He grew up 4 blocks from Hard Rock and worked concessions. Now he won a title there, too
Rashad Fenton bounced around the home locker room at Hard Rock Stadium as long as he could Sunday. He asked everyone he could if they could snap pictures of him. He FaceTimed friends. The cornerback had just won Super Bowl 54 with the Kansas City Chiefs after a thrilling 31-20, come-from-behind victory against the San Francisco 49ers and the only word he could use to describe the scene was “surreal.”
The rookie grew up four blocks away from the stadium. When he was at Miami Norland Senior High School his freshman and sophomore years, Fenton worked at the concession stands for Miami Dolphins games, Miami Hurricanes games, soccer friendlies — anything happening at the Miami Gardens venue.
“I used to make pizzas, making beers, giving people tacos and nachos,” said Fenton, who graduated from Carol City Senior High School and played for the South Carolina Gamecocks.
With 9:47 left and the Chiefs trying desperately to erase a 20-10 deficit in the fourth quarter, 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo scrambled on third-and-long and Fenton pushed him out of bounds before his run could become particularly dangerous. San Francisco punted and Kansas City answered with three straight touchdown drives to clinch its first Super Bowl in 50 years.
In the same place where he once did some of the stadium’s dirty work, Fenton got to hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
“It’s surreal to come back here and be on the top of the world, not have to be serving anyone,” Fenton said.
Garoppolo mostly carved up Fenton and the Chiefs defense in the third quarter. The 49ers two drives went for a total of 15 plays, 115 yards and 10 points. A 10-10 tie turned into a 20-10 lead for the 49ers, so Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo made a change. He called for the Chiefs to play man-to-man coverage and Garoppolo couldn’t made the one-on-one throws.
Fenton’s tackle ended a five-play, 22-yard drive. The next one was a 5-yard three-and-out. The next ended after seven plays and 32 yards, and then San Francisco’s hope was gone.
“They stepped it up, man. They really wanted to go out there and bring this thing home, and they had the opportunity to do it, man,” said cornerbacks coach Sam Madison, who played for the Dolphins from 1997-2005 and coached at St. Thomas Aquinas High School as recently as 2018. “We had to put some man coverage in the fourth quarter late and these guys, they went out there, they played man to man and they were able to get a Super Bowl.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 12:11 AM.
