There are some pretty good perks that come with being the daughter of a five-time NFL Super Bowl winner, beyond the obvious physical gifts that could be passed onto you.
For instance, there was the time Sydney FC striker Madison Haley brought her father’s five jewel-encrusted winners’ rings with her to training one day.
Sydney FC striker Madison Haley is the daughter of NFL royalty.Credit:Sydney FC
“He actually has a chain for them, so it’s more of a necklace. I wore it around my neck, I took it to my soccer team, and I felt like the coolest girl in the world,” she laughed. “He keeps them locked up tight now.”
Only one player in NFL history – seven-time champion Tom Brady – has tasted Super Bowl glory more times than Charles Haley, a former linebacker and defensive end for the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. A Pro Football Hall of Famer, he won two rings with the 49ers (Super Bowl XXIII, XXIV) and the other three with the Cowboys (XXVII, XXVIII, XXX), and started in all five games.
Charles Haley and his five Super Bowl rings.
He also gained a reputation for his wild, volatile mood swings, which often brought him into conflict with teammates or coaches, and his occasionally very strange off-field behaviour. One such example, out of many others which aren’t fit for print in a family publication: in 1993, after the Cowboys lost to the Buffalo Bills, he smashed his helmet through a concrete wall because they hadn’t signed one of his teammates, who was in a standoff with the team’s front office, to a new contract.
“He’s definitely a character,” Madison said.
“That personality he had on field was just a product of his will to win, the kind of work he did, and how he was willing to leave it all out there on the field, and a bit more, and maybe a bit too much. He has a wonderful kind of mentality … I think I’ve definitely taken that from him, but I’ve taken the levelheadedness, the critical thinking, all of that from my mum.”
Most of Charles’ career unfolded before Madison, 24, was born, but she has fond memories of growing up in the spotlight of his reflected glory.
“It’s harder to realise how special it is when you’re in it, versus when you’re not – that’s how I’d describe it,” she said.
“I was too young to see him play. Maybe when I was a baby, but I have no recollection of it. My dad still goes to Super Bowls nowadays, and he’s usually doing some type of work … my family is still very much around the game, but it’s definitely more my brother and my mum who are into it.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate it more, because it’s very few times that I get to walk up to a Cowboys game – whereas when I was a kid, I got to go to pretty much every home game. When I am home and I get to go, I definitely don’t take you for granted anymore.”
Haley isn’t particularly familiar with the rules and minutiae of American football, and unless the Cowboys or 49ers are playing, isn’t particularly interested in the NFL, or curious about what watching a Super Bowl in the daytime will feel like on Monday. Similarly, her dad is happy to concede he knows almost nothing about the sport she has chosen to pursue as a professional, so while he has never offered her advice, so to speak, he can at least provide her with general athletic guidance.
“He’s a peripheral soccer dad,” she said.
“He knows to stay in his lane. At a young age, he was like, ‘You know, I’m not an expert. I can’t teach you anything related to soccer. But if you’re serious about it, I will help you find someone that can.’
“He watches, and he’s into it, but he doesn’t know everything that’s going on.”
Haley’s ultimate aspiration is to play for the US national team. She was called up for a camp in 2019 but couldn’t attend due to an ankle injury, and she sees her stint in the A-League Women with the Sky Blues – for whom she has scored seven goals in eight games as they close in on a late-season premiership raid – as a big step in getting her back in the frame for the next World Cup cycle.
“I just want to keep getting better. I want to keep scoring goals, I want to help Sydney get to where they want to be, and that’s win the double. I want us to be as successful as we possibly can,” she said.
“In the back of my mind, I want to be in the conversation with the national team. But I’m not going to get [there] if I’m not performing with my club.”
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