The teams line up during the tribute to Kobe Bryant and former Minnesota Viking Hall of Fame, Chris Doleman before the match. (Reuters)
On football’s biggest day, they took time to remember a basketball legend.
The Chiefs and 49ers finished their warmups before the Super Bowl and lined up at their respective 24-yard lines – a tribute to Kobe Bryant, the five-time NBA champion who died along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in a helicopter crash on January 26.
Bryant wore No. 24 in his final 10 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.
San Francisco’s Richard Sherman showed up for the Super Bowl in a Bryant jersey and appeared on Fox’s pregame show to read a poem called “Dear Football.” It largely copied “Dear Basketball,” the poem Bryant wrote in 2015 to announce that he was playing his final season.
Sherman ended his poem with “We love you, Kobe. We love you, Gianna. Love always, Richard.”
