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.

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Now, he’s a professional tight end for the Dallas Cowboys and is known to be dating influencer and college basketball player, Haley Cavinder. Here’s how he got there.

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.

As a first-year at James Madison Memorial High School, Ferguson bounced between junior varsity and varsity. In one JV game, he pummelled the opposing quarterback so many times that the kid quit mid-game. When his replacement came in, Ferguson took him out on a hit.

“I don’t like injuring guys,” Ferguson told the Morning News. “I don’t like that at all. You hate to see it. But I hit him, and I remember he just let out a scream, and I kind of backed up. I was like, ‘Woah, we need to get someone over here,’ And then I looked up, and all the sudden, his mum was throwing haymakers at me, out of nowhere. … I remember I walked back. I was like, ‘That was a mum.'”

He stayed home for college

By the time Ferguson had to make his decision, he had offers from Nebraska, Iowa State, Iowa, Northern Illinois and Wisconsin, per Cowboys Wire. With his older brother Joe already at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his grandfather serving as the school’s athletic director after stepping down as head coach in 2005, he chose to keep it in the family.

At Wisconsin-Madison, he became a key offensive weapon, finishing his college career with 145 receptions for 1,618 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns, placing him in the top 10 of nearly every tight-end receiving record in programme history.

In 2022, after showcasing his skills at the NFL Draft Combine and a local Pro Day, the Dallas Cowboys selected him in the fourth round of the draft.

He’s dating Haley Cavinder

Off the field, Ferguson is in a relationship with Miami Hurricanes basketball player Haley Cavinder. The couple met through social media in 2023 and are often spotted supporting each other at games.

Their relationship seems serious, so much so that Ferguson got Cavinder’s initials, “H.C.”, tattooed on his right ring finger.

When he’s not on the field or with Cavinder, Ferguson often visits Fort Myers Beach, Florida, where his mother moved after he left for college.

“It gets really stressful,” he told Cape Coral Breeze. “You have to have things to [de-stress] you.”

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.