Former Maryland Terrapins Wide Receiver Heads To First Career Super Bowl
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It's been a long time coming for former Maryland Terrapins wide receiver Stefon Diggs, but he's finally made it to the big game in the NFL.
Diggs and the New England Patriots survived an icy blizzard against the Denver Broncos that saw a very low-scoring AFC Championship that included four missed field goals combined by both sides, giving them their first Super Bowl appearance since 2019 after a 10-7 win in the Mile High City.
In the cold, Diggs was able to grab five catches for only 17 yards, but the feeling of competing for the NFL's big prize has to be worth the somewhat lesser performance.
And after all the chances that Diggs' teams over his career have had, it's no secret that he would've done anything to make it to the championship game.
In the 2017 season, his third in the league with the Minnesota Vikings, Diggs sent Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints home in the NFC Divisional Round with a phenomenal 61-yard touchdown from quarterback Case Keenum as the clock ran out that was appropriately dubbed the "Minneapolis Miracle," seemingly cementing the Vikings as a top contender for the Super Bowl.
It did not come to be, however, as the Vikings would lose to the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-7 in the NFC Championship.
Two years later, in Diggs' final season with the Purple and Gold, the team again got the best of the Saints with an overtime win in the Wild Card round but couldn't make it past the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round, again denying Diggs a chance at championship glory.
In March of 2020, Diggs would get traded to the Buffalo Bills, teaming him with future NFL MVP Josh Allen, but did not result in the glory that he was hoping for to start out, as the Bills would fall to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship, and again the next year in the Divisional Round in one of the greatest NFL playoff games in history.
After the Cincinnati Bengals and the Chiefs again spoiled the Bills' Super Bowl hopes in the 2022 and 2023 seasons, respectively, Diggs was then traded to the Houston Texans, where he would only play eight games before suffering a torn ACL, ending his lone season in Houston prematurely.
The Terrapin would then get traded to the New England Patriots in March of 2025, where he proved that he is still capable of the production he was putting up in his earlier career, catching 85 passes for 1,013 yards and four touchdowns during the regular season, becoming New England's first 1,000-yard receiver since Julian Edelman in 2019.
And after besting the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card Round, the Texans in the Divisional Round, and the Broncos in the AFC Championship, Diggs finally has a chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy when the Pats face the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX on February 8.
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Aaron Raley is a writer covering Maryland On SI. Born and raised in Northeast Texas, Aaron earned a degree from Texas A&M University in journalism, with minors in history and sports management. Aaron’s writing abilities are driven by his love and passion for various sports, both at the collegiate and professional levels, as well as his experience in playing sports, especially baseball and football.
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