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This St. Pete native is heading to a second straight Super Bowl

Marquez Valdes-Scantling is a legend in the Tampa Bay area.

January 30, 2024 • 
Patrick Sidwell
Marquez Valdes-Scantling is airborne as he attempts to catch a football. There is a Baltimore Ravens player closing him down.

Eyes on the prize.

Photo by Kyle Rivas and the Kansas City Chiefs

If you watched the NFL’s AFC Championship Game last weekend, you would have seen a Tampa Bay native on the field. With around two minutes left, St. Pete’s very own Marquez Valdes-Scantling caught a 32-yard pass, effectively sealing the victory for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Valdes-Scantling — also known as MVS — played football at Lakewood High School, before moving to North Carolina State. It wasn’t long before he returned home, becoming a USF Bull in 2015, where he finished his college career. The Green Bay Packers drafted the speedy wide receiver in 2018, and he later joined the Chiefs in 2022.

Less than a year later, the Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII, making MVS just the 15th USF Bull to win the accolade. He now hopes to become only the third Bull to win multiple Super Bowls — after Austin Reiter and Jason Pierre-Paul — when the Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.

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