Indeed, it is often Ashley’s academic achievements, more so than her athletic ones, that stand out to the former football star.
“I’ve told her repeatedly that she’s taken my gene pool to a whole new level—there’s nothing in her genetic makeup on my side that would point to Harvard University,” he says, laughing. “There is nothing that anybody could do to make me any prouder of my daughter than what she’s accomplishing at Harvard.”
Cris is certainly not shy about that pride, never hesitating to drop the H-Bomb when he has the chance.
“I’ve actually made a science out of how to brag about my daughter,” he explains. “I’ve forced people—they’ll say, ‘tell me about your kids.’ I’ll reply, ‘I’ve got a son in South Bend, a daughter in Gainesville, and another daughter in Boston.’ South Bend they know is Notre Dame, Gainesville they know is Florida. Boston forces them to ask the next question: ‘Where in Boston?’ ‘Harvard’ always forces them to fall on the ground and say, ‘What?’”
“As a parent you just relish the moment,” he adds with a laugh. “The only thing that could make it better is if she would stay at Harvard for thirty years so I could do that for the rest of my life.”
Indeed, as Ashley has progressed through her freshman year, the former football star continues to be amazed by his daughter’s achievements.
“I think [the team] got back at two or three in the morning from the Hep Championships this past weekend,” he says. “Half the girls and guys had finals at eight or nine in the morning the next day. I’m certainly not demeaning the accomplishments of the other kids there, but to be able to do that—to study on a bus for seven hours driving to Philadelphia, to study on a bus for seven hours coming back, to get four to five hours of sleep and then take a final at Harvard University—to me is a remarkable accomplishment.”
“I’m sure every parent of Harvard students feels the same way,” he adds. “It’s playing in the Super Bowl, it’s being part of the Olympics, it’s achieving at the highest level in the world at the academic stage.”
And Cris, who played in two Super Bowls himself, certainly knows a thing or two about that very level. After serving as the Gators team captain and earning first-team All-American honors in 1980, Cris was a second-round pick of the Bengals in the following year’s NFL Draft. A 6’5” wideout, Collinsworth appeared on the cover of “Sports Illustrated” as a rookie, was named to three Pro Bowls, and surpassed 1,000 receiving yards four times during his eight year career.
Once his playing days had come to an end, Collinsworth became one of the NFL’s best-known commentators. Since 1989, he has served as an analyst for HBO’s (now Showtime’s) successful “Inside the NFL” and is also presently the color commentator on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” and in the popular “Madden” video games. For his performances on those programs and others, Collinsworth won one of the two “Outstanding Sports Personality” Emmy Awards in 1997, 1998, and every year from 2002 to 2012 (for a record total of 13).
Though she’s not a huge football fan, Ashley admits she will sometimes tune in on Sunday nights just to hear her father’s voice.
“I’m proud of my dad and what he does,” Ashley says. “He works hard.”
Cris likewise feels the same way about his daughter.
“In every situation, she always takes the high ground, she always does the right thing, she always cares for her friends,” Cris says. “I tell my kids all the time, ‘I want you to be a great athlete, I want you to be great academically, I want you to achieve a lot of things, but mostly I want you to be a great person. If none of the other stuff happens and you’re a great person, then I’m okay with anything else that happens in your life—that’s the highest standard.’”
For her ability to meet that standard, Cris Collinsworth—despite earnings honors ranging from Pro