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Feb 02, 2020

Three Former Clemson Players Earn Super Bowl Rings

Three former Clemson student-athletes — cornerback Bashaud Breeland, linebacker Dorian O’Daniel and wide receiver Sammy Watkins — all earned their first Super Bowl championship on Sunday as their Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers, 31-20, in Super Bowl LIV in Miami Gardens, Fla.

With the addition of those three, Clemson has now produced 30 different Super Bowl champions totaling a combined 38 Super Bowl rings.

Clemson’s three members of the Chiefs’ title-winning team represented three of the 46 players (6.5 percent) on Kansas City’s active game day roster for the Super Bowl. Clemson and Oklahoma (three each) were the most represented schools on the squad.

Clemson’s three members of the Super Bowl champions tied for the second-most in school history, matching the 1981 49ers and 1986 Giants. It was Clemson’s most members of a Super Bowl championship team since setting a school record for the 1987 NFL season, when Obed Ariri, Dan Benish, Jeff Bostic and K.D. Dunn all contributed to the Washington Redskins’ second Super Bowl championship.

Breeland recorded the first takeaway of Super Bowl LIV, intercepting a pass from San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo. The interception was the first by a former Clemson player in a Super Bowl all-time.

O’Daniel became a Super Bowl champion after previously being a member of Clemson’s 2016 national championship squad. He joined William Perry, Terry Kinard, Andy Headen, Dan Benish, K.C. Dunn and Ty Davis as one of seven players in school history to win a collegiate national championship and a Super Bowl title.

Watkins produced five catches for 98 yards in the contest, the most receiving yards by a former Clemson player in a Super Bowl all-time, surpassing Dwight Clark’s 77 yards on six receptions against the Dolphins in Super Bowl XIX. Watkins’ performance came in the same stadium in which he played his final game as a member of the Tigers, when he set school records in receptions (16) and receiving yards (227) in an Orange Bowl victory against Ohio State to close the 2013 season.

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