Wife of a former NFL player, mother of a KC Chief: ‘I wouldn’t trade it for anything’

If you’ve ever been a teacher, you know how fun it is to talk to a student you had in class decades ago. Especially if that student was fun, cooperative, smart and, all right, I admit it, one of my all-time favorite kids.

It was such a treat last week when I had the chance to sit down and catch up with Sherry Bell, a student at Pleasant Valley Junior High in 1970. Of course we talked about the old days, but also what she’s up to now. In a word, football.

Blake Bell, Sherry and Mark Bell’s son, is a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.

But football interest started much earlier for Sherry. Before they met, Mark played for the Seattle Seahawks and the Colts. His twin brother, Mike, played for the Kansas City Chiefs.

According to Sherry, if someone asks Mark what it’s like to see Blake play in the NFL after being a player himself, he is quick to answer that it’s more fun to watch his son than it was to play.

Blake, 30, and his brother Brock, 32, played as youngsters, then both played at Bishop Carroll High School before going to college.

“Oh my goodness gracious, I was a sports mom. I cooked meals and made posters,” she said. But during their school years it wasn’t just football. “We traveled every summer to baseball tournaments and they played basketball. Hot summers, sweaty gyms and cold football games. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” she said.

But she does remember the coldest game she ever sat through. “It was at the OU versus Oklahoma State game in Stillwater. Blake came in toward the end of the game and drove them down the field to win the game so it was worth it. But oh my goodness it was cold!”

Wife, football mom, and now she has a new title: Grandmother. Brock and wife, Lauren, added daughter Brooklyn to the Bell family. Seems the new addition is the star of the family.

“People ask what she’s going to call me. I tell them she can call me whatever she wants. And we’ll take all the grandkids they want to throw at us,” Sherry said.

After showing pictures of Brooklyn, it was back to the subject of football. I asked if she worried about injuries. “I’ve never been a worrier and I have to just blank it out. I was really more nervous when he was a quarterback,” she said.

Blake and brother Brock have always supported each other probably because Sherry says she and her husband made sure they knew from an early age the importance of being part of a strong family unit.

“They played lots of sports and were busy growing up but we sat down and ate dinner together. My boys are really good boys,” she said in a very matter-of-fact tone.

The first time I met the boys they were in grade school when I asked Sherry if her sons would model for a back-to-school fashion section in the Eagle.

They were so polite I asked Sherry if she had threatened them. When Fernando Salazar, the photographer, decided we needed an action shot, the boys were instructed to run and then leap. Already athletic Blake, 8, and Brock, 10, leaped so high only their legs were in the frame.

“I saved that paper and showed them the picture recently. I told them, ‘See I had you on a career path for modeling, but you went another direction,” Sherry said laughing.

On Saturday Mark and Sherry were headed to Kansas City for the game.

“You know, it’s a lot of effort getting everything organized with the traveling, the tailgating, the game, and then waiting in the parking lot after the game for Blake to come out. It’s a long day, but it’s worth every minute.”

The last minute was a long one at last Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills. To say it was exciting is a vast understatement.

“I swear that game took a few years off my life,” Sherry said in a phone conversation Monday morning. The Chiefs won in overtime.

It will be interesting to see in a few years what sports the Bell grandchildren, who will probably be very athletic, are participating in.

“Our kids say they’re going to put a golf club in their kids’ hands,” Sherry said.

If they’re golfers, no doubt Sherry will be on the course cheering them on. But she’ll have to do it quietly for a change.

Reach Bonnie Bing at bingbylines@gmail.com

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the ages of Blake and Brock Bell.