by Emil Guillermo
My dad, whose birthday would have been Super Bowl weekend, was a betting man.
He came to the US in 1928 as a colonized Filipino, an “American National,” where he couldn’t be a citizen, vote, own property, or even marry the person he wanted.
Not if they were white.
Still, he had hope and believed in America. Plus, he always liked the long odds. He didn’t give up.
Sort of like Nikko Remigio.
That’s why, without a doubt, I’m sure my dad would have bet on the Kansas City Chief’s Filipino guy, Nikko Remigio. Not necessarily the whole KC team.
Or even the Taylor Swift part. In the 1920s, my dad would have been beaten or killed for even liking her music.
But Dad would have loved Nikko. Just Nikko. He’s our guy.
I wasn’t boycotting the Super Bowl, I just wasn’t watching it.
It’s about six hours of time I’ll never get back. And frankly, I didn’t need to see Trump preening at the game.
If you haven’t noticed, all Americans are engaged in an even bigger game that means so much more than the Super Bowl. We don’t need the distraction now. Not when our democracy is falling apart.
You want to get passionate about Eagles and Chiefs?
Get passionate about our Founding Fathers who are currently rolling in their graves.
But I confess. I did steal a glance at Remigio whenever he might touch the ball.
He didn’t change the game, but he touched it three times and provided more yards than all of KC’s running backs.
That’s all I needed to see.
He’s our Filipino guy.
Nikko Remigio and Identity Politics
Detractors may call it “identity politics,” and if you haven’t noticed all the attacks on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) it’s a real thing.
DEI just makes it sound so expendable.
But not when you call it by what they’re really rolling back. At stake is our Civil Rights in America.
People don’t seem to understand the fight for visibility. To be recognized. To be seen. It’s all wrapped up in the big idea of Civil Rights.
Roll them back? You have enough of them? I didn’t think so.
I recall the last Filipino American to make a splash in the Super Bowl was Doug Baldwin (African American father, Filipino mother).
His five catches for 68 yards helped Seattle beat Denver in 2014’s SBXLVIII.
Baldwin made a return appearance in 2015 in Super Bowl XLIX, but Seattle lost to New England.
We’ve been there before.
But Nikko is different. In the world of half-Filipino pride, he’s actually the son of a Filipino father.
Mark Remigio was born in Seattle to parents whose roots go back to Iloilo and Muntinlupa, according to reports. He moved to Southern California, and with his wife Jennifer, half African American and white, started a family with the birth of Nikko in 1999.
Their marriage was the great hope of ending racism in the U.S. when all people would have a love interest in one another.
The Remigios aren’t perfect; the marriage ended in divorce.
But Nikko and his siblings were parented well. He became a high school star at the Los Angeles powerhouse, Mater Dei, then went to Cal.
I didn’t notice him until 2023 when he was a transfer to Fresno State. He was quick and dynamic, but Filipino-sized, around 5-9, about the same size as Baldwin.
Like his bulldog mascot, he never gave up.
A solid player, Remigio went undrafted in 2024. Then Kansas City took a flyer on him as a free agent.
When he was about to make the team, he was injured. When he recovered, the setback relegated him to the practice squad, where he made little money as he lived his football dream.
I kept rooting for his comeback. It wasn’t until late December that the Chiefs made him part of the real team, and Nikko started to earn the money football players deserve for putting their bodies on the line.
He also started to show his value primarily as a punt returner capable of energizing a team and changing the tempo of the game with a dazzling run back.
That’s why Nikko’s value was up on Super Bowl Sunday.
The Filipino guy is an instant X-factor.
Nikko Remigio and his Filipino animal companions
What did he do with his big team money?
He used it to bring his family from the Philippines. Relatives stuck in the immigration system? No, his Filipino rescued cats (3) and dogs (2).
Nikko is like me, an American-born Filipino. Last year as he prepared for the NFL, he got connected to a track star in the Philippines, Maureen Schrijvers.
They started dating and eventually married, but the big issue was what to do with Maureen’s five animals.
I am married to a woman who is an executive at PETA (People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals). I know what living with five animals is like. We’ve had as many as eight at one time, not counting the children.
PETA-Asia has an active rescue program in the Philippines. I was heartened to hear how Nikko’s wife rescued all her animals.
Kai, a street dog, was found tied in a sack on the beach. One of their cats was found blind, sleeping in Carabao poop in a rice field.
“My wife, she is an angel,” Nikko told the Kansas City Star. “If it wasn’t for her moving here, I think we’d have like 10 pets at this point. She wants to rescue all of them.”
I understand totally.
At this point, the Remigios’ three cats (Coco, Lau, and Maya) and one dog, Kai are in the United States. They met all the restrictions and paperwork and got them all here.
But another dog, Hoku, stayed behind in the Philippines. That is until Nico got that raise.
The plan now is for Nikko’s dad to go back and retrieve Hoku for a big reunion back in Kansas City. They won’t be Super Bowl Champs, but it doesn’t matter. All the Filipinos, cats, and dogs will be together again—as a family.
So, the animal story makes me like Nikko. The diversity/multicultural part of his life makes me like him too.
But it’s the dad part that gets me most. It’s the Filipino part.
I was nowhere near as good as Nikko when I played. But when you are blessed to play football, you play your hardest when they let you.
For me, that was when I was 12 and 13 playing Pop Warner football in San Francisco. I was MVP for my team as a running back.
But I was ashamed of my dad, the colonized immigrant. He wasn’t like the other dads. And I remember going to the team banquet to retrieve my trophy alone.
I didn’t realize it probably meant more to him than I thought. I didn’t know his history. I do now.
I wish I had shared the moment with him like Nikko and his dad are sharing Super Bowl LIX. It’s part of our American legacy.
Win or lose, it’s no small thing being a Filipino American in the Super Bowl.
EMIL GUILLERMO is an award-winning journalist and commentator. He’s written columns from Hawaii to California, to Washington. D.C. on Asian American issues since 1995. Watch his micro-talk show “Emil Amok’s Takeout/What Does an Asian American Think?” on www.YouTube.com/emilamok1 Or join him at http://www.patreon.com/emilamok
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