Jaylen Watson is a Super Bowl champion. Again. What does that mean?
Beyond the obvious, it means it’s time to put some major respect on his name — and his number.
His Laney High School jersey number, that is.
After Watson’s Kansas City Chiefs captured their second straight Lombardi trophy in Sunday’s overtime Super Bowl victory against the San Francisco 49ers, I had halfway jokingly said to myself, “They need to go on and put whatever his Laney jersey number was to rest.”
Retire it. Put it in the rafters. Do something. Especially after Watson played a very pivotal role in the Chiefs’ come-from-behind triumph.
It happened in the second half when Watson recovered a 49ers fumble on a punt that bounced off Darrell Luter’s foot. A 49ers’ player dove to try and recover it, but whiffed. Watson’s dive for the ball did not miss.
A couple of plays later, Kansas City would score a go-ahead touchdown that swung momentum back in the Chiefs’ direction. He also had a pair of solo tackles in the Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime triumph. In his second NFL season, he registered 33 tackles and two sacks while breaking up six passes — and holding another piece of Super Bowl hardware.
His role on the team continues to grow, and now it’s time that the respect on his name in the Augusta area follows suit.
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Interestingly, when I popped on to Facebook early Monday morning, I saw a post from Watson that I shared to my own timeline that shared, almost verbatim, my aforementioned private sentiment.
“Laney, it might be time to retire #3,” Watson said in the Facebook post, referencing his old high school jersey number while also re-emphasizing the fact that he was now a two-time champion at football’s highest level.
I say he’s absolutely right.
I don’t know what the procedure is for doing stuff like that at the local high school level. But whatever it is, I say Laney should try its best to make it happen.
How many high schools in the country, let alone right here in the CSRA, can boast that it has a two-time Super Bowl champion as an alum? I don’t have the exact figures in front of me, but my educated guess would be, “not many.”
One thing’s for sure, the Augusta community at large would be on board. If you go to Watson’s Facebook page to look for his personal comments just before and just after the Super Bowl win, it’ll take you a bunch of scrolling to get there because his page is filled with well wishes, congratulations and other expressions of pride from Augusta-area residents or people with Augusta ties.
The city is proud, and it should be, because Watson’s not just playing some scout team role, nor is he being relegated to mere mop-up duty. Watson is a legit, bona fide contributor on what should now be considered a budding NFL dynasty.
Shortly after KC’s win, I quipped on my own social media pages that Kansas City is now the new New England Patriots, minus the cheating of course.
But it’s true. Say what you want about Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, et. al. The Patriots held the NFL’s dynasty crown for a good, long while. But after Brady’s departure and retirement as well as Belichick’s, and with Kansas City being the first NFL franchise to win back-to-back Super Bowls in two decades, its safe to say the dynasty tag has shifted.
And it’s a plausible argument that a second straight championship may not have been in the cards for the Chiefs Sunday night if not for the Augusta native’s heads-up play.
At times, San Francisco looked like the better team Sunday night. And, especially early on, it felt like the 49ers needed just a couple more bounces (and a few less flags) to go their way in order to take control of that game. Perhaps if 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan didn’t make such an abrupt departure from what seemed to be a fairly unstoppable rushing attack, we might be singing a different song (sound familiar, Atlanta Falcons fans?).
But Patrick Mahomes magic made another appearance, and Augusta’s native son snagged another championship while writing another chapter to his amazing story of perseverance and determination.
It’s hard to imagine that this is the same guy who, just a few years ago, was a lightly recruited prospect out of a Class AA high school who bounced around from community college to USC, to working at Wendy’s before finding a permanent college home at Washington State.
He was a seventh-round draft pick who didn’t take long to make his presence known in the league. Surely, Augusta residents who follow his progress remember his 99-yard pick six that clinched a regular season win for Kansas City in September 2022 during Watson’s rookie year.
The kid belongs. No question about it. And that makes it that much more of a powerful story when you also consider Watson made it coming from a place not really known for its next-level football talent.
Just in case you may be new to the area, Augusta is a straight up basketball town. Without question. For that reason, I feel the high school football scene here gets severely overlooked. But it isn’t because the talent cupboards are bare. True enough, much of it is raw. Maybe a bit underdeveloped. But it’s here, and it’s plenteous.
I’ve always felt if the city and its schools, recreation leagues, etc. put as much emphasis — or even just half — on developing and promoting the football talent here as they do the basketball talent, you would see many more “Jaylen Watsons” emerge.
Perhaps a special jersey retirement or recognition, or whatever you want to call it, in honor of Watson’s success would be just the jumpstart some young Augusta-area middle or high school football player needs to motivate them to go that much harder.
You can have all the talent and potential in the world, but sometimes you also need an example — a prototype to follow. You need to see someone else who looks like you, who comes from where you come from, make it so you can be convinced that the highest destinations are not out of reach just because of where you come from.
Maybe it’ll also motivate some of the area’s powers that be to up the ante a bit on the investment into the game of football. That means everything from facilities to coaching stipends on the high school level and beefing up middle school feeder programs, rec league and club offerings to give the area’s gridiron warriors more elite exposure to the game at a younger age.
Watson’s success has shown the world just another example of how amazing things can and do come from Augusta. And while I’m glad to see the community at large recognizing this and sounding off about it, I’m with you, Mr. Watson. I believe something more official and ceremonial should be done.
Watson has earned it. Augusta kids, parents and coaches need to see it. And I believe the entire Augusta sports community will be better for it.
Gabriel Stovall is the sports editor of The Augusta Press. He can be reached at gabriel@theaugustapress.com.
