Watching sons play can be euphoric, ‘emotional teeter-totter’ for parents
Jason and Travis Kelce will make NFL history on Sunday when they become the first brothers to play against each other in the Super Bowl.
That will be both terrific and tormenting for their families, who will try to walk that narrow line and not cheer for one player over the other.
Although this situation is unprecedented, some of the most famous football families understand. They too have lived in that uncomfortable limbo.
“When my sons played each other, I held my breath pretty much the whole game,” said Geraldine Barber-Hale, mother of twins Ronde and Tiki Barber. “I’m one of these mothers who every time my son is on the field I hold my breath until he comes off. I want him to do well, but I don’t want him to get hurt, and I don’t want him to hurt anybody else inadvertently.”
Tiki played running back for the New York Giants. Ronde, a Hall of Fame finalist this year, was a cornerback for Tampa Bay. They had several big games against each other, just not in the Super Bowl — although they both played on that stage.
“It was hard enough watching them play each other in the regular season,” their mother said. “My heart bleeds for the Kelces’ parents. Imagine them playing each other in that kind of setting. The Super Bowl is the pinnacle.”
Jack and Jackie Harbaugh know that all too well. Their sons coached against each other in Super Bowl XLVII, Jim with the San Francisco 49ers and John with the Baltimore Ravens.
“Right up until the kickoff of the game, there was just this euphoria of excitement,” Jack Harbaugh said. “Every little thing. Jackie’s dad was 95, 96 years old and he was able to go to New Orleans. He got up on the stage and had his picture taken with John and Jim on the Friday before the game. Everything was great.
“Until the moment the ball was kicked off. When that ball left the kicker’s foot — if I close my eyes I can still see it — that ball’s rolling end over end, higher and higher, and then it’s coming down and all at once I’m realizing, ‘ Oh my goodness, there’s going to be a winner and there’s going to be a loser.’ The rest of the game, we were like zombies.”
The Harbaughs were sitting in a suite with Roger Goodell, and at one point Jackie leaned over to the commissioner and said, “Is there any way this can end in a tie?”
No such luck. The game came down to the wire, and John’s Ravens beat Jim’s 49ers, 34-31.
“You’re on an emotional teeter- totter,” Harbaugh said. “You’re up and down, up and down.”
CBS, which was broadcasting that game, told the Harbaugh parents they wouldn’t show them on camera during or immediately after plays, but coming out of timeouts and the like.
They didn’t want to give viewers the mistaken impression they were rooting for one son or another.
“You’re sitting there and you realize that if you just wanted to scratch your head, or you had an itch somewhere and a play occurred, they would say, ‘Oh, I knew it! They prefer John over Jim, or Jim over John.’ You just didn’t want to make any movements. Scratches were out of the question.”
Archie and Olivia Manning can attest to that. Their quarterback sons, Peyton and Eli, played each other three times.
Peyton’s teams beat Eli’s Giants in all three, twice when he was with the Indianapolis Colts and once with the Denver Broncos.”