it in a zip block bag that traveled with him
to every job. He said to Sarah Spain, quote, I
felt like my blessings came full circle because I'd always
wanted to be somebody like him. I mean, does that
not make you want to cry? That he's like I
have me and my dad together. I mean, like that
just makes me so happy and like touched. I don't know.

(40:10):
So yeah, obviously he's super excited to find out that
it's Sherman. So he's like immediately texts him and it's like,
can we talk about something important tomorrow? You know, can
I call you? And Sherman was thought it was a
football related because it was fall, it was about to
be November, so I was like, oh, surely something come
up career wise. So it's like, sure, obviously, I'll call

(40:31):
me tomorrow. And over the phone, DeLand told Sherman all
about his search for his biological mother and finding her
and everything, and Sherman was so thrilled. He was like,
Praise the Lord, what a blessing. And then DeLand told
him his mother's name and Sherman realized that he knew her,
and then DeLand said, quote, I asked her who my

(40:52):
father was, and she said it was you. Now, Sherman
is bold over by this information. Honestly, Like, this guy
at this point was sixty three years old, he had
married his college sweetheart, he had grant, they were grandparents now,
and he hadn't heard Carol's name in over forty years.
So this was just all kind of hitting him like

(41:15):
real hard, I think, and he sort of was very stunned,
and he asked the land, if you know, maybe can
I have some time to think about this? And that
kind of hurt the Land's feelings a little bit. Um
But of course I can't blame him, because, you know,
he said himself. Later he realized, you know, he and
Carol had had forty four years to think about each

(41:37):
other and wonder about each other. Sherman really had no
idea that there was anyone to wonder about. I can't
hope to meet that son. I didn't know I have
one day. So yeah, so he just he you know,
at first he was his feelings were hurt, but then
he came to kind of really see it from his
perspective and he was like, okay, I get it. And Sherman, meanwhile,

(41:58):
you know, told ESPN. He kind of hung up, the
phone and was thinking about it, and his overwhelming feeling
was guilt. Um, because he was like, even though he
didn't know anything about Carol being pregnant, he still felt
that he had abdicated his responsibilities. Um, which is kind
of kind of what I was thinking. Takes two to
make a baby. So he was like, even though I
didn't know, you know, I still had some responsibility in that.

(42:22):
And he's also a very he's a deeply religious man,
and so he was sitting there wondering what having a
baby out of wedlock and abandoning it even unknowingly said
about him as a man, as a person, you know
how God might see that. And he found himself hoping
that a DNA test would show that he was not
the Land's father, which only made him feel more guilty

(42:44):
because of course he loves the Land, and you know,
he's already really close to this guy and everything. But
he was just like, I don't want this big change
to be true. Um, And so he's like, you know what,
let me let me call Carol. I'm going to talk
to Carol about this. I'm trying to picture, you know,
if my high school girlfriend showed up one day and
was like, here's your son. Well, first of all, I'd

(43:05):
be like, that's very impossible. Yeah, but I would definitely
think I need it. I need a minute before I
can just jump into this. So Carol agrees to have
a conversation with him. But the entire day before their call,
she was just in tears. She just crying. She said

(43:26):
she was scared of what he was going to say
to her. You know, would he hold this against her,
would he be upset, would it be angry? Did she
wrong him by making the choices she made? But fortunately
she had nothing to worry about. They talked, They spent
a long time just catching up before he even brought
up to land, and he apologized to her for leaving

(43:48):
her to make this huge decision all by herself, and
she explained her reasoning for leaving him in the dark,
and she said all she'd ever wanted over the years
was to know that their baby was okay. But Sureman
was able to give her this reassurance that their son
had grown up to be a wonderful man. I think
it's so crazy that they had they had two different experiences,

(44:13):
Like Carol knew she had a son, but didn't know
what he was like, Meanwhile, Sherman, I knew what this
kid was like, but didn't know that it was his son.
So like, together they got the full picture. And I
think that's so that's what to me, their story is

(44:34):
sort of like the romance here in a way, because
it's like their little fling ended up not you know
that these weren't two people who were meant to be
together as husband and wife has been their lives together,
and yet they were able to come together, uh and
finish this picture, which I think is so beautiful and
how wonderful that she kind of got what she needed

(44:55):
to because she had always wanted to know, and then
he was able to like fill her in on everything
since he was sixteen. Amazing. He hung up on that
phone call with her just feeling more sure than ever
that de Land was in fact his son. So Sherman
went back to talk to his own wife, and he thought,

(45:17):
you know, how's this gonna go, sweetie? I know we're
in our sixties, but guess what, I've had another son
this whole time. Surprise, So he was worried that she
was going to be angry, but once again, all she
said to him was, quote, if it's true, then our
family just got bigger. Everyone in his story Ted Lasso episode,

