Remaining Super Bowl contenders include 4 players, 3 coaches with Sacramento ties
Any football player will tell you that the peak of athletic and spiritual thrill is reaching the grand stage of the NFL as only about 0.02% to 0.03% of high school athletes reach that level. Fewer still make it all the way to the Super Bowl.
The NFC and AFC championship games this Sunday will include a light dose of Sacramento-area flavor, with four players who have regional ties plus two assistant coaches.
But only one of the four players has a chance to see game action for a shot to reach Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium on Feb. 8. That would be Marte Mapu, a linebacker for the New England Patriots out of Sac State. The third-year veteran and Southern California native is listed as questionable with a tender hip as the Patriots take on the Denver Broncos for the AFC crown in Colorado.
The Broncos employ linebacker Levelle Bailey, a Burbank High School of Sacramento graduate who is on the team’s practice squad. He will not be on the active roster. Bailey starred at Fresno State and is in his second season with Denver.
Also with the Broncos: defensive line coach Jamar Cain, a Sacramento native who played at Valley High School and Sacramento City College. Cain is in his third season with the Broncos and second as defensive line coach. The team has 68 sacks, the fifth most in NFL history and the second most in the NFL this season. His collegiate assistant gigs included stops at Arizona State, Fresno State, Wyoming, Cal Pol, Oklahoma and LSU.
The Los Angeles Rams visit the Seattle Seahawks in the Pacific Northwest to decide the NFC race between NFC West rivals. Former UC Davis head football coach Ron Gould is in his third seasons coaching the Rams running backs.
Sacramento-born Ahkello Witherspoon, of Christian Brothers High and Sacramento City College fame, can speak of intense rivalry games. He suited up for the San Francisco for four seasons, participating in spirited games against the Rams and Seahawks.
A 2017 third-round pick out of Colorado to the 49ers, Witherspoon was placed on injured reserve with the Rams on Jan. 13 after re-injuring his shoulder. He is sidelined for the playoffs. He broke his clavicle in September and missed nine games.
For New England, 6-foot-2, 300-pound defensive tackle Jeremiah Pharms, Jr. has been on the Patriots active rosters and practice squad several times since signing with the club in 2022. He was released by the Patriots on Jan. 3 and signed to the practice squad days later.
The Stockton native attended Sacramento City College for one year and played at Delta College in Stockton. He is the son of Sacramento Bee 1995 Defensive Player of the Year Jeremiah Pharms, of Valley High of Sacramento.
About the healthiest man with local ties still left standing in these playoffs is Tyson Prince, but he no longer plays. He is the assistant wide receivers coach for Seattle, having coached receivers at Sac State in 2023 when the Hornets reached the NCAA FCS playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.
Prince joined the Seahawks nearly two years ago after college assistant stints at Michigan State, Fresno State, Boise State and Sacramento State. His father, Robert Prince, is a longtime NFL and college coach who coached Sac State’s receivers in 1992 and 1993.
Rams coach Sean McVay is the grandson of John McVay, a decades-long Placer County resident who died in 2022 at age 91. John McVay was an executive with the 49ers who was paramount in constructing rosters that led to all five of San Francisco’s Super Bowl championship teams, and he spoke glowingly of the fun inner conflict of having to root for the rival Rams.
The Patriots face the Broncos in the AFC title game, kicking off at noon Pacific time. The Seahawks host the Rams at 3:30 p.m. in the NFC Championship Game.
Mapu rises
Mapu was the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year at Sac State in 2022, a soft-spoken sort who talked up football and his American Samoan heritage when he was a Hornet.
In 2022, then-Sac State coach Troy Taylor called Mapu the Hornets’ “silent assassin.”
“He’s a guy who doesn’t say much,” Taylor said. “You won’t notice him when he comes into the room. Very cerebral, a super smart kid who makes plays.”
Martu made enough plays and was fierce and physical enough for Bill Belichick to draft him in the third round of the 2023 NFL draft. Belichick used Mapu in a hybrid role. The 6-3, 220-pounder played every game as a rookie and saw extensive action, including as a starter, in 2024.
When first-year coach and former Patriots player Mike Vrabel won his first career game as an NFL coach in September, Mapu earned the game ball. Mapu has played on defense as a safety and at linebacker, as well as on special teams.
“Marte, I appreciate you, man,” the coach told Mapu in the locker room that day. “Nobody has embraced their role on this football team (like you have), and I love the way you care about the punt team, and it’s gotten better, and it’s because of you.
“I love watching Tay in these team meetings, man, he sits there, head nodding, he’s locked in, you took advantage of your opportunity, and I’m proud of you.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 5:00 AM.