As the clock ran out on the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVII win over the Philadelphia Eagles, one member of Matt Nagy’s family was not in attendance.
Nagy’s second-oldest son, Tate, was sick in the hotel in Glendale, but surprisingly had no complaints to his father, then a Chiefs assistant and now the team’s offensive coordinator, at the end of the night.
Why?
He knew the Chiefs would be back, and of course, the story became true one year later. Now, that same son is starting to write his own football story.
Football runs in the Nagy family; it’s no surprise that each of Matt Nagy’s four sons have ended up playing the sport.
Now, Tate Nagy is set to continue playing right down the road from where his dad has become a two-time Super Bowl champion.
Tate is the latest of 15 class-of-2025 commits for Lance Leipold’s squad, choosing the Kansas Jayhawks over reported offers from Kentucky and Ball State. As he grew up, his love for the game came naturally.
“When you’re born into a football family, it definitely helps you. It definitely gives you a path to football,” Tate Nagy told The Star. “But I’ve always loved football ever since I was a little kid.”
A rising senior quarterback at Blue Valley West, Nagy has been a multi-sport athlete, splitting time between football and basketball. At one point, he struggled to choose between the two, but he played AAU basketball for the first time during his sophomore summer, during which he realized one thing:
It was going to be football.
“I didn’t really have fun doing that,” Nagy said. “So I was just like, ‘All right, football is my last chance of playing in college.’ So that’s just when I put my head down and just went all for it for football.”
In turn, Nagy has impressed under Blue Valley West head football coach Josh Koerkenmeier. In his junior season, Nagy threw for 1,888 yards (147-for-235 passing) with 16 touchdowns through the air, in addition to 618 yards on the ground with another five touchdowns.
“He is the ultimate competitor,” Koerkenmeier said. “Whether watching him play basketball or watching him in football, he wants to win and he competes. And most of the time, he figures out a way to get it done.”
But while Nagy prepares for a senior season at quarterback, his commitment to the Jayhawks will slot him into a different position: wide receiver.
This summer, Nagy made the jump to wide receiver while attending a couple of football camps, a position that feels familiar after years of practicing with his oldest brother Brayden — who was also a quarterback at Blue Valley West — in their backyard.
“The first time I ever played wide receiver was my fifth-grade year, and then I switched to quarterback after that,” Nagy said. “But coming back to wide receiver at the camps and everything I went to is pretty fun. ... I love wide receiver, I love the position.”
Nagy, Koerkenmeier said, “had some good things happen playing wide receiver” at a camp in Texas.
“I think that kind of changed his mind about his options moving forward,” Koerkenmeier said. “So he made that decision early in the summer that he was going to try and see what could happen there, and obviously he’s talented enough that a lot of different places want him to be a part of it.”
Kansas ended up being one of those places, leading to a decision that will keep Nagy close to home. It also kept him from moving again, a common casualty of being in a professional sports family.
Matt Nagy has spent time as a coach with the Eagles and Bears at the NFL level, in addition to KC.
“I love Kansas,” Tate Nagy said. “I love everything about Kansas. ... I’ve moved a decent amount of times in my life, and not having to move anywhere else feels pretty good.”
Kansas wide receivers coach Terrence Samuel helped recruit Nagy to Lawrence, which Nagy said made it an easy choice to stay home.
“One of his biggest things was being super close with his guys, his players, and that was huge for me,” Nagy said.
As Nagy approaches his senior season, his focus turns toward winning. Luckily, he’s been able to witness greatness from a firsthand perspective — not to mention he actually got to witness the Chiefs winning Super Bowl LVIII.
Nagy has learned valuable lessons from his exposure to athletes coached by his father. He mentioned time in the quarterbacks room with Patrick Mahomes, Blaine Gabbert and Chris Oladokun, in addition to learning from running backs Tarik Cohen and David Montgomery when his dad coached the Bears.
“I think it’s impacted me a lot,” Nagy said. “It shows me the best of the best out there. It shows me what I need to be like right now so I can get to that level. It’s helped me out tremendously.”
