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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Owen Daniels’ Legacy At Naperville Central Further Cemented With Super Bowl 50 Appearance

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Daniels will be the first Naperville native to play in a Super Bowl

They say you get a glimpse of the true sense of what makes someone tick when adversity strikes.

Adversity first found Owen Daniels 10 months after his finest hour as a Naperville Central Redhawk – quarterbacking the program to its first state title in November 1999 – courtesy of a torn ACL.

After the majority of his senior year in 2000 was taken away as Naperville Central fell three victories shy of a Class 6A repeat, adversity struck again with another ACL two years later at Wisconsin.

His best-laid plans – to play quarterback at Wisconsin – scrapped, a switch to tight end and years of grinding ensued as the man forever entrenched in Naperville Central history looked to reinvent his football identity.

So you can excuse him for not being afraid of the prospect of having to deal with the New England Patriots again in another January meeting.

True, two previous postseason meetings opposite the Patriots – both losses – had yielded a combined 13 receptions for 122 yards and a score for the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Daniels.

OD,-Angela,-Bridget-and-Meredith-Daniels-2015-AFC-Championship-Game
The Daniels celebrate at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver. From left, Angela, Owen, Bridget and Meredith. Photos courtesy of the Daniels.

With a second straight postseason matchup with the Patriots coming in the 2015 AFC Championship Game following a 35-31 loss in a 2014 AFC Divisional Playoff as a member of the Baltimore Ravens, Daniels pounced.

Exploiting a seam in the middle of the Patriots’ defense for a 21-yard TD reception from Peyton Manning on the Broncos’ first possession of the game began a 16:14 stretch of game time he won’t soon forget.

Four possessions later, Manning found Daniels, split out wide to the right, for a 12-yard score and a 14-6 Broncos’ lead with 13:46 left in the first half.

“I think our coaches did a good job of putting together a good game plan and we always do a new package of plays for the red zone every week,” he said. “It kind of depends on who we’re playing and what we think might be successful against them. So the package we put in, depending on the coverage they were playing, I was the throw in a decent amount of those situations.

“So they happened to be playing what looked like to me two-man on the first touchdown and the middle of the field (was) wide open. I saw man coverage, so I just kind of had to put a move on the linebacker (Jamie Collins) and get up field and Peyton made a great throw.

“The other one, we gave them that formation, and they put (Collins) on me. With that play call – they looked to me to be the throw there, too. So it was just kind of the way they played their defense and coinciding with the plays that we had called. It was kind of up to me to win on my runs in both those situations. Thankfully, I was able to do that.”

Denver Broncos tight end Owen Daniels (81) catches a 21-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Peyton Manning during the first half the NFL football AFC Championship game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Broncos tight end Owen Daniels (81) catches a 21-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Peyton Manning during the first half the NFL football AFC Championship game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Daniels’ first career postseason multi-touchdown game was an impetus for the Denver Broncos reaching the franchise’s eighth Super Bowl after a 20-18 victory.

Kubiak’s Faith

In several ways, his career has been all about the power of belief.

For the last 10 years, he’s been trying to make good on the faith Gary Kubiak first showed in him when Kubiak’s Houston Texans tabbed Daniels out of Wisconsin in the 2006 NFL Draft.

As the 98th overall selection in the 2006 NFL Draft, his career has been defined largely by the presence of Kubiak – first as the Texans’ head coach for eight years and as the Ravens’ offensive coordinator for one.

“Teams overlooked me in free agency before I signed with Baltimore,” Daniels said, “and I think even before I got drafted because of my knee situation. I had some knee injuries. I think one of the best things about Kub is that he saw me go for those eight years in Houston and knew that I had more in the tank.

“It was great to have somebody like that kind of know me as a player, as a person, to know (the whole story). Doctors may say one thing, ‘there’s a risk to sign this guy.’ But it was great to have him on my side through that whole process.”

Local Legacy

For all he has accomplished at three different stops in the NFL, Daniels’ legend harkens all the way back to when playing football was just all about for the love of the game.

His legacy as one of the best athletes ever to walk the halls of Naperville Central was cemented the moment the clock in Champaign, Ill. struck triple zeroes on Nov. 27, 1999.

Daniels’ 245 total yards and four touchdowns – two passing and two rushing – from under center helped lead the Redhawks to a 56-31 rout of Schaumburg, laying claim to the program’s first state title.

Sixteen years and two months later, with a position switch thrown in for good measure, that legacy continues to deepen even further for the 2001 Naperville Central alumnus.

Come Feb. 7, 2016 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. in Super Bowl 50, Daniels will make a little more history for the school, whose football program dates back to 1910.

