The countdown to football season in Las Vegas is on, from new coaches to Tom Brady and a Raiders coach's incredible story of finding his biological family.

That's this week on Nevada Week.

♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week.

I'm Maria Silva in for Amber Renee Dixon.

Growing up, Las Vegas Raiders running backs coach, Deland McCullough, knew he was adopted and wondered who his biological parents were.

He found them decades later.

And as it turns out, he had already formed a very special bond with his father without knowing it.

Deland and his biological mother, Carol, are here to share their remarkable story.

I cannot wait for you to meet them.

But first, we're just a few weeks away from the Raiders' first game this season.

Both the Las Vegas Raiders and UNLV football will start the season under new leadership.

Las Vegas Review-Journal Sports Columnist Ed Graney spoke to Amber Renee Dixon about those changes, as well as his thoughts on the A's moving forward with the construction of their new stadium.

(Amber Renee Dixon) So Ed, the skepticism surrounding the A's stadium and whether it will get built, is it justified in your opinion?

(Ed Graney) I mean, I think skepticism is always justified until we know what the financing will be, until we know all the money is in the bank to build the ballpark.

So, yeah, I think, I think that's fair.

We don't know yet how John Fisher intends to pay for the entire ballpark.

And also, as you know, this price is probably going up even more.

It's already gone up from 1.5 to 1.7.

Now he's saying it might be 2 billion.

There's tariffs to think about, as he talked about.

There's cost in construction.

So until the entire financing is known, I think skepticism is fair, but I still think it's going to get built.

-And why is that?

-Marc Badain.

I think Marc Badain, who's the president of the A's now, used to be the president for-- who's in the Raiders organization for 30 years, he was the president of the Raiders for some time, helped lead the charge of building Allegiant Stadium.

I think that he is the perfect person for the A's and to get this ballpark built.

And I think they made an incredible decision on hiring Marc Badain to do this.

So I don't think he'll fail in this venture.

He told us all at the groundbreaking that you were at, Amber, that, you know, it will be built by 2028, that it will happen on time, and Marc Badain has always followed through what he says, so I completely believe him.

-Yeah, you wrote a nice column on that.

And when we spoke with him at the groundbreaking, he kind of downplayed the fact that he used to be with the Raiders for so long, which was a rival of the Athletics, and now he works for them.

-Yes.

-Can you give that perspective to our viewers who may not be familiar with that history.

-Well, he was with the Raiders for 30 years.

He and Mark Davis grew up together.

They were really close; obviously, the owner of the Raiders, very close friends throughout the years, growing up through the organization, Mark obviously the son of Al Davis, the former owner.

So yeah, I mean, the A's and the Raiders didn't have the best of relationships in Oakland when it was happening at the Coliseum and who wanted to move and didn't want to move and all that.

So I think the two Marks worked well together for years, and then it came to an end when Marc, Marc Badain stepped away as the Raiders president.

I still think there's probably a good relationship there, because they were together for so long.

But given the kind of animosity between the Raiders and the A's, it is a little ironic that they'll both be in Las Vegas and they'll both move here.

-As for the Raiders, they're coming off a four-win season.

-Yes.

-What do you think about their odds this year, given some of the off season moves they've made?

-The most important thing is to hire Pete Carroll as the coach.

What Pete does is he brings stability to this organization, stability that they haven't had in some time, in my opinion-- you know, in his low 70s, he's been around forever.

He's one of only three or four college coaches to win a college national championship and a Super Bowl.

So he's one of the best coaches ever in football in terms of those, in terms of those credentials.

And I think Pete just brings a sense of professionalism to the organization and a sense of stability that things are going to get done in a professional manner.

Some moves they made in the off season, I think helped them.

Geno Smith is the new quarterback, was with Pete in Seattle.

That's going to help them a lot.

I think Geno, like Pete does to the organization, Geno brings stability to the most important position on the field.

They've been in flux at quarterback for the last several years.

They won't be in flux with Geno.

So I do think, you know, I'll be surprised if it's four wins again.

I'll be very surprised at that.

I think if you can double your wins in one year under Pete and get to the eight, nine range, I think it'd be very successful.

-When you just talked about Pete Carroll, you mentioned doing things in a professional manner, I think, a couple of times.

Why is that so important?

Did that not exist, in your opinion, prior?

-It was just in flux with so many coaches, and when you have all these different coaches, you know, it's hard to kind of, you know, create a culture and kind of get a consistency in the rooms and in the locker room every day.

And I think now with Pete, I think there's going to be that with him because of his experience, and I think that's going to help them tenfold in terms of running a good organization, giving him control of what he needs control of to run that team, and to see how he do it how he sees fit.

