NFL-Practice squad pinball: tight end’s winding road leads to Super Bowl

By Frank Pingue

SAN JOSE, California, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Marshall Lang has bounced between practice squads like a pinball this season, but now finds himself in the most unlikely of places — on the New England Patriots sideline for Sunday’s Super Bowl against his former team.

The undrafted tight end’s journey reads like a fever dream of football futility turned fairy tale.

After signing with the Seattle Seahawks as a free agent in May 2025, Lang was cut in August, picked up by New England in October only to be released two days later.

He then bounced back to Seattle’s practice squad in November before getting cut again — all before landing back with the Patriots on December 30.

“Two words, emotional roller coaster,” Lang told Reuters on Monday at Super Bowl Opening Night. “It’s been an emotional roller coaster but I couldn’t have written it any better.”

While Lang won’t suit up for Sunday’s game, he’ll be watching from the Patriots sideline as a practice squad member who spent the season helping simulate upcoming opponents and providing injury depth.

The 24-year-old Lang has leaned heavily on family during his nomadic NFL odyssey and said he let out a huge sigh of relief when his agent called late last year to say he was headed to Massachusetts to join the Patriots.

If New England can pull off the upset against the Seahawks and claim an NFL record seventh Super Bowl title, Lang will still get a Super Bowl championship ring.

“A ring is a ring,” Lang said.

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Stephen Coates)