Chicago still has plenty to cheer for in Sunday’s Super Bowl even though the Bears didn’t make it, with several suburban natives making Super Bowl debuts.
“I have a lot of pride for Chicago. We live in there in the offseason,” said Julian Love, safety for the Seattle Seahawks.
Just like high high school days at Nazareth Academy in LaGrange Park, Love says he’s still having fun playing football.
“In high school at Naz, same thing, like all my guys are all playing and I’m just having fun. It’s a bonus that we’re winning,” Love said.
Nazareth head football coach Tim Racki coached Love until he went to college at Notre Dame in 2016.
“What you see on the interviews and on TV is exactly who (Love) is. He really is that authentic and genuine,” Nazareth Academy Head Football Coach Tim Racki said.
Love won two state championships with Racki – who has six titles at Nazareth and ten overall.
“He was my first player to even get drafted in the NFL,” Racki said. “Now here he is the first player that I’ve had that is now in the Super Bowl.”
Racki said he gave Love some advice for the Super Bowl.
“I went into coach mode, you know, telling him to stay in the moment. And you know, it is at the end of the day a football game,” Racki said.
New England Patriots linebacker Robert Spillane, an Oak Park native who played his high school football at Fenwick, will also suit up for the big game.
“I’m playing for all those kids that I played with growing up in middle school and high school,” he said. “Fenwick High School is what raised me as a young man and helped me grow into the man I am today.”
“Robert texted me after they won the AFC Championship. He just said, ‘Fenwick to the Super Bowl. One more to go Coach,” said Scott Thies, Fenwick High School Athletic Director.
Before becoming the school’s athletic director, Thies coached Spillane in football at Fenwick.
“Robert was a phenomenal athlete. He was tough as they come. But I think the things that really stood out for me is his football IQ was off the charts and he just loved football,” Thies said.
Spillane’s grandfather John Lattner also played at Fenwick High and won the Heisman Trophy at Notre Dame in 1953 before playing in the NFL.
“That Heisman Trophy was donated back to us by the family and it’s out there at every football game with us. Our players touch it before we take the field,” said Matt Battaglia, Fenwick Head Football Coach. “We are the only prep school in Illinois to produce a Heisman winner.”
Battaglia says Spillane carries on the family tradition by giving back to his alma mater since graduating in 2014.
“Before our 2021 state championship game, he was able to come back right before Thanksgiving and talk to the team. He was all fired up,” Battaglia said. “
Now these two suburban stars will play each other for the Super Bowl trophy.
“It’s special. It’s good for Fenwick, it’s good for Nazareth. It’s good for our conference,” said Racki.
There are other suburban natives who will suit up for the Seahawks in the Super Bowl — defensive lineman Rylie Mills who played at Lake Forest High School and tight end Eric Saubert from Hoffman Estates High School.
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