(45:42):
you know, just like the sweetest people, like everyone in
this is like the best example of humanity. I just like,
I love how every at every turn, they're just making
the most loving choice is possible to make. It's so wonderful.
He went on and told all his grown children about it,
because of course they were adults with children of their
own right, and much like de Land, Sherman flashed back

(46:03):
to people who would crack jokes about how alike they
were when they were when he was coaching him. He
looked at some articles and pictures from de Land's time
with the Canadian Football League, and he thought he was
looking at pictures of himself. He told Sarah Spain, quote,
I kept thinking, I don't remember taking this picture, I
don't remember doing this article. I'm looking at de Land

(46:26):
and I'm thinking that's me. He called his aunt in
Youngstown to tell her about it, and she googled the
Land's name and then called him back and said, quote, nephew,
I could save you the money on the d n
A test. She's like, this is your kid. And at
this point Sherman realized that he was hoping the test

(46:46):
results would prove that he was de Land's father, and
in fact, he would be devastated if it showed anything else.
And sure enough, the test confirmed it chance Sherman was
de Land's father, and so a few weeks later they
met up in Nashville, and Sherman knew de Land was
really nervous because he was like watching from the window,

(47:07):
which is also a fun booke. End of de Land's
first look at Sherman was him driving up and Sherman
was looking out the window and watched the Land drive
up and park on the street, and then he just
sat in his car for like five minutes, and Sherman
Kevin Land, what was he doing in there? And he
must have been so like just trying to get get
his will together. Um. But finally he walks up the

(47:30):
steps to the door, and Sherman greeted him with his
arms wide open and said, my son. And it was
the first time in de Land's life that anyone had
ever called him that. I'm sorry. I got teared up
because it just must have meant so much to him
to like see, especially because he already knows him and
respects him so much and already has this feeling for him,

(47:51):
and then he walks my son like everything you wanted,
everything you ever wanted. Nobody gets that, it gets like that.
It's perfect of a story, amazing. But there was one
more relationship to worry about. The Land hadn't told his
adoptive mother, Adele yet, and he was worried that she

(48:14):
might be upset that he went and tried to reconnect
with Carol. You can understand, You're like, but I'm I'm
your mother. Why do you feel like you need to
seek out We weren't enough for me. Thing might feel
like he had some type of resentment or something right,
So he's concerned that this might be the case with Adele.
But damn it, once again, sweetest pie, there was nothing

(48:38):
to worry about. Carol and Adele totally hit it off
right away, and Adele wouldn't begrudge to land his biological family.
She says in the article quote, that's my son, and
I want nothing but a best for him. She calls
it just a miracle that he'd had his birth father
in his life since he was sixteen years old. I
call it that too, what you call it? Straight up?

(49:02):
Scripted from on High and Carol gives Adele endless credit.
She says, quote, she did what I couldn't do. She
was an adult, she was married at the time, so
you know, she brought him into a family structure. That
was what I wanted for him. I wanted him to
have what I had, and she gave him that. She
gave him all the tools that he needed in growing

(49:22):
up to be the successful man that he is right now. Lovely,
they had a giant family reunion in July. If you
go to the ESPN article, there's a big there's a
picture of them all and it's totally worth seeing if
you can, because it's just a huge family and everyone
has just the hugest smiles on their face and it's wonderful.

(49:44):
De Land went on to win a Super Bowl as
the running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, and
he got him to the Super Bowl again in one,
although they did lose to Tampa Bay. Whatever, no comment,
no com and he's now called one of the most
respected coaches in the country. And this summer he became

(50:06):
the running backs and associate head coach with Indiana University,
so he moved back to Bloomington with his wife Darnell
and their four sons, de Land the second daya disson
and d M. Now d M is only five, but
his other three sons or college age, and they all
played football too, And when de Land the second was

(50:28):
a senior, his brother Dissan started as a freshman at
the same high school and they were like super excited
to play on a football team together. But that dream
kind of died when de Land the second suffered a
knee injury early in the season which kept him off
the field. And I wonder if de Land was like,
shouldn't have named him after me? That's exactly happened. But

(50:51):
later de Land the second accepted an offer to play
at Miami f Ohio, of course, his dad's alma mater.
But then UH twenty did its thing and COVID arrived
to disrupt all those plans as well, and to Land
the second went back home to Indiana. While he was there,

(51:13):
he realized that he honestly hadn't really fallen in love
with Ohio. His other brother, da had always loved Indiana,
so he had already committed to playing football at Indiana University,
so he knew his dad and his brother would be
on the team at home. In Bloomington's, so to Land,
the second started thinking about maybe I'll transfer, and not

(51:33):
long after he committed to Indiana University too. So you've
got dad and two of the three older brothers are
playing on the same team now. And de son, meanwhile,
he had committed to Ohio State, while he's watching both
his brothers commit to Indiana and his dad get this
job and everything. Um, and there was something a little

(51:55):
irresistible about three sons, one dad, one team right. Um,
his mom, Darnell says in an article. Um, it's an
Indiana University magazine article. She said, quote, I mean, let's
be honest, this really couldn't happen anywhere else. How many
kids get a chance to play football with their dad
as a coach and their brothers on the team too.

