Meet Father Richard Rocha, Super Bowl LVIII ‘Team Priest’ for the Kansas City Chiefs
When Super Bowl LVIII kicks off at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas Sunday, Feb. 11, one enthusiastic, longtime Kansas City Chiefs fan cheering in the stands will be a priest of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri: Father Richard Rocha.
For the past eight years, Father Rocha has been the Chiefs’ Catholic chaplain, celebrating Mass, being available for confession and even officiating at weddings and administering the sacrament of baptism for the families of players and staff. He was delighted to see his team win last year and hopes for the same on Super Bowl Sunday.
Father Rocha, 60, was born in Atchison, Kansas, and grew up in St. Joseph, Missouri. He was the third of five children in a devout Catholic family and attended Catholic schools. His father worked two jobs in order to keep his children in Catholic school, Father Rocha told the Register, but, tragically, the family lost him to a heart attack at only 52.
“I was in my second year of college, and it was a total shock to my mother and our family,” Father Rocha recalled. “It was hard to lose him.”
Young Richard had a love for football since the fifth grade and played fullback and nose guard on his team at Bishop LeBlond High School in St. Joseph and then earned a scholarship to play nose guard at Benedictine College in Atchison.
Among his positive influences at the time was his high-school coach, Don Tabor, a daily communicant (Don’s son, Chris Tabor, was interim head coach for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers).
In fact, after Richard’s father died, the future priest was uncertain if he wanted to continue on at Benedictine College, so Coach Tabor gave him the opportunity to coach with him while he finished his degree at Missouri Western State University. He was only 20 years old.
Coach Rocha went on to coach football for 14 years at both the high school and college levels. He had dreams and aspirations to get married, “have a big house with a picket fence and 11 children.”
However, through the influence of his devout Catholic mother and Coach Tabor, he picked up the habit of attending daily Mass, and, over time, it transformed him.
