Meet Dallas Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson, who’s dating Haley Cavinder: the son and grandson of 2 famous football names, he once sent 2 children to the hospital and made another player quit mid-game
Brought up in Madison, Wisconsin, and playing college football for the local university, Ferguson remained close to home until he was drafted by the Cowboys in 2022
Jake Ferguson was playing football even when he wasn’t playing football.
“I got kicked out of my youth soccer league for tackling people,” he told Cowboys Wire in 2022. “I just remember we were playing and there was this little kid who had the ball. I think he stole it from my teammate, and I was one of the defensive guys. I just thought I was one of the defensive guys, and I needed to tackle, so I chased him down and knocked him down, picked him up, and then they kicked me out of the league.”
That instinct, though often misplaced, like starting snowball fights at school or organising tackle football at recess until it got banned, eventually paid off.
He comes from American football royalty
Born in 1999, Jake Ferguson grew up in a household where football was more than a passion. His father, Brad Ferguson, played linebacker at the University of Nebraska, and his maternal grandfather, Barry Alvarez, spent 16 seasons as the head coach at the University of Wisconsin. With football in his blood, Ferguson naturally gravitated toward the game.
By middle school, he was already dominating youth leagues. During a game, he sent two kids to the hospital, while his teammate Billy Wilson added a third with a blindside block. Parents even began questioning whether the two were actually in sixth grade.
“People wanted Jake’s head,” Wilson recalled in an interview with The Dallas Morning News.
High school wasn’t much different.
