Deland McCullough, now the running backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders, was 45 years old when he discovered the identity of his biological father—and it was someone he had known and loved for decades.
Adopted as a newborn, McCullough grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a devoted mother and brother. Aware of his adoption, he found comfort and purpose in sports, channeling his struggles into determination.
By his senior year, Deland was recruited by several colleges. One coach in particular, Sherman Smith from Miami (Ohio), left a lasting impression. McCullough was drawn to Smith’s personality and drive, and the two quickly formed a bond.
Smith told every player, “You may not be looking for a father, but I’m going to treat you like you’re my sons.”
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For McCullough, this was true in a special way. “Every time I would be going through something, I always went to Coach Smith,” he told ESPN. Their bond grew so close that teammates and coaches joked they looked like father and son.
However, life took them in different directions—Smith went on to other coaching jobs, while McCullough played in the NFL until a career-ending injury led him into coaching. Yet even as a husband, father, and NFL coach, McCullough still longed to know his biological parents.
When Ohio and Pennsylvania unsealed adoption records, he learned the name of his birth mother: Carol Briggs. She became pregnant at just 16. “I wasn’t in a position to be anybody’s mother,” Briggs 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.”
When they finally spoke on the phone, one of McCullough’s first questions was: “Who is my father?”
His mother never told the baby’s dad she was pregnant, 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.”
Ending decades of Deland’s wondering, Briggs told him: “Your father’s name is Sherman Smith.”
McCullough was stunned. Memories flooded back—photos with Smith, the years of mentorship, all the times people had commented on their uncanny resemblance. “There’s no reason to connect those dots because you weren’t even thinking about them,” McCullough told ESPN. “A sense of pride 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.”
He had known his father for 28 years. The man he had always admired, the mentor who had shaped his life, was the father he never knew he had.
“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,” McCullough reflected. “I felt like my blessings came full circle because I’d always wanted to be somebody like him.”
When McCullough visited him for the first time after finding out the news, Smith greeted him with open arms and said, “My son.” It was the first time in Deland’s life that anyone had called him that.
“For so many years that I was around him, the embrace was, ‘Hey, Coach, how you doing?’” Smith told ESPN. “But this is, ‘Man, my son.’ Maybe I was doing it for me, to help me really, fully understand.”
“I know he was saying it from a place of ‘I’m proud. This is my son,’” McCullough said. “I’d never heard that. I’d never been referred to like that before — period. It really hit me hard emotionally. When I sit here at this point, and I’m looking at the things that I’ve done, I’m happy that I’m able to be somebody that he’s proud of.”
For Sherman Smith, this discovery was one of his greatest blessings. “I look at it, and I just say it’s a God thing. 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.”
Deland McCullough’s story is a powerful reminder of the beauty of adoption. A teen mother, facing hard circumstances, chose Life for her son and entrusted him to a family who could love and raise him. Decades later, that choice not only gave Deland the chance to thrive as a husband, father, and NFL player and coach, but also allowed a miraculous reunion with the very man who had mentored him all along—his own father. Adoption is never easy, but it is a courageous act of love that creates legacies, restores families, and reflects God’s ability to bring grace and purpose out of life’s hardest moments.
LifeNews Note: Ashlynn Lemos is the communications intern for Texas Right to Life.
