Iowa State football heads to Las Vegas to support Brock Purdy in the Super Bowl

Something close to 2% of the entire planet will be watching Super Bowl LVIII. There will be legions of cameras – including in the uprights – documenting and preserving every single moment of one of Earth’s great sporting events.

Those cameras, and the eyes of the audience they serve, will spend much of their time zeroed in on San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, who has simultaneously emerged as one of the sport’s great underdog stories and the target of doubt about the sustainability of his rise from Mr. Irrelevant to MVP candidate and Super Bowl starter.

What those cameras show the world will likely push that discussion heavily in one direction or another. Purdy will either be celebrated as one of the unlikeliest Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks in history, or he’ll be the fraud who couldn’t get his incredibly talented team over the finish line like a true elite quarterback, such as the one across the field from him, Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, on Sunday.

Neither of those will paint a true and three-dimensional picture of Purdy, but it is almost certainly what will happen.

That's not the case, though, for those who have watched Purdy up close for years, and will continue to Sunday as spectators at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

They’ve had their minds made up about Purdy for a long time.

“You’re just really proud of obviously what he accomplished during his time here,” Iowa State coach Matt Campbell said in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, “and to be quite honest with you, just watch that continue to elevate through his professional career so far.

“Everybody within this program has always had such a great belief in who he is and certainly what his ability is and what he’s stood for.

“It’s awesome that the world is getting to watch that right now.”

More: 'It's his safe place.' Why Ames is still a home away from home for 49ers star Brock Purdy

Purdy spent four years as Iowa State’s starting quarterback, rewriting the program's record books and spearheading an unprecedented run of success for the Cyclones, culminating with the 2021 Fiesta Bowl title.

Now, a number of the people who shared the field with him will watch from the stands as he plays on the sport’s biggest stage.

“I’m excited to support him,” former Cyclone tight end and current Baltimore Raven Charlie Kolar told The Register in a phone conversation before the Super Bowl. “He’s one of my closest friends and teammates at Iowa State.

“It’s awesome to see what he’s doing. Of course we believe in him, but I don’t know if even Brock thought he’d be an MVP contender and Super Bowl starter in Year 2, so it’s awesome for all of us to see what we saw through years and years in college and high school really play out in the NFL.”

Campbell and Kolar will be among a contingent of Cyclones cheering on Purdy, who is looking to become the second Cyclone from his generation to earn a Super Bowl ring after former teammate Landen Akers claimed one with the Los Angeles Rams two seasons ago.

Purdy’s ultimate football legacy will be determined at a global scale by games like Sunday’s, but his presence in the game, as a starter and star, is legacy-building on a smaller scale for an entire group.

More: Brock Purdy game manager comments, explained: What Cam Newton said of former Iowa State QB

Iowa State, long without much of an NFL presence, now has players dotted across the league that were part of the program-record five-straight bowl games reached under Campbell from 2017-21.

“That was one of the real challenges when we got to Iowa State, probably lacking opportunity to showcase what that has looked like here,” Campbell said of Iowa State’s dearth of success in the professional ranks. “Over the last eight years, we’ve been able to grow that immensely within our football program.

“Not only are our guys getting to the National Football League, but the way they’ve played in the National Football League, it’s been a real joy to watch. It’s something that we’re really proud of and look forward to continue to put guys out who not only play at the highest level but make a profound impact.”

Purdy is the greatest example of Iowa State’s newfound NFL presence, but there are examples across the league.

“The outside world sees Brock and Breece (Hall),” Kolar said, “but what they don’t see is that Jake (Hummel) was undrafted and played (the last) two years. (Anthony Johnson) and (Xavier Hutchinson) were late-round picks and both were very impactful in their first year.

“And there’s more guys. It’s really cool. For a long time, we had not a ton of guys in the league, and it’s cool that you see friends, teammates, people you think highly of having success and carving out careers.”

More: 49ers QB Brock Purdy embraces the Mr. Irrelevant nickname: 'I fell last for a reason'

It also helps resurface the success those players had at Iowa State after the final year for so many of them ended with a 7-6 disappointment in a 2021 season that failed to match huge expectations set by the 2020 team.

“It puts a little more light on what we did at Iowa State, especially the way it ended,” Kolar said. “Our senior year, we kind of stunk in terms of what we could have done. A lot of people left with a sour taste in their mouth in terms of we just lost a lot of close games. To be able to look back on that, just in sports in general, everyone is so recency-biased.

“Because we never won a Big 12 championship and lost our last game, I think people forget how good Brock was. Even through the crazy picks or different stuff, how consistent he was as a leader and how even sometimes if it’s frustrating from the outside, how consistent he is with his teammates. That’s what shows up with the Niners. People rally around him and play for him. Everyone raves about him. That shines a lot on how special he is.”

That light may never be brighter than Sunday.

More: Inside the high school classic between Iowa State's Brock Purdy, Oregon's Tyler Shough

“Proud to be associated with him and be able to lead a program and a team with him,” Campbell said. “Now you watch him, and he’s never flinched as he’s gone into the next phase and the next step of his career.

“The greatest joy is it’s been fun to watch his success, but (it's) probably (an) even greater joy to watch what his teammates and his coaches and the GM say about who he is because it’s the same thing they said about him in Ames and it’s the same thing they said about him in Perry High School in Arizona.”

Travis Hines covers Iowa State University sports for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or  (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Brock Purdy and the Super Bowl shine a light on Iowa State football