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Pokémon cards helping create chemistry along Chiefs' mishmash O-line

Hobby has made its way to the NFL’s biggest stage
Falcons Chiefs Football
Posted at 6:06 PM, Feb 04, 2021
and last updated 2021-02-04 19:06:32-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — What started as a one-off joke has come full circle.

Kansas City Chiefs lineman Nick Allegretti blames guard Andrew Wylie for reigniting his love for Pokémon cards before the team’s Week 12 matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“Tampa Bay was the first game that we started opening packs together and then just kind of snowballed,” Allegretti told reporters Thursday during the team's last availability before Super Bowl LV.

“It's just something fun, totally unrelated to football that we can do, you know, before the game to decompress,” he said, adding that quarterback Patrick Mahomes has dropped in on the now-weekly tradition.

Center Austin Reiter believes the group will bring "50 or 60" packs for this trip to Tampa.

“It reminds me of being a little kid,” Reiter said Thursday. “It's fun. And, you know, with the quarantine deal and everything, we can't go out and do anything. So it's a nice outlet."