Joe Burrow is an easy guy to root for.

The former LSU QB has made plenty of fans during his young NFL career by leading the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl.

But, he remembers where he came from. Ahead of the big game, he surprised his former high school coach, Nathan White, with tickets to the game in Los Angeles (via ESPN):

“He called and said, ‘Hey coach, if you’re not busy this weekend, I have a couple extra tickets if you and Sarah want to go,'” White said. “So I said yeah, ‘I think we can make that happen.'”

“To think about sitting there and watching an Athens Bulldog in the Super Bowl is mind boggling to me.”

White reflected on Burrow’s career in Ohio and said it’s still surreal he’s about to suit up in the Super Bowl:

“I always tell people Joe was named his senior year ‘Mr. Football’ player of the year in Ohio. And the fact that Athens High School had Mr. Football in Ohio, I still almost can’t wrap my head around that,” White said. “So I’m still kind of trying to come to grips with all that stuff that happened. I feel like to win the Super Bowl … I’m just not there yet to even realize what it means.

“I think it might hit me in 10 years and 20 years, who knows?”

We’ll see on Sunday if Burrow can bring a Super Bowl trophy home to Ohio.