(52:16):
It's not like they're all going to play on the
Kansas City Chiefs together, which I don't know Kansas City Chiefs.
I don't think about it. But de Land and Darnell
like never brought that up. They never told the son like, hey,
think about coming over with with your you know, they
never thought about They were like, you're going to Ohio.
It's going to be great, everything's gonna be great. We're
happy for everybody. But on his own, disn quietly made

(52:39):
arrangements and recently announced that he's also committing to Indiana University,
which is great news for them because apparently he's the
highest ranked recruit in Indiana history. And so in three
they will all take the field together in one uniform.
Because for de Land McCullough, football really is a family.

(53:00):
The affair. Wow, it sure is like right in the
d N A. I mean really all over the DNA.
I mean, if anyone was just like meant to be
in football, it's this entire family. They were all like
just brought together in the strangest way. Well, and I listen,

(53:20):
I just love that because of course, originally the story
was just going to end with their family reunion right
then I was like, I wonder how he's doing now,
And then to find out about all his sons suddenly
like going, let's go play with dad in the same university.
And of course Indiana University is like, oh, they're like, whoa,
we're rolling in McCullough's That's I'm so amazed by this

(53:48):
story existing. That's outrageous. Honestly, I'm a little insulted that
they're trying to pass this off as circumstantial coincidence. This
is this is you're we're living in a movie. Yeah,
this is a movie. This is a movie. I mean,
and can you imagine this movie? Because it would definitely
make me cry. No, this is one of those stories

(54:08):
that I think if you took it to a studio,
they'd be like, no, this doesn't sound real. Yeah, I
think we can't do this. This sounds written, It sounds scripted.
No one will buy it. But yes, it was really
nice to just have a nice, lovely, inspiring, everybody being
loving and kind type of story. At no point was

(54:30):
I stressed out or frightened while I was reading this.
There was no corpses involved. Well, I hope you all
felt as warm and and special and like the world
is a magical place after listening to this one. Of course,
we're always happy to have you. Sorry for all the
terrible football look that we did, because we don't know

(54:52):
I can follow a football game. It's just those details. Well,
and again, it's so much the culture of football where
they're like, you know, I was sitting on the sideline,
you know, I don't know. I don't know what's important.
I was sitting on the side. Is that where they
lose you and you're like, I'm checking out of this conversation.
Forget it, I'm done. I'm I'm confused. I think they

(55:18):
have sidelines at every sport. Do they do? No? I
just can't think of any example. Yeah, I don't know
what a running back is. Well, he's behind, he runs
back back, he runs back towards the toward the It's
not that. Uh, it's it's you know, it's kind of

(55:38):
the cat football. It's all about staying loose, you know,
you don't let that you can't box yourself in with
these labels. You know, I'm a running back, but like,
what does that even mean? I run, I run back,
I run back to the ball, I run back to
my car, I run home. I'm back on my couch.
That's that's the kind of running back football is all about.

(56:02):
They're like, we don't we don't subscribe to all these
rules and regulations. We kind of just go with the flow. Yeah,
you know, everybody just agrees to have a good time.
That's what football is all about. Definitely. It's National Flexible League. Yes, yep,
just right. That's the NFL slogan for our non American listeners.

(56:26):
That's the slogan for outback Steaks, or you can get
a deep fried onion. That's right, So it's our very
authentic Australian eatery yes, yes, yeah to our Australian listeners,
shoot us an email. Let us know if you guys
eat deep fried onions because I feel like that's not
an authentic Australian food. And then just you know, shoot

(56:47):
us an email for anything. Reach out to us. We
love hearing from you always. Let us know what you
thought about this story. Let's know if you got any
ideas about stories in the future. Our email address whatever
you want to send us is Romance at I heart
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I'm at Dianamite boom and I'm at oh great, it's
Eli and the show is at Riddick Romance, So please holler. Yeah.

(57:10):
We want to hear from you. We want to see
your smiling faces. Um and uh we hope you have
a wonderful November and uh we will catch you on
the next episode. Cannot wait. Thanks again, all you lovely people,
get out there and be the Delande mccollo you know
you can be yes all right. We'll catch you next time. Bye.