Bucs kicker Ryan Succop reflects on time with Kansas City Chiefs ahead of Super Bowl
For Ryan Succop, it is fitting that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in Super Bowl LV.
Succop has been a NFL kicker for 12 seasons, and he has taken a winding path to the game’s biggest stage. Now that he is finally here, there is something appropriate about facing off against the team that originally drafted him way back in 2009.
“It will by nice to play against my former team,” Succop said Tuesday during a Super Bowl video conference. “I still have some friends on that team that I’m close with and I still know some of the coaches and I had a great experience in Kansas City. I had a great first five years of my career there. I’m very thankful for that time and it will be good to see some of those guys again.”
The Chiefs thought enough of Succop to select him with the final pick of the 2009 NFL Draft out of South Carolina. He went on to spend five mostly strong seasons in Kansas City, connecting on at least 76.9% of his field goals in each season and scoring 517 points.
As a rookie, he passed Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud for the most field goals made by a rookie in team history. He went on to stick with the Chiefs for four more seasons and left the team ranking third all-time in field goals until Harrison Butker passed him this season.
Succop later spent six seasons with the Tennessee Titans, connecting on a 53-yarder to beat the Chiefs while there, before he latched on with the Buccaneers this season.
He appeared on his way out of the league when he struggled to come back from an injury and only made one of six field goals last season before getting cut in Tennessee. But he regained his form and signed with Tampa Bay late in the offseason. This season, he connected on 28 of 31 field goals and scored 136 points for the Buccaneers.
Through it all, he still has fond memories about Kansas City. There are two main reasons why.
“No. 1 is the people,” Succop said. “Obviously, some of my best friends were on that team, guys like Dustin Colquitt, Frank Zombo, Eric Fisher, Anthony Sherman and Terrance Copper. Those guys that I played with over the years were phenomenal people.
“Secondly would be the fans. My wife and I loved our time in Kansas City. We actually still have a house in Kansas City and we love it there and we loved our time there. Arrowhead is obviously a special place. There is a lot of great tradition.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 2:10 PM.