KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Rachaad White finally got a chance to step inside Arrowhead Stadium, about 10 minutes away from where he grew up.
He got to step into the end zone, too.
White turned one of his three carries for 19 yards into a touchdown on Monday night, when he returned to Kansas City with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to face his hometown Chiefs. The Bucs ultimately lost 30-24 in overtime, after Baker Mayfield had rallied them for a tying touchdown with 27 seconds left, but that didn’t entirely spoil White’s night.
“Obviously it was my first ever game here,” he said. “I liked it, the electricity that was going on with the fans. It was fun.”
The 25-year-old running back’s journey to this point was long, winding and difficult.
White grew up in a tough part of town as one of four boys raised by a single mother. His family never had the money to buy him a ticket to a Chiefs game, so he instead dreamed of playing for them while running around the yard, imagining that he was juking and cutting against an NFL defense just like his boyhood hero, Jamaal Charles.
White played basketball and football at Center High School and was undoubtedly the team’s most talented player. But not a single Division I scholarship offer came his way, and he landed at Division II Nebraska-Kearney. Even then, White had to redshirt when it became clear he wouldn’t see the field, and ultimately he headed for a California junior college.
White finally blossomed at Mt. San Jacinto College, earning an offer from Arizona State, and his breakthrough continued with the Sun Devils. By the time the 2022 draft rolled around, Tampa Bay was ready to use a third-round pick on him.
White returned to Kansas City over the summer to host a camp for elementary and middle school kids at Center. But he still had not set foot inside Arrowhead Stadium until Monday night, when the Buccaneers rolled into town.
“A good amount. I can’t even count right now,” he said, when asked how many friends and family were in the stands.
His touchdown run in the second quarter gave them a 7-3 lead, and White punctuated it by throwing the ball into the crowd.
The teams traded the lead a couple of times — Tampa Bay pulled ahead 17-10 in the second half, and Kansas City rallied with two fourth-quarter touchdowns to lead 24-17, before Mayfield’s touchdown throw to Ryan Miller sent the game to overtime.
White and his teammates never got an opportunity on offense to give him the storybook ending.
The Chiefs won the coin toss and took the ball, and Patrick Mahomes was 5 for 5 on the decisive drive. Kareem Hunt finished off his 106-yard rushing night by pounding through the rain and into the end zone from 2 yards out for the decisive score.
“Just little mistakes and they made more plays than us,” White said.
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