Elijah Higgins’ parents have always been around to support his sports career. From playing receiver at Stanford Cardinal to eventually playing for the Arizona Cardinals, his journey has one constant that stays with him throughout. It’s his parents and siblings. His familial background perfectly explains how he found a spot in the NFL. He was initially drafted as a sixth-round pick by the Dolphins, who ultimately waved him and the Cardinals picked him up.

Higgins was born on October 27, 2000, to George and Karon Higgins, who have an interesting story of their own. It’s like they set him up for success from the get-go. And just like him and his parents, his two siblings are gifted athletes too. But more on them later. So, let’s take a closer look at the lives of George and Karon Higgins.

His father, George, is still a huge football fanatic. However, he played for just one year at the University of South Florida, but it’s not clear as to what position it was. Life happened and his father had to enroll in the Air Force where he spent 15 years maintaining aircraft defense systems.

George Higgins is a hero, as he served 3 times in Afghanistan. Now, he’s slowing down the pace and serves as a recruiter for the Air Force reserve. But while his father did his time in the military, the Higgins squad moved around the country. Florida-Ohio-Austin-Northern California and back to Florida, the family has seen and soaked the cultures of the places where they’ve been.

Karon teaches math to seventh and eighth graders now. But that’s not even the most interesting part. Elijah’s mother Karon used to play basketball at a junior college and later joined the Puerto Rican national basketball team! Talk about a career jump. But there’s more to his mum than her being a basketball player. She’s extremely supportive of her kids Elijah, Kaleb, and their daughter Bailey, who’s a division 1 prospect in volleyball.

But while she’s teaching math to little kids, that doesn’t mean her inner sports fan has died. In fact, it’s alive and kicking!

To this day, Elijah Higgins’ mother is enthusiastic about sports

Where do we start? Maybe her X account would be a better place. The Florida resident goes by the alias @Karon Higgins5 on Twitter (now X). You’ll find how enthusiastic she is about her Tight End son’s career with the Arizona Cardinals. She tries to never misses a play and used to go to Stanford or Cal regularly to watch her sons play.

There are 900 some posts on her X account and nearly 90% of those posts are football related. Whether it has her Tight End son in focus, or whether it’s her son Kaleb, who played with Cal State as a reserve safety. Since childhood, Elijah’s parents have pitted their sons against each other, but in a friendly way. They just want to see some competition between their receiver and DB sons.

At one point, they even had a ping-pong table at their home, with one side that was all Stanford and the other that was Cal State. There’s still a bit of brotherly rivalry between the boys to this day. However, make no mistake, the parents are not biased and often went out of their way to visit California to watch their sons play.

It was a couple of years ago when the family flew to see Elijah play against the Ducks and in the last moment, their receiver son scored a touchdown, which led to Stanford upsetting Oregon 31-24. With no regard for the other families, Karon and George started shouting and confused everyone.

“We were with the Cal families screaming at our iPad,” Karon said. “It was nuts.” But it’s their father who also does some quirky stuff and will go to any length to show support to the young ones. He wouldn’t hesitate to put on a Cal hat and a Stanford T-shirt at the same time. You want to know what his father wants to see his sons doing?

“Elijah and Kaleb on the 3-yard line with no time on the clock. I don’t lose in that scenario,” said George Higgins. The Higgins boys have done a pretty great job of keeping their father’s football dreams live and carried the torch to the NFL. Maybe the younger brother will soon follow and make his way to the big leagues as well.