In an example of how small the world is, especially in football, former Georgia star Mecole Hardman has reached out to Richard Sherman ahead of the Super Bowl to recall when they met at a recruiting event less than five years ago.

Hardman was once a blue chip recruit from Bowman, Georgia in the northeast corner of the state and made a trip to The Opening, a premier summer recruiting event for top-shelf high school recruits. It was there that he met Sherman, who was with the Seattle Seahawks. Now Sherman is in his second season with the San Francisco 49ers and he will play Hardman’s Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl on Feb. 2 in Miami.

Hardman has had a strong rookie season after he was a second-round pick by the Chiefs in 2019. He has 26 catches for 538 yards and six touchdowns. He had one catch and eight yards in the AFC Championship win over the Tennessee Titans. He had two catches for 19 yards in the Divisional Round win over the Houston Texans.

Hardman’s also averaging 26 yards per kick return and 9.3 yards per punt return.

Kipp Adams of Dawgs247 added some context: