Pro football player from North Bay caps 'up and down' season with trip to the Super Bowl

Ryan Hunter has watched the Super Bowl for as long as he can remember.

But for the big game this year, he will have a much better view.

The 24-year-old originally from North Bay is an offensive lineman with the Kansas City Chiefs, who will go for their first championship this Sunday in Miami. 

"I mean, a dream come true. You dream of that moment as a child," says Hunter. 

"Anyone who wishes to play professional football, the Super Bowl is the holy grail of it all."

This was his second season in the National Football League and he won a spot on the Chiefs roster to start the year.

Then heading into an October match-up with Indianapolis, with a few of his teammates down with injuries, Hunter ended up on the field for the first time. 

"Unfortunately I didn't play as well as I would have hoped. But now all I can do is learn from that," he says now looking back.

Chiefs fans slammed him online for contributing to the team's first loss of the season and posted clips of the game, some calling it the "worst" pass coverage they had ever seen.

"People calling for your neck on Twitter is never fun. So I ended up deleting Twitter for about a week because I had like 10 people tweet at me that I should ever play football again," says Hunter.

"If you're not playing at a high level, the fans are coming for you and they don't care, they're ruthless, they want the team to succeed, they want the quarterback protected. So that was kind of the first hit of reality of what it's like to see some playing time. "

Kansas City released Hunter after that, but he was quickly re-signed and put on the team's practice squad — players who aren't on the regular roster but help the starting team prepare for upcoming games.

"So I was only 24 hours without being on the team, but you know I was obviously kind of a dagger to get cut," he says. 

"It took me a little bit of time to kind of get back to who I was."

Hunter was promoted back to the regular roster just before the Jan. 20 conference final, where the Chiefs won a spot in the Super Bowl.

He spent that conference game on the sidelines in a sweatshirt, where he is likely to be for the Super Bowl as well.

But Hunter says he has spent the last two weeks "preparing like a starter" and helping to get his teammates ready.

"Definitely a crazy up and down season, but hopefully it ends with a win and a super bowl win," says Hunter.