How Former NFL Player Deland McCullough Learned His Former Coach Was Actually His Biological Father

It's not uncommon for football coaches to become father figures to their young players as they seek guidance in both the sport and in life.

Much rarer, however, is finding out that your former coach is actually your biological father.

Yet, that is the real-life story of Deland McCullough and his former coach, Sherman Smith.

The pair first met when McCullough was 16 years old, when he was recruited to play football for Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Smith was the running backs coach there and wanted to help and guide young McCullough.

"The statement that I would make to the players as I coached them, I would say, 'You may not be looking for a father, but I treat you like you’re my son,'" Sherman Smith told NBC’s Kathy Park for TODAY.

Smith never could have guessed how literal that statement would end up being.

The realization was not a quick one, however. It wasn't until many years later, after McCullough became a coach and father himself, that he began to research his biological parents.

After finding his biological mother through his adoption records and finding out she lived nearby, he went to meet with her and ask her questions, including some about his father.

"I said, 'Well shoot, who’s my dad?' you know? And she said, ‘Your dad is a man named Sherman Smith,'" McCullough explained to TODAY.

Shockingly, this was, in fact, the same Sherman Smith who had been his college football coach and mentor.

McCullough then discovered that Smith had known his birth mother when the pair were teens, but he never knew she had given birth to their child.

McCullough broke the surprising news to Smith and went to visit him and reconnect.

"He opened the door, and he just opened his arms. He said, 'My son,'" McCullough shared of the special moment.

“There’s no way you could write this, all these connections. You just have to believe that this is God directing our steps,” Smith said of their unique situation.

The more the two men examined their lives, the more the two of them seemed to have in common.

The two already knew they had both attended the Miami University in Ohio, but their career trajectories afterward were also remarkably similar. Both men played in the NFL after college, but had to leave the sport early due to injuries, and then they turned to coaching instead.

“Both of us had great careers at Miami. Both of us [are] in the Hall of Fame at Miami. Both of us going to play professional. Both of our careers ended because of knee surgeries, multiple knee surgeries. Both of us, after playing football, getting an education. Both of us go to the Super Bowl multiple times, and unfortunately, both of us lose to Tom Brady,” McCullough said, listing the many things the pair have in common.

McCullough and Smith’s incredible story was turned into a book called "Runs In the Family: An Incredible True Story of Football, Fatherhood, and Belonging," which is now being considered for a movie.

While there is no confirmation on who may pick up the film yet, the father-son duo already has some casting ideas, with Smith joking, “I want Denzel Washington to play my part.”