Ben Niemann two wins away from second Super Bowl title

From the time Ben and Nick Niemann started showing any promise on the football field, Jay Niemann resolved himself to staying far away from the sidelines. He would be no helicopter parent.

By all rights, the current Iowa assistant defensive line coach – and former Northern Illinois and Rutgers defensive coordinator – could have downloaded a career’s worth of blitz packages into Ben and Nick’s brains. Those Friday night drives home after Sycamore High games could’ve been miserable, with Jay second-guessing every one of his sons’ first steps.

Instead, Niemann let Joe Ryan coach his boys. If anything, Jay said, “I tried to prepare them for the process more than anything else.”

Now, as Nick embarks on a journey on a path that big brother Ben has painted in gold, Jay Niemann is once again playing a supportive role. These days, Ben can teach Nick a lot more about the NFL process.

A third-year part-time starting linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, Ben is two wins away from a second consecutive Super Bowl victory, an NFL Cinderella story played out in real time. The life of an undrafted free agent is rarely this unincumbered. Normally there are more ups and downs than a yo-yo convention.

But after a standout career at Iowa, starting for three seasons under his father, Ben caught the eye of then-Kansas City assistant Mark DeLeone, a former Hawkeyes coach himself. DeLeone conveyed that if Ben went undrafted, he’d have a chance with the Chiefs.

That chance took on a whole new meaning on Aug. 17, 2018, in Niemann’s first preseason game, when he came up with a huge stop on 4th-and-goal and returned an interception for a touchdown in a 28-17 win over the Atlanta Falcons. The quick-pick-six locked up a roster spot, and Niemann thrived on special teams as a rookie. Despite a coaching and scheme change in his sophomore campaign last year, Niemann emerged as a valuable rotational player – he had two tackles and a quarterback knockdown in the Chiefs’ 31-20 Super Bowl win over San Francisco – and he has started five games this season, tallying 44 tackles, including three for loss, and a sack in 15 regular-season games.

He was coming on strong at the end of the year, racking up a career-high eight tackles in a 32-29 Week 15 win over New Orleans before tweaking his hamstring the following week against Atlanta. In the Chiefs’ Divisional Round win over Cleveland on Sunday, he had one tackle with playing 53 percent of the Chiefs’ defensive snaps.

“I definitely realize I’ve been put in an awesome situation - winning a Super Bowl, being in the playoffs three years,” Ben said. “There are guys who play eight, 10 years, and don’t ever make the playoffs. I’ve been very fortunate and blessed. When I was coming out, I knew Coach Reid had a great rep as a future Hall of Fame coach. I knew it would be a first-class organization.”

Every so often, Nick Niemann has had a peak behind the curtains himself. It’s not all that regular – the life of a college football player does not allow him to sneak off to Kansas City very often – but there have been a handful of moments when Nick has seen what could be his future. He was on the field celebrating with Ben after the Super Bowl last year. That counts.

Nick knows his path to the NFL might look very different than Ben’s.

Unlike his older brother, who started the last 40 games of his career at Iowa and accumulated more than 200 career tackles, Nick was a spot-starter for the Hawkeyes for three years before blossoming into an all-Big Ten third-team selection this year after racking up 77 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and one recovered fumble.

Nick is currently working out in Nashville, preparing for whatever kind of auditions he’ll get. The NFL Scouting Combine is being reworked because of COVID-19 concerns. He should get a Pro Day at Iowa, which will serve as somewhat of a showcase.

But even if he doesn’t get drafted, Nick now has a blueprint to follow.

“We had a conversation two weeks ago and he said once you get in the NFL, every single guy is an athlete and can make plays, but if you do the things that really aren’t that hard – just being good at fundamentals, understanding multiple positions in the playbook, playing special teams, not just going out and playing backyard football because you’re a stud – that can really separate you.”

These are the things that Jay Niemann tried to teach his boys, even if they didn’t know he was teaching them.

These are things that got reinforced for both boys at Iowa.

“There are a lot of college coaches who’ve never coached in the NFL, but with Coach (Kirk) Ferentz’ background, he had a different insight into how to build a program,” Jay Niemann said of his boss, Ferentz, the former Bill Belichick protégé-turned-longtime-Hawkeyes coach. “The boys are very fortunate to be from a system like we have at Iowa. Not the facilities, but how we do things on a day-in, day-out basis. Being men and being responsible for their actions.”

For Jay Niemann, it’s an enviable spot to be in – a college football coach with one son in the NFL and another potentially on the way.

“Credit their mother (Lou Ann),” he said with a laugh. “She did most of the work while I was coaching.”

Nick isn’t quite all the way there yet, but his father and brother think he’ll get there. Ben has repeated one refrain with Nick during this process: “I just tell him control what you can control. If he gets drafted, awesome. If not, we’ve been through the process. My family has.”

Besides, Ben knows nothing is going to stop Nick now.

Nick was four years old with a furrowed brow and pursed lips, watching as Ben zipped around on his bicycle, burning rubber with the neighborhood kids in the cul de sac. With training wheels on his own bike, Nick lagged behind the bigger boys.

Ben had two years and several pounds on Nick. Nick had the motivation of a younger brother.

He stormed into the garage and sought out a wrench; Jay and Lou Ann looked on incredulously. Nick pried off the training wheels himself, walked the bike to the street, balanced his foot on the curb and tore off. He would be Ben’s shadow again.

Now he follows in big brother Ben’s footsteps once more, this time chasing his NFL dreams and not the neighborhood kids. And this time, Ben is slowing down and giving him some help catching up.