Isiah Pacheco won the 2024 Super Bowl thanks to his parents’ backing.

On February 11, the Kansas City Chiefs running back helped his team win on football’s grandest stage, with his parents, Julio Pacheco and Felicia Cannon, cheering him on. Prior to becoming a professional athlete, Isiah was born in 1999 as the youngest of five children in Vineland, New Jersey.

After playing football in high school, Isiah decided to stay in the state, near to his parents, and attend Rutgers as a student athlete. Despite having a promising career at the institution, he was not selected until the seventh round of the 2022 NFL draft. When he eventually learned that the Chiefs had chosen him, he was shocked

“It all hit me,” Isiah told Forbes. “I had to take a break from packing my bags and really soak it all in.” Next, he called his parents. Not long after that, he was playing in the 2023 Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles, a team that his family had previously supported. Isiah’s team won the Super Bowl for the second consecutive year, in 2024.

While the running back has achieved success on the field, the Pacheco family has suffered a number of personal losses, including the deaths of two of Isiah’s siblings, Travoise and Celeste. Throughout everything, the football player and his parents have relied on each other and concentrated on his job as their new purpose.