And I just think it's-- his experience is going to mean a lot.

-You wrote in one of your columns that Geno Smith is like Pete Carroll, but with the helmet on.

-Right.

-What do you think they are looking for him to do as far as longevity?

Is this more of, just as you wrote, a leader who comes in and perhaps helps the younger quarterbacks and we're preparing for the future, or let's win now?

-Well, I think they want to win now.

Pete said it.

Pete's in his low 70s.

I don't know how long Pete will do this.

Who knows how long Pete's going to do this.

-And how old is Geno Smith?

-Geno is in his 30s.

So, you know, Geno-- you know, Geno-- I think when you look at the contract, I think you go into it thinking a couple years at least; they want him in there in that position for a couple years at least.

You can do a lot in a couple years if you have the right people around him.

And I think, at least offensively, they've put the right people around him.

They have some questions on defense, but I think they want Geno Smith to win games.

That's what it comes down to, winning games.

I think he has proven his last few years in Seattle.

Look at his numbers.

He can win games if he's protected well, if he's kept clean from an offensive line.

That's going to be a big challenge to the offensive line to keep him clean and to keep him protected.

But I think, yeah, he proved enough in Seattle to where, if that happens and some of the people he has around him on the Raiders, the Brock Bowers of the world and people like that, that they'll be able to move the ball and they'll be in games.

-What have you thought about Tom Brady's involvement in the Raiders?

-I think it's great because he's a winner.

You need as many winners as you can in an organization.

And, obviously, he's proven to be not only the greatest quarterback, but he's one of those guys who most things he touch succeeds.

So I think it's great to have him above.

I think he had a lot to do with the hirings of those below him now.

And I think, you know, anytime you kind of have a sounding board of a Tom Brady, I think it's great.

You know, he's been around.

He knows football as well as anyone.

He knows what takes the winning culture.

He knows what takes the winning championships.

I just think, when you have a guy like that to sound things off and to ask him his opinion, you can't go wrong.

-Should he still be able to be a broadcaster?

-That's a good question.

Well, for his paycheck, he probably thinks he should be good enough to be a broadcaster.

Yeah, well look, the owners decided what they decided.

So if they decided that he can be a broadcaster, but he has these limitations on his dealings with the team he's a partial owner of, I'm not going to go against what they decide.

That's their league.

It's their decision to make, and that's a decision they made.

And he's still, he's still a broadcaster and, like I said, he's doing very well for himself.

-All right.

I guess the potential conflict of interest could be, what if he broadcasts the Raiders game and talks them up?

-Yeah.

I don't think that's going to happen.

So, you know, he's-- I think he's got to stay somewhat neutral in the whole Raider situation.

It's probably best that he's not on Raider games, because, you know, for the kind of lack of-- or not the lack of, but the conflict of interest, like you talk about.

He can stay away from that and comment on other games and can call his games.

And I think it's a learning experience for him.

I don't know if he was the best last year.

When you go in and do something like that for the first time, it takes a while to understand the timing of it, the situations of it, when you're supposed to come in.

You're an expert at this, and you know how long that takes to really become an expert at it.

So I mean, I think he'll get better in the years to come, because he's a perfectionist, as we know, in his whole life, and he's not going to fail at something.

-You also said earlier, "the greatest quarterback."

Do you mean of all time, Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time?

-I don't think you can argue with his championships.

I think I don't base everything on championships.

I base a lot on it.

But what he did as a sixth round pick, to come back and to take over that team, take over that franchise, lead that franchise, and then I think the most important thing was to go to Tampa and win a Super Bowl.

That really showed me his greatness, that he can go to a completely different situation, which he was not in tune with like he was with the Patriots and still win a championship, I thought was, you know, kind of cemented his legacy.

-Last thing: UNLV football.

New coach.

-Dan Mullen.

-Yes.

Coming off some successful seasons, but then they lose Barry Odom.

What do you foresee for them?

-Well, he, coaching Mississippi State and Florida, he's been at big time places, he knows big time people, spent some years.

It really helped him that he spent the last few years at ESPN and on the TV side of things.

So did Josh Pastner, the basketball coach.

I think it helped both those guys really see their sports from afar, this NIL world, this transfer portal world.

So when they got their next opportunity, they really knew going in what it was about and how to approach it.

I think Dan Mullen's going to do a really good job.

He knows what he's doing.

He's coached some of the best quarterbacks who's ever come out of college and in the pros.

He's kind of a quarterback guru, and I think he's going to do a really fine job.

Barry Odom did a great job, obviously, setting a standard by which UNLV football should now be known for.

