There were more than a few unsung heroes from the Kansas City Chiefs’ historic Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers. Naturally, the likes of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelces were going to grab headlines — and deservedly so.
However, there’s no denying that Kansa City’s superstars could not have done it alone. One man who remains to be a somewhat unheralded hero is backup offensive linesman Nick Allegretti, who apparently, played through a torn UCL in his elbow for the majority of the game.
Kansas City Chiefs Guard Battled Through Gruesome Injury
Allegretti wasn’t even supposed to play in the biggest game of the season. However, an injury to Joe Thuney pushed Allegretti into the fire, which was the same case during the Chiefs’ AFC Championship win over the Baltimore Ravens.
However, what makes Allegretti’s performance in the Super Bowl even more impressive is the fact that he had to play through a painful elbow injury:
“I haven’t suffered an injury like that until then,” Allegretti said Friday on The Jim Rome Show(h/t Bobby Kownack of NFL.com). “I immediately knew. It was something that you heard a pop, you felt it, and knowing minimal about anatomy knew that something was wrong in my elbow. Because my elbow is not supposed to bend that way. Fortunately, we had the two-minute warning, and I had a couple seconds to gather myself, figure out that my arm still bent and I was able to go. It was a tough situation, but fortunate enough I was able to still play.”
And it all paid off for both Allegretti and the Chiefs.
Allegretti described the pain he was feeling when the injury occurred and after the team’s medical staff had attended to it at halftime. This dude is clearly as durable as they come.
“So I was probably in that six or seven [range] right when it happened after I processed it,” Allegretti told Rome. “And then at halftime we were able to get the cream on it, massage it a little bit and then throw a brace on it. I was probably playing at about a five. It was one of those things that I could confidently use the arm knowing that most likely the UCL was already gone, so I wasn’t going to tear it any worse. So if I could deal with the pain, I could play. So it was one of those things.”
According to Allegretti, he got some sound advice from one of his teammates as he battled through the pain. It was the type of no-nonsense message the moment demanded:
“One of our backup offensive lineman, he has a masters in biology and [he] wanted to go be a doctor when he was done,” Allegretti said. “He told me, he goes, ‘Listen, you don’t need a UCL to play offensive line.’ I was like, alright, I don’t know what that means, but I don’t need it, I’m good.’ So I was able to go.”
That’s tough.
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