Nobody Is More Thrilled Than Antonio Freeman over Son Alex’s World Cup Heroics

For the first four years, Antonio Freeman could show up to his son's matches in his old Packers jersey and go almost unnoticed. A few people would tell him his kid was good. That cover is gone now. After Alex Freeman burst onto the scene over the last 18 months, the footage of father and son together is everywhere, and the Super Bowl champion is happy to be recognized as exactly what he is: Alex Freeman's dad.

Freeman joined the show to relive a goal that landed on Father's Day, and he walked through the emotions of watching it from the stands. What stood out was not the moment itself but the years behind it. "He's committed himself when no one was watching," Freeman said of his son's work ethic, focus and determination. "I wish I had his work ethic." The advice the two return to most often is simple: be ready when your opportunity comes, because sometimes you only get one.

Getting here meant a hard conversation in a football household. Alex went to American Heritage in South Florida, a program loaded with athletes, and the pressure to play football was real. Freeman had to tell former colleagues his son was choosing soccer instead. He admits the disappointment was his own, not his friends'. "I didn't know soccer, and I knew I couldn't teach him soccer," he said. It was a hands-off thing for a man who knew the other game cold.

The support, though, poured in. Freeman named Desmond Howard, Derek Mays, LeRoy Butler and Robert Brooks, and revealed he got a call from Brett Favre. After the game, he had more than 400 text messages. His former teammates were excited and a little surprised that the kid found stardom in football, just the other kind.

Then there was the goal itself, which Freeman and the show agreed felt distinctly American in its drama. The ball went in, the score was waved off, and a long replay delay followed before officials finally awarded it. The host confessed he had no idea what the offside debate was about. Freeman did, but only recently. For years he watched Alex as a winger at Orlando City's academy, a goal-scorer who never tracked back, so he never had to learn the rule. When Alex moved to right fullback, the lessons began. After five years of squinting, Freeman said he can finally see the imaginary line. He knew his son was onside, maybe six to eight inches clear.

The payoff was watching accomplished teammates rally around the youngest player on the roster. These are players already building careers overseas, and seeing them celebrate his son made the hair on Freeman's arm stand up. More than the goal, it told him something he needed to know. "My kid's in a good place," he said. "He's getting to learn from some really genuine great professionals in the sport."

For a father who once made his own highlight plays on the biggest stage, that was the part worth savoring. "I'm happy for where he is right now."