Former Des Moines bartender aiming for fifth Super Bowl title Sunday with Kansas City Chiefs

Brendan Daly keeps a little memento from one of the most important parts of his football career on his desk in the Kansas City Chiefs' offices.

It’s a framed postcard of Drake Stadium that his mother-in-law got for him. The picture was taken, he guesses, back in the 1920s. It’s an aerial shot of the neighborhood and includes the school’s fieldhouse and famed football stadium that he once played and coached in.

“That street isn’t even there where my office in the physical plant would have been,” Daly says.

It's been nearly three decades since his time at Drake, but it's a big reason why Daly, who's already been a part of four Super Bowl titles, has a chance for a fifth this weekend as the linebackers coach and run game coordinator for the Chiefs.

“Some of the people that I met there have been extremely influential in my professional life, for sure," Daly said.

Brendan Daly wins a title at Drake, cleans carpet during the day and bartends at night

Daly wanted to play football in college. His parents wanted him to go to a school with good academics. Drake met both their standards. So, Daly moved from Illinois to Des Moines to play for Rob Ash, the Bulldogs' coach at the time. Ash loved Daly's energy, enthusiasm and knowledge of the game and used the undersized tight end in mostly blocking situations.

“He was a tenacious player,” Ash said. “Just a bulldog of a blocker.”

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Daly's blocking was put to good use during the 1995 season, when Drake put together one of the best seasons in program history, going 8-1-1 and winning the PFL title with a 5-0 record. The Bulldogs capped off the championship season with a win at San Diego.

Daly and some of his teammates celebrated by jumping in the school's pool, which was connected to the football locker room. Later that night, they hit the town before heading back to Iowa the next day.

“Many cold beverages shared, for sure,” Daly said.

He graduated in 1997 and worked several odd jobs around Des Moines. He bartended at AK O'Connor's and got a job at Stanley Steemer, cleaning carpets during the day and slinging drinks at night.

But coaching was always his dream. He got his shot later that fall when Mike Looney, a former graduate assistant at Drake, called Ash. Looney was looking for some coaches for his staff at Ridgewood High School in Florida. Ash saw coaching potential in Daly and recommended him.

“I loaded everything I owned into a pickup, and smashed the window in the back of it loading a couch, and drove to Florida in the middle of a rainstorm,” Daly said.

Daly taught special education and coached for one season. He returned to Drake the following year as tight ends coach, but coaching was just a small part of his duties.

He helped load and unpack the bus for road trips, some ending as late as 4 a.m. He was also tasked with helping move the giant scissor lift, used to film practices, to and from the field.

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Daly shared an apartment with former Drake football player Chris Ash (no relation to Rob Ash), who was on the coaching staff at the time. Ash, now the defensive backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders, said the two brought a projector home from the football offices so they could study film at home.

"We didn't have a whole lot in that apartment," Chris Ash said. "We were lucky to be able to pay the rent, let alone have anything in it."

Daly's coaching talent was evident even in his first season at Drake. He did such a good job that Rob Ash was already thinking about promoting him — but he never got the chance.

'It's remarkable.' Brendan Daly wins three Super Bowls with New England Patriots, one with Chiefs

Daly spent just one season coaching at Drake.

That season started a coaching career that included stops at Villanova, Maryland, Oklahoma State and Illinois State. Daly got his first gig in the NFL working with the Minnesota Vikings from 2006-2008. He’s since worked with the Rams, the Vikings again and the New England Patriots, where he helped win three Super Bowl titles.

Rob Ash said he's not surprised Daly's had so much success coaching.

"I always liked his appreciation for the nuances of the game," he said. "He always knew his assignments. He always knew what he was supposed to do and how to do it. He just seemed like he had an understanding of how the game worked and how it was supposed to be played and thought he could convey that to other players."

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Rob Ash, who works for a football analytics company now, has stayed in touch with Daly over the years. Once he sat in one of Daly's meetings with a defensive lineman the Patriots were considering drafting. Daly would simulate an offense adjusting to a defensive call and observe how the lineman reacted. The exercise lasted about 30 minutes.

"I sat in the room just mesmerized watching him work with his guys," Rob Ash said. "It gave me a real sense of why he's been successful."

That success landed Daly a job with the Chiefs, where he coached the defensive line for three seasons and won a fourth Super Bowl. Now in his fourth season with the team, he oversees the linebackers. It's quite the journey from his days in Des Moines, but Daly's thankful for it.

Without Drake, Daly isn't sure what he'd be doing. That's why he keeps that postcard from his mother-in-law on his desk.

It's a reminder of where he's been and how he got to this point.

"It was incredibly important to me," Daly said.

Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018 and 2020 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468. Follow him on Twitter @TommyBirch.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Small college player, carpet cleaner is going for 5th Super Bowl win