Married life can be complicated for Giants' Darren Waller and Aces' Kelsey Plum
Aces guard Kelsey Plum and then-Raiders tight end Darren Waller attend the inaugural IX Awards at Allegiant Stadium on June 17, 2022, in Las Vegas. Credit: Getty Images/Ethan Miller
It’s not always glamorous being a part of a sports power couple.
Just ask Las Vegas Aces All-Star guard Kelsey Plum, who could win her second consecutive WNBA title Sunday while her husband, Giants tight end Darren Waller, is getting ready to play a Sunday night game in Buffalo.
In an ideal world, Waller would be sitting near the court at Barclays Center cheering on the Aces, who have a 2-0 lead over the Liberty in the best-of-five Finals. Instead, he will likely be in a Buffalo hotel room or at Highmark Stadium screaming at a television.
“I mean, it’s not easy,” Plum said. “We’ve been apart for the entire season . . . 'D' and I understand the incredible pull you have when you’re a professional athlete in terms of some of the things you have to do. And your time is very limited.”
Plum and Waller met when he was playing for the Raiders in Las Vegas. The two were married on March 4 in Las Vegas. On March 13, about 12 hours after they returned home from their honeymoon, Waller got the news that he had been traded to the Giants.
“I go to the games when I can, and when I can’t I’m always watching,” Waller said. “We do whatever we can.”
The couple lean on their religious faith — and of course technology — to keep emotionally close when they are physically apart. Waller said that you really wouldn’t know that Plum is about to play in one of the biggest games of her life.
“She’s very similar to me. As the pressure comes, it’s not like I have to do anything different,” he said. “It’s how you play the game all year, how they’ve been playing as a team, how they’ve been using their individual skills, it’s the same process they’ve been on going into this. Not making it anything that it’s not.”
Plum said they really don’t talk about their jobs all that much.
“I love him so much and I love him for outside the sport,” Plum said, “so when we go home and talk, we don’t really talk about what happened at our work.”
Many of Waller's Giants teammates have become Aces fans since Waller joined the team. One of them, however, already was.
Fellow Giants tight end Daniel Bellinger grew up in Las Vegas, and his friends back there were fairly excited when they heard Plum’s husband was coming to the Giants.
“I had a lot of guys from home who were like, ‘Ask him about his wife,’ ” Bellinger said. “It’s cool because I knew not just of his wife, but the team before he got here. I feel like I’m indirectly involved in it. It’s fun to watch them.”
Bellinger said when he was growing up there were very few professional teams to root for in Las Vegas. He and his friends mostly followed teams from Southern California. Then franchises started to trickle into the city: the Golden Knights of the NHL, the Raiders of the NFL, and the WNBA's Aces. Bellinger and his pals immediately adopted those franchises.
“A lot of times we’d watch the NBA summer league games, but when the WNBA came [in 2018], it was like now we have our own team,” he said. “It was like finally we have something to be invested in and have some pride in being from there.”
Should the Aces not sweep the Liberty on Sunday, a few of the Giants — including Waller —– might have a chance to support the team in person. Game 4, if needed, is Wednesday night at Barclays Center.
With Tom Rock
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
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