Is Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta on the verge of a breakout season? If he does, what happened in the Vatican recently could be the reason, as he and his wife, Callahan, were just blessed by Pope Leo XIV himself. Although the Pope is a noted Chicago White Sox fan, he clearly enjoyed spending time with one of the Chicago Bears’ NFC North division rivals.
“I’m grateful to a very busy man for blessing me and my bride. “A special moment we’ll never forget #catholic #popeleoxiv #catholicismrocks,” La Porta posted on Instagram, alongside photographs of him and his wife receiving a blessing from the American pope.
LaPorta is coming off a disappointing season in 2024, when he had 726 receiving yards and seven touchdowns on 60 catches and 83 targets throughout 16 games.
While these aren’t awful figures, they were lower than his first season in 2023, when he had 889 receiving yards and 109 touchdowns on 86 receptions and 120 targets.
Fewer opportunities due to the Lions’ abundance of great downfield targets for quarterback Jared Goff contributed to LaPorta’s decline, but the 2025 season presents new optimism for the former Iowa Hawkeyes standout.
Fans can’t get enough of Detroit Lions TE meeting with the Pope.
Meanwhile, LaPorta’s social media post has sparked excitement over the brief pope meeting abroad.
“LaGoata has now been blessed by the Pope. A fan expressed excitement for the upcoming record-breaking season.
Another said: “My tight end got blessed by the pope, he’s going for 1500 yards 😭🛐”
From a visitor: “i’ve seen enough the pope has blessed our sweet TE1 and he will be all pro 🙌”
“He’s praying you’ll quit tearing up his Bears every time you play them.
,” a social media user wrote.
via a separate commenter: “definitely going up on the wall in St. Paul lol”
Another said, “Unreal bro, God bless you both”
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