Saquon Barkley is not the first man in his family to achieve sporting success on the worldwide stage.
The Philadelphia Eagles running back has been running opponents into the ground all season.
One more dominant game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday will bring him a first Super Bowl title.
But were it not for a seven-year-old Barkley falling in love with football in a Pop Warner league, he could have ended up making a living with his fists.
His father, Alibay, fought in the Golden Gloves before suffering a shoulder injury to end his ring career.
Great-uncle, Iran, made it further in the sweet science, winning belts across three weight classes — middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight.
“Boxing was forced onto me,” Barkley told USA Today. “I truly, truly, truly believe that if I didn’t I didn’t fall in love with football, I would’ve ended up being a boxer.”
Barkley’s introduction to football saw him play kids two years his senior in the Bronx.
A brutal tackle on his first-ever carry loosened one of his baby teeth — it only made him run harder.
“I got hit pretty hard,” he explained. “When they give you that one one-on-one, it’s personal. You’ve got to take advantage.”
In that sense the running back position is as close as it comes to boxing, using intelligence and anticipation to find a gap in the opponent’s defense and then brute force to exploit it.
Iran — now 64-years-old — fought 63 times in a pro career that ran from 1982 to 1999.
Barkley established himself as one of the best running backs in the NFL with the New York Giants.
But the supporting cast was lacking and an offseason move to join the Eagles and run behind a formidable O-line has opened the floodgates.
Barkley is just 30 yard shy of making history by shattering Terrell Davis’ record of 2,476 yards as he led the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl title in 1998.
He will surely hit that mark barring injury, but it is denying Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs their own chance at immortality.
No team has ever won the Vince Lombardi Trophy three years in a row and Barkley is the Eagles’ best hope of ending that streak.
Just like a champion boxer, the bruising runner only needs one chance to land a knockout blow, although if any team is renowned for its ability to climb off the canvas and win it’s Mahomes’ Chiefs.