YORK, Pa. — Editor's note: The above video is from 2023.
An hour north of Harrisburg, deep in Pennsylvani's Coal Region lies the mining town of Mount Carmel.
And one of the football hamlet's favorite sons has helped build football's most successful current dynasty.
Brett Veach, a former star for Mount Carmel's Red Tornadoes, is in his seventh season as general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs, who will attempt to win their third Super Bowl title in five years Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers.
"Just working in the NFL is certainly a dream come true," Veach said prior to last year's Super Bowl, when the Chiefs beat his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles. "And then to think that you've had the opportunity to play in two Super Bowls, three now, potentially a chance to win a second is a little bit surreal, for sure and it's almost like a dream."
Veach's Pa. ties are almost as deep a vein of coal.
Not only did he play for Mount Carmel High School, a school well known for its football program, but his NFL front office journey started in Philadelphia alongside Andy Reid with the Eagles.
Before his time in Philadelphia, Veach was a star running back at Mount Carmel and helped the Red Tornadoes win two, PIAA state titles in 1994 and 1996. His parents, Bob and Donna, still live in town, and it is not lost on folks in our area with ties to the Red Tornadoes Program what Veach is doing on the biggest stage.
What started as a youth player on the turf of the Silver Bowl, in the heart of PA's coal country, the life of football has now taken Veach to a fourth Super Bowl in his successful tenure in KC.
Those memories of playing in his hometown on Friday nights are not lost on Veach as he is once again on the world's biggest stage.
"As soon as our Mt. Carmel game would be over, you'd hit the dance on Friday night and you'd jump right home and have your dad put on the highlights. So, it's kind of cool to be back here years later talking about Super Bowls, right?"