If you want some proof that even a team that has won back-to-back Super Bowls has a lot of turnover on its roster on a yearly basis, look no further than this year’s Kansas City Chiefs. The team last year only had one player from a California high school, but this year there are seven. The Philadelphia Eagles have just three, but state’s total of 10 is better than seven overall from last year. Our research on California players in the Super Bowl goes back to the first one in 1967.
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After last season’s Super Bowl when the victorious Kansas City Chiefs were just the third team in Super Bowl history to have just one player on their roster from a California high school, it’s almost a complete 180 flip. It just goes to show that rosters after the major stars of a team can fluctuate a lot from year to year in the NFL.
The one from last year, cornerback Trent McDuffie from St. John Bosco of Bellflower, is back again and is continuing to develop as a top-level NFL player. Trent is now joined by two others on the Kansas City roster who not only like him are from a CIF school but like him also have been on a CIF state championship team.
Those two are rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy from Central of Fresno and free agent pick up kick returner Nikko Remigio from Mater Dei of Santa Ana. Worthy played at Central when it went 15-0 and won the CIF D1-AA state title in 2019. Remigio was a member of the famed Monarchs’ team in 2017 that also was perfect and won the CIF Open Division crown. He was a teammate of Detroit Lions’ receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and is one of several off of that legendary team who’s played in the NFL. McDuffie was a sophomore at Bosco in 2016 when it won the CIF Open Division state title.
Current Kansas City Chiefs rookie sensation Xavier Worthy is shown as a junior at Central of Fresno in 2018. Photo: Mark Tennis / Cal-Hi Sports.
The Chiefs also now have four others on their roster from California who were not on the roster a year ago. The list includes receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster of Long Beach Poly, defensive back Keith Taylor from Servite of Anaheim, punter Matt Ariaza from Rancho Bernardo of San Diego and cornerback Chris Roland-Wallace from Knight of Palmdale.
Smith-Schuster also played in the CIF state championship game when at Long Beach Poly, but the Jackrabbits fell in the 2011 D1 title matchup to Granite Bay. His head coach at the time, Raul Lara, is now the head coach at Mater Dei, which won this year’s Open Division title and likely has a player or two who will be in the NFL in a few years. JuJu was a member of the Chiefs’ team two years ago that won the Super Bowl, but was not there last season.
Adding the three players from the Philadelphia Eagles who are from California in this year’s Super Bowl, the state ended up with an overall total of 10. Note that as long as we’ve been counting players for our lists that we have not counted players on injured reserve.
While the state did have 14 players in the game three years ago involving the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals and it probably would have been that many or more if this year’s Super Bowl, for example, was between the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions (both with California QBs), the overall totals have been going down. Examples of that would be the total of just seven from last year and only five and six from 2022 and 2021.
While it was a great year for California QBs in the NFL, including Josh Allen of Firebaugh winning MVP earlier this week, in the Super Bowl it will be a matchup of Texas QBs as both Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs and Jalen Hurts of the Eagles are from the Lone Star State. We counted 12 players in all from Texas in this year’s game, but the winner for this year would be Florida with 14. Again, that’s not counting players on injured reserve.
One of those on the Florida ledger is Eli Ricks of IMG Academy. He played at Mater Dei for the first three years of his career, and he even tied a state record by having three interception return TDs in one game as a junior, but Ricks headed to IMG for his senior year so IMG and Florida get the credit for his high school home.
Another Florida school, Cocoa High of Cocoa, Fla., has cousins Jawaan Taylor of the Chiefs and C.J. Gardner-Johnson of the Eagles playing on opposing teams in this year’s Super Bowl. They both graduated in Cocoa’s Class of 2016. Mallard Creek of North Carolina also has two alums in the Super Bowl, but DT Jordan Davis of the Eagles and OL D.J. Humphries of the Chiefs played six years apart and were not on the same team.
A late injury also could change the numbers and as game time was getting near there were reports of players on the Philadelphia side getting sick.
CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL
SUPER BOWL ALUMS (2025)
Matt Araiza (Rancho Bernardo, San Diego) P Chiefs
He was a first team all-state punter while in high school and had a great career at San Diego State. Matt finally got all of that nonsense out of the way after he was dropped from a lawsuit that had accused him as part of a sexual assault in college and signed with Kansas City prior to this season. He averaged 48.8 yards per punt.
Grant Calcaterra (Santa Margarita, Rancho SM) TE Eagles
He was one of the state’s top tight ends in 2015 and 2016 and then headed to Oklahoma. He briefly retired following a series of concussions, but came back after sitting out one season and ended up playing at SMU. Grant has not had the concussion issues since then. He caught the first TD pass of his NFL career in December.
QB Tanner McKee throws for Centennial during 2016 season. Photo: Hudl.com.
(St. John Bosco, Bellflower) DB Chiefs
A pick six for Trent in the Super Bowl isn’t likely, but if he gets one it will be the first ever TD scored by a Bosco alum in the NFL. He went on to star in the secondary at the University of Washington after playing for the Braves on the 2018 team that lost to Mater Dei in the CIF Southern Section D1 championship after beating the Monarchs in the regular season.
Tanner McKee (Centennial, Corona) QB Eagles
He’s been a rookie third-string QB for the Eagles this season and got an NFL start after both Jalen Hurts and Kenny Pickett were on the injured list. Long-snapper Lonie Paxton of Centennial was on three Super Bowl winning teams with the New England Patriots.
Nikko Remigio
(Mater Dei, Santa Ana) WR/KR Chiefs
He was promoted from the Chiefs’ practice squad late this season and made an impact mostly as a kick returner. After Mater Dei, Nikko first went to Cal. He finished up at Fresno State.
Chris Roland-Wallace (Knight, Palmdale) DB Chiefs
The undrafted free agent rookie has landed on a Super Bowl roster. Roland-Wallace wasn’t a big star in high school, either, but was noticed by some colleges in the 2018 season. He went to Arizona and played in 2023 at USC.
JuJu Smith-Schuster (Long Beach Poly) WR Chiefs
He was added to the Chiefs’ this season after some early injuries ravaged their receiving corps. JuJu of course had a lot of success when he played for the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier in his career after his college years at USC. He played for the Chiefs two years ago and played for the New England Patriots in the 2023 season.
Keith Taylor (Servite, Anaheim) DB Chiefs
The second-year pro was on the practice squad of the Chiefs last season was elevated to the active roster in October. He went to Washington for college and was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in 2021.
Johnny Wilson (Calabasas) WR Eagles
The extremely physical Johnny first started making plays at Calabasas as a freshman. He played in college at both Arizona State and Florida State.
Xavier Worthy (Central, Fresno) WR Chiefs
Xavier’s rookie season with the Chiefs has been as expected as he’s flashed that speed he was known for at the University of Texas and has become a prime target of Patrick Mahomes. He has 11 receptions for 130 yards and one TD so far this postseason.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
