Farm town kid now Super Bowl champion

Feb 10, 2025
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content, Farms.com

Cooper DeJean grew up in Odebolt, Iowa

Someone who grew up in a rural Iowa community is now a Super Bowl champion.

Cooper DeJean, who spent his childhood in Odebolt, Iowa, (population 985 in 2023), and his Philadelphia Eagles teammates captured the Vince Lombardi trophy on Feb. 8, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22.

“It’s not very often a kid from a town of less than 1,000 people gets to go to the Super Bowl,” Cory Duff, owner of a local diner in town, told The Associated Press in the run up to the game.

And DeJean played an important part in the Eagles victory, which also fell on his 22^nd birthday.

The defensive back intercepted a Patrick Mahomes pass and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown. He also had three tackles.

COOPER DEJEAN PICK TO THE HOUSE!

??: #SBLIX on FOX
??: Tubi + NFL app pic.twitter.com/y4Q4bGTHE2
— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025

“That pick 6 was for all of the small town kids in America,” John Hough wrote on X.

Odebolt, where DeJean grew up, is in Sac County, Iowa.

The county had a total population of 9,686 in 2023.

True to being a farming community, cows outnumber the people there by more than 37,000, according to USDA numbers.

In 2023, Iowa farms averaged a corn yield of 201 bushels per acre.

Sac County sat just below that at 199.1.

Thay year, farmers in Sac County planted 166,500 acres of corn and produced more than 31 million bushels.

When it comes to soybeans, growers in the county produced an average soybean yield of 58.1 bushels per acre – a small bump compared to the 58.0 state average.

Growers planted 138,000 acres of soybeans in 2023 and produced more than 7 million bushels.

The 2022 Census of Agriculture reports Sac County having 863 farms, with an average farm size of 399 acres.

Video: Canada's Agriculture Day 2025

Let's celebrate Canadian agriculture.

Well, number one, you don't eat without farmers. Farmers put food on the table. And what could be more important than that?

Well, I think it's important that Canadians understand exactly what takes place, what happens to produce this food, no matter what sector you're talking about.

An awful lot of work goes into that. It's important to understand that meat does not come out of a showcase, and milk does not come out of a bottle. It's produced by farmers and hard work.

Canada has the best farmers in the world. And agriculture is vital to Canada.

In 2024, our agriculture and agri-food sector represented $150 billion of Canada's GDP, nearly $100 billion of our exports, and one in nine jobs.

From grains to fruits to dairy and beef, we are truly blessed with an incredible bounty. Having spent my whole life in agriculture, I see so much potential for the sector.

This time last year, I was proud to open our first-ever agriculture and trade office in the Indo-Pacific, the world’s fastest-growing economy, to cement our presence in the region and grow our exports even more. We've also been making historic investments to help our farmers to boost their yields, protect the planet, and earn a fair living.

The world wants more top-quality, sustainable food, and I know our Canadian farmers can deliver. And it's so important that you do that with pride. We need you.

Quite simply, you eat the most top quality food in the world. You do that because of the quality of farmers and ranchers you have in this country.

Just say thank you to a farmer or a rancher. They work very hard, yes, for a living, but also with a sense of pride in what they produce.

That's what Canada's Agriculture Day is all about.