Antonio Freeman Talks Son Alex’s USMNT World Cup Heroics

Antonio Freeman spent his career catching footballs for the Green Bay Packers, including an 81-yard touchdown in the Super Bowl and one of the strangest highlights in Monday Night Football history, the Al Michaels-called grab off the back of Chris Dishman's legs. Now the Super Bowl champ is learning a different game, one play at a time, by watching his son.

Alex Freeman plays right fullback for the United States men's national team, and on Father's Day he scored a goal for the U.S. that, in true American fashion, was ruled no good before replay handed it back to him. Antonio told Rich he watched the whole drama unfold with the kind of nerves no football snap ever gave him.

"When I get bubble guts, at least I get to take a bathroom break," Freeman said. "When I played, I just had to sit there and deal with it."

The offside review was its own education. Freeman admitted that for years he had no idea what offside even meant, because all he ever watched was his kid. As a winger in Orlando City's academy, Alex scored goals and rarely tracked back. Once Orlando City moved him to right fullback, the lessons finally landed.

"Now suddenly I can see the imaginary line on the back line," Freeman said. "He was clearly probably 6 to 8 inches away from being offside."

The path to soccer was not the one a Packers receiver pictured. Alex came up through American Heritage in South Florida, a program stocked with football pedigree, and the pressure to play the other kind of football was real. Freeman had to tell former colleagues his son was choosing soccer. He was honest about his own reaction.

"I think I was more disappointed," he said. "I was like, man, he's going to play soccer. I didn't know soccer, and I knew I couldn't teach him soccer."

The support came anyway. Freeman rattled off the names, Desmond Howard, Derrick Mayes, LeRoy Butler, Robert Brooks, and a call from Brett Favre the other day. After the goal, his phone held more than 400 text messages.

What strikes Freeman most is the work behind it. He calls his son "little freak," the nickname teammates gave a kid who stood out at every academy game, and he keeps coming back to a single piece of advice the two of them repeat.

"Be ready when your opportunity comes, because sometimes you only get one opportunity," Freeman said.

Asked how far this U.S. team can go, Freeman leaned on the only comparison he trusts. He has been around the squad at the team hotel and at practice, and what he sees reminds him of Green Bay's Super Bowl runs.

"Nobody really cares about individual stats," he said. "They all just want to win, and they want to win for this country. That camaraderie, it glows."

The third group-stage match came Thursday night against Turkey at SoFi Stadium. Freeman's takeaway on his son was simpler than any tactics board. As Alex once put it to his dad about football: "After that first hit, I was like, man, forget this."