The Kansas City Chiefs are itching to square off against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday and the defensive backs received some extra motivation ahead of the game. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, Chiefs defensive backs coach Dave Merritt flaunted his previous Super Bowl rings and described them as “babies.”
Chiefs secondary coach Dave Merritt, who won two Super Bowl rings with the Giants, showed his players his two “babies” and told them he now is pregnant and expecting a third, with rubies and diamonds. Chiefs DBs liked it so much they said they also are expecting their own babies.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 2, 2020
Typically around the Super Bowl, you hear stories of coaches that own Super Bowl rings showing their players the jewelry. But Merritt's description of his Super Bowl rings is definitely an interesting way to motivate his defensive backs.
Prior to the Chiefs, Merritt spent the majority of his career with the New York Giants. In 2004, Merritt became a defensive assistant and quality controls coach for the Giants. Then, from 2006-17, Merritt served as New York's secondary and safeties coach.
While with the Giants, Merritt was a part of two historic Super Bowls. The two Super Bowls came against the New England Patriots when New York was a heavy underdog each time heading into both matchups.
As for this season, Merritt has been able to get his defensive backs on the same page in Kansas City. With the addition of Tyrann Mathieu, the Chiefs boasted the eighth-best pass defense in the regular season.
So far in the postseason, opposing secondaries haven't had to do work too much of a sweat versus San Francisco's offense. In the 49ers' first two playoff games, Jimmy Garoppolo has only attempted 27 passes and connected on 17 of them. Nevertheless, Merritt found a peculiar way to encourage his defensive backs for Sunday's pivotal matchup.
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