Chiefs OL Nick Allegretti on pain of torn UCL during Super Bowl: ‘I was probably playing at about a five’

Nick Allegretti played 79 offensive snaps for the Chiefs in the regular season.

The backup offensive lineman logged 79 offensive snaps in Super Bowl LVIII for Kansas City, too, only the majority came with a torn UCL.

Allegretti suffered the injury late in the second quarter, when 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa completed a tackle through the guard's arm, putting the Chiefs in jeopardy of resorting to a third-string lineman on the game's biggest stage.

"I haven't suffered an injury like that until then," Allegretti said Friday on The Jim Rome Show. "I immediately knew. It was something that you heard a pop, you felt it, and knowing minimal about anatomy knew that something was wrong in my elbow. Because my elbow is not supposed to bend that way. Fortunately, we had the two-minute warning, and I had a couple seconds to gather myself, figure out that my arm still bent and I was able to go. It was a tough situation, but fortunate enough I was able to still play."

Allegretti found himself thrust into the starting lineup due to Joe Thuney sustaining a pectoral injury during the team's AFC Divisional Round win over the Buffalo Bills.

Thuney's absence could have been a potentially brutal blow for the Chiefs. He finished 2023 at the top of his game, earning first-team All-Pro honors for the first time in his career and making a second straight Pro Bowl.

But Allegretti, who had made 13 career starts in five seasons, rose to the occasion by playing every snap in the AFC Championship Game, then gutted through a torn UCL to do the same in the Super Bowl.

"Stepping in for a guy like Joe, first of all, it's a challenge," Allegretti admitted. "He's been one of the best guards in the league for the past five years. I took that upon myself to step