Upon lining up against the Carolina Panthers, he’ll become the first Naperville Central alumnus to ever play in a Super Bowl – six years after Sean Payton, a 1982 alumnus, coached the Saints in Super Bowl XLIV.

Owen Daniels, center, was inducted into the Naperville Central Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015.
Owen Daniels, center, was inducted into the Naperville Central Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015.

“That blows my mind honestly,” said Daniels, who was enshrined in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in Jan. 2015. “We had an awesome team back in ’99 and in 2000. I was just the quarterback. We had a lot of good players. We had an awesome team, so that was really fun to be a part of.

“It’s really hard to believe through all the guys who’ve been through that school and all the talent and everyone associated with Naperville Central that I’d be the first one to get to play in this game and be a part of it.

“So all that extra stuff – all the details are really cool – and I’m really honored by all of that stuff and honored to be a part of it. But I think I’ll have a little bit more time and I’ll think about it a little bit more once everything’s done with.”

A career record of 17-0 to go with 23 TD passes as the Redhawks’ quarterback eventually gave way to his time at Wisconsin and eight years in the NFL in Houston from 2006-13.

After his 48 receptions for 527 yards and four touchdowns in his one and only year with the Ravens, Daniels grabbed 46 passes for 517 yards and three touchdowns during the regular season for the Broncos.

One year of playing with Joe Flacco, who led the Ravens to a victory in Super Bowl XLVII, eventually brought Daniels to catching passes from another Super Bowl-winning QB in Manning.

Postseason included, quite a few of Manning’s nine touchdown passes heading into the Super Bowl – five – have gone in Daniels’ direction.

Manning’s two TDs to Daniels against the Patriots on Jan. 24 were his first since Nov. 8 as he battled some plantar fasciitis late in the year.

Displaced in the lineup by Brock Osweiler for six games, Manning was the picture of professionalism as Osweiler went 4-2 in those six games – including an OT win over the Patriots on Nov. 29.

With Osweiler struggling against the Chargers in Week 17, Manning came off the bench to spark a 27-20 victory, earning Denver home-field advantage in the AFC.

As the career of the future Hall of Famer possibly reaches its final stage come Super Bowl Sunday, Daniels’ season with Manning has been one of privilege.

“From the first time I worked with the guy back in April, where he has guys out at Duke for our little private workouts, I could see how hard of a worker he was, that he is,” he said of Manning. “So it’s no surprise that he’s as great as he’s been for as many years as he’s been great. He had us there for two-or-three-day workouts and he has us doing two-a-days. We were running routes in the morning, lifting weights, watching film of the routes we ran in the morning and then doing more routes at night. And this is in April – just trying to get to know guys that he’s going to be playing with.

“And then getting OTAs, offseason workouts with the team – that was no different. And watching him try to get back from his injury, I think it meant a lot to him to get back. So seeing that from a guy that a lot of people have so much respect for, to be able to see it first-hand and be a part of it is pretty special for me to see. No wonder why he’s still doing it and been able to be so great for as many years as he’s been. He’s the man.”

A two-time Pro Bowler with the Texans, Daniels enters the Super Bowl with 479 career receptions for 5,661 yards and 36 touchdowns – with 34 catches for 381 yards and three TDs during the postseason.

Ten years under his belt after Super Bowl 50 is completed, who knows how much longer Daniels will want to play.

But rest assured, he’ll do so with the same energy and focus he showed on that late November night in Champaign, Ill. just over 16 years ago.

“I did commit to three years with the Denver Broncos, so I’d like to honor that commitment,” Daniels said. “As long as my body holds up, I’d like to honor that. As long as my wife (Angela) is okay with me still playing football, my little man’s (Henry) all right with that, I’d like to do it. But at this point, the last few years, I’ve been assessing how I feel physically, mentally after every season and just kind of talk with my wife and see how (she feels).

“We’ve had talks in the past offseasons about do I want to keep playing? What’s the plan going forward? So that will happen again after the Super Bowl after we kind of get back to Houston and decompress and kind of get to relax a little bit. We’ll think about things and I’ll assess things. But I love the game. It’s going to be hard to walk away, no matter what the situation is, and this is all assuming that the Denver Broncos want to keep me around for another year or so.”

Special thanks to the Daniels Family for helping to facilitate this story.

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Blake Baumgartner
Blake Baumgartner
Raised in Naperville, Blake Baumgartner is a 2001 Naperville Central alumnus and a 2005 graduate of Michigan State's School of Journalism. Since March 2010, he has covered football, boys' basketball and baseball for both The Naperville Sun and Positively Naperville. Follow him on Twitter @BFBaumgartner.

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