READ: NFL Coach and Ohio Native Deland McCullough Finds His Birth Parents
Earlier this month, ESPN published a long-form article detailing the journey that Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach Deland McCullough took to locate his birth parents. He was raised by his adopted mother in Youngstown and attended Miami University. Check out this portion of the article:
“New laws in Ohio and Pennsylvania had called for the unsealing of adoption records, giving McCullough new hope that he might find his birth parents. In November 2017, more than a year after filling out the requisite paperwork and years after his search began, he finally received his adoption files in the mail. For the first time, he saw his original birth certificate, complete with his name, Jon Kenneth Briggs, and the name of his mother, Carol Denise Briggs.”
Ohio Right to Life worked hand in hand in the effort to open up adoption records in Ohio with Adoption Network Cleveland: The Ohio Family Connection. Senate Bill 23, which was passed in 2013, and went into effect in March 2015, opened up the adoption records for “Ohio adoptees born and adopted between 1964 and 1996.” Without this change in law, the amazing story of McCullough’s reunion with his biological parents could never have happened.
The story is worth the time it takes to read, as you get to know McCullough, and find out the amazing and heartwarming twist at the end. Ohio Right to Life is proud to have been a part of the reunion of families in this way, and continues to advocate for adoption and foster care in Ohio.