He had historic seasons at UNLV in a very short amount of time.

And I think when that is set, Dan's gone into the transfer portal, he's brought on a lot of, you know, high level players.

I think the Mountain West is a league that they can certainly compete in for championships every year.

You have Boise who's only the last year before they go to the PAC-12.

I think when these five teams going to the PAC-12 leave, I think UNLV, and I've written this, I think UNLV should be the standard bearer of that new conference, of that new Mountain West.

I think they should be the one everyone's chasing.

They should be good enough in football and men's basketball to where they're the ones everyone are trying to catch.

So I think it'll be a disappointment if they're not.

-Gosh, that would be certainly a turnaround from recent history, right?

I mean, past those two years before.

-Before Barry Odom, exactly.

-Ed Graney, thank you so much for joining.

-Thanks, Amber.

I appreciate it.

(Maria Silva) Throughout Deland McCullough's football career, his path often crossed with his mentor, Sherman Smith.

Smith first recruited and coached Deland in college, setting high expectations for the young player who would go on to play in the NFL and Canadian Football League.

Deland later went on to become a running backs coach, the same position Coach Smith held himself.

Deland had been placed for adoption as an infant.

And as he learned more about his biological family as an adult, he realized his connection with Smith was even closer than he could ever imagine.

Deland McCullough and his biological mother, Carol Briggs, are here in studio to share their incredible story.

Thank you both so much for being here.

-Thank you for having us.

-And it's all now documented in this incredible book.

It's called Runs in the Family: An Incredible Story of Football, Fatherhood, and Belonging.

Beautiful book.

And I want to read-- I want to start out by reading.

I've had the chance to read this book, and so many emotions.

And I want to start with this part, if it's okay.

Hello.

Carol's voice was nervous, but kind.

Deland felt his whole body warm up when he heard it.

He was standing in the rays of the brightest, yellowest sun you've ever seen.

"I'm sure you're wondering what's going on," Deland said.

He paused, and then, "I'm John."

Carol couldn't keep the tears in.

It was really him.

He told her he'd been looking for her.

She told him she'd been looking for him, too, praying to find him, praying to learn that he was okay.

This was really happening.

Deland took a deep breath and let the tears flow.

My tears were flowing when I read that.

Tell me about-- walk us through to that moment when you got that call.

(Carol Briggs) Well, it was a regular evening after work, and I unmuted my phone, and, you know, the preliminary part of it when he sent me the text, that infamous text.

But when he called me that evening, by then, I had done countless Google searches and all kinds of things.

And I said, if someone is trying to trick me here, they've gone through a lot of effort, because this guy is everywhere on the internet.

So this must be real.

-And you became somewhat of a private investigator.

You knew you were adopted at a young age.

What, about seven years old?

-Yes.

-But it took you until you were 44 to finally find your biological parents.

Why did it take so long?

(Deland McCullough) Well, I mean, I didn't, I really didn't look until probably a few years before I found found out.

So, I mean, just like it talks about in the book, it was there were so many things going on just in, you know, my life and just things that was going on that I really didn't take the time to say, look, I'm about to try to find my biological family.

-And it was changes in adoption laws that did convince you to do that in Pittsburgh?

-Yes.

So once I started looking, I got linked on to a House bill in Pittsburgh that was in the process of going through.

So then I said, let me just follow that.

The bread crumbs were already laid out, and I'd do all the work from it.

-It's something similar here in Nevada, where you as the adoptee can get your record.

-Mm-hmm.

-Let's talk about that almost took a year to get those records.

When you finally got that birth certificate, what was going through your mind?

-Well, the ironic part is that day, it was in March that I sent for the information, and it wasn't-- I didn't think about it again until November.

I was sitting there at work, and I just, it just hit me.

I said, I wonder what's going on with this adoption paperwork?

Then when I got home that night, it literally, that night, it was there.

So it was a lot of emotions.

I wasn't prepared, because I didn't know it's coming next week, let me get my mind together.

It just came, and it's just a wave of emotion hit me.

And then once I seen her name, I said I need to find her.

-And there was an important piece missing, an important part of information that was missing, your father's name.

-Father's name was not, was not on there.

And I'd heard that, you know, growing up, my adopted mom, my mom Adele, I said, you know, she knew that-- all she knew was it was a young, a younger couple, you know.

And I didn't-- obviously, once I got all the information, I seen my dad's name was not on there.

-And Carol, why did you make that decision not to tell the biological father?

-Well, you know, I was only 16.

He had already gone away to college.

He was a fantastic athlete in high school and had gotten a lot of offers to go to school.

And our school was very small, so him to be recruited and wooed like he was to go to all these colleges was a big deal.

So, you know, I said, Well, he's already gone and he'd have to come back, and you know, I didn't know what impact it was going to have on his life, so I said, Well, I'll just make this decision.

-So you did ask for, what, six minutes into that conversation, that call, you finally asked, and how did that-- what happened next?

-Yeah.

I was pretty blown away.

I mean, we're having a great conversation.

I asked it.

-And it felt like you knew each other, right?

-Yes.

It was no, like, okay, let's fill this out.

We just jumped into and started talking.

It was great conversation.

The question I asked before I asked who my dad was, Well, do I have any brothers and sisters, because once she had identified she was in Youngstown, I'm like, oh, shoot, that opened up a whole lot of things.

She was only 10 minutes away from where I lived, which is why you couldn't-- that's just ridiculous.

Then I said, Do I have any brothers and sisters?

She said, No.

And then I just kind of flippantly asked.

I said, Well, shoot, who's my dad?

And she told me.

-What did you tell him?

-I said, Your father's name is Sherman Smith.

-And when she said that, I just, I crumbled.

-And you fell to the floor, literally.

-Yeah.

I like dropped.

I was going up steps, and I, I just kind of plopped down.

And she said, you know, What's wrong?

She could hear it in my voice.

And I said, Oh, I know him.

I know him.

So he, Coach Smith was my-- he recruited me, and he was my coach.

-I do want to go back to, he recruited you when you were in high school.

And there's, again, this book, so many emotions.

There's some funny parts in here.

Tell me about that, how he drove up in that cherry what?

-Cherry apple red-- Candy Apple Red Mercedes.

I didn't know it was him.

I was in English class.

I looked down.

We see the car.

Me and a couple of my buds, we just see the car.

A few minutes later, I get called to the office, and it was him, you know?

It was like a movie.

He was facing towards our coach, and he turned around.

It was like really cinematic when I think back on it, even then, because I'd never really met a person like him.

And he said, I'm Sherman Smith, running back coach from Miami University.

-Fate bringing you together.

And he remained in your life for so many years.

Tell me about that.

-So, I mean, he obviously-- the reason I went to Miami was him.

I've never seen a person like that, been around a person like that, who came from where I came from.

So I was immediately drawn to him.

I mean, ultimately, he left Miami and he moved on in his career, went to University of Illinois and then went on to the NFL.

But we stayed in contact forever.

We stayed in contact all the way up until all of this happened.

-And there's also a Pete Carroll connection, correct?

Tell me about that.

-Yeah.

So in 2014, I'm the running back coach at Indiana University, and I'm doing these minority internships.

I reached out, and he said, Yeah, I want you to come up here and do an internship.

They had just won their first Super Bowl, I believe.

And here I am.

I go up there, and I'm with him, you know, at the Seattle internship.

And it was just funny, all these little sub stories in there, where we were in a staff meeting and Pete was going through his thing.

He stopped in the middle of the staff meeting and said, Something is going on here.

He just pointed.

He said, We're watching you two guys at practice yesterday.

You guys walk the same, point the same.

He just made a joke of it, and me and my Coach Smith at the time was just like, Whatever, we don't know.

But people seen it.

-And let's talk about when you did reach out to Coach Smith.

That call didn't go as he would have hoped?

-Initially, no.

-Initially, no.

-Initially, no, because, I mean, I was so excited.

Yes, I've been enamored with wanting to know who my biological family was all my life.

So when I told him, I really didn't expect him to call me back.

I text him, thought he was going to text me back, but he called and I jumped on and jumped right into it.

And when I told him, he was pretty blown away.

He said, Yes, I do know Carol.

And maybe, maybe a minute later, he said, Look, I need to get off the phone with you.

I need to process this.

-And Carol, you also had a conversation.

-I did.

So after Deland had his conversation with Sherman that day, he called me.

I'm at work.

So he calls me and he says, My dad wants to talk to you.

Well, I'm thinking, okay, this whole thing is going to go down between the two of them.

And I'm really, I'm going to stay out of it.

But now I got to get involved now, so I cried the whole day.

I cried the whole morning waiting for Sherman to call me.

But Sherman called, and he was, he was such a gentleman, and he was so understanding.

And we talked.

We grew up in the same neighborhood.

We went to high school together.

He graduated with my brother.

So we talked about family.

We talked about what's going on in the world.

We talked about everything before he says, Well, okay, you know why I called you.

But and I was so afraid that, that he would have some real negative feelings towards me about not telling him something like this.

But he was, he was wonderful.

-Your families were so accepting.

Like you said, he understood your decision why you didn't tell Coach Smith.

-Yes.

-Your lovely wife, your kids helped find her on Facebook.

-Well, I mean, you know, as far as the finding part, as soon as I got the the original birth record, my son and my wife were kind of messing around.

So then later that night when I was in the bed, me and my wife were kind of looking and, you know, ended up, you know, the next day, I ended up finding her.

So, I mean, I was just-- and the crazy part is just how fast it happened.

You would think it's going to take a while.

Carol Briggs, it's not-- you would think there's a lot, and probably are a lot of those out there, but when I did my search, within a few minutes, I found here.

-It was meant to be.

-It was.

-It really, really was.

I have to bring this up because it's important.

Your mother, before she passed, she told you, what did she tell you?

-In the years leading up to her passing away, before she got sick or anything, every now and then, every couple months or so, you know, she'd say, You know, you ought to try to find out where that boy is.

And you know, at the time, first off, there was no Facebook even then.

But there's no Facebook; there was no way that I could track him down.

There were sites out there where you could put your information out there.

You know, you had a baby on this date in this area, and, you know, different things, hope that someone on the other side was looking and would say, oh, that sounds like me.

Maybe I should research this some more.

But other than that, there was really nothing for me to go with.

-And I read the part about the call.

Again, you have to get this book.

Another part that had me crying like a little baby, because I'm very emotional, was when you finally did meet for the first time.

Walk us through that.

-Our meeting.

Oh, okay.

-That smile says it all.

There were a lot of happy tears, right?

-We couldn't stop touching each other, for starters, because the last time I had-- don't make me cry.

The last time I saw him, the last time I saw him, he was not even 24 hours old.

So to see him, you know, pull up in my driveway and walk in my house that day, it was, it was a lot.

It was a very, in his words, it was very emotional.

-And to hug her and hold her?

-Yeah, it was-- I mean, I was blown away, you know?

I mean, it's just when I seen her, I was like, oh, my goodness.

-And I do have to-- there's another very important person in this story.

We have to talk about Adele.

-Yes.

I mean, you know, the heavy lifting of my life, you know, was, was done by her.

And I make no qualms about it.

I was, I wouldn't an easy guy to raise.

-Well, you turned out okay.

-Yeah, I wasn't an easy guy to raise.

And she, you know, God put her in my life because she had the demeanor in her hand.

She had the heavy enough hand to redirect and get me back on the track that I need to, because there's so many times that if I didn't have a person like her in my life or didn't have her, that I would have just-- I would have went off the cliff, you know, per se.

So, I mean, you know nothing but extreme love and respect for how she raised me and helping me get to the point where I am.

-And your message to Adele?

-Oh, I'm eternally grateful for, you know, the wonderful job that she did raising him, because my only concern over all of this period was just to know that he was okay, that he had turned out to be a good person.

And like Sherman told me on the phone call, and I told him that I just want to know that he's okay.

And Sherman said, I can assure you, your son is better than okay.

He is better than okay, and he's someone that you would love to have a relationship with.

-I love that you all have a close relationship now.

It's beautiful.

-It is.

It's wonderful.

-Family reunions and all.

-It is wonderful.

It's wonderful.

-And the hope is that this book gets made into a movie.

So I need to ask you both, it's in the process, right?

You have some big names attached to it.

I can't talk about that just yet.

Okay, so who do you envision portraying you up on that big screen, because this needs to be made, and it will be made.

Las Vegas is on a mission to begin Hollywood 2.0, so any studio execs watching this, I have your next project.

All right, go Carol.

-From the very beginning, I have chosen Taraji P. Henson to play me.

From the very beginning because, aside from her current projects where, you know, she's just so big and such a big personality in her movies, she is very smart, and she actually had a child when she was young.

She moved to Hollywood, she had a child with her, and she had nothing.

So I see where she could have a lot of empathy and understanding for a role like this.

-I see the resemblance.

All right, Taraji.

All right, and how about you, Deland?

-I really don't know.

I mean, you see things, you know.

Yeah, in a perfect world, Michael B. Jordan.

Yeah, let's go.

Let's do it.

-I will not lie to you; that's the first person that came to my mind.

-Really?

-I'm looking-- yep.

There you go, Michael B. Jordan and Taraji.

-There we go.

I'll take that.

I got some recency bias there, but I like his movies, and I like the interviews with him.

He's a good guy.

-It is an honor to be sitting next to the both of you.

Thank you for sharing your incredible story, and good luck with the season, first game against the Seahawks, preseason game.

-Yeah, it's gonna be interesting.

It's gonna be fun.

-Thank you both.

And thank you for watching.

We'll see you next week on Nevada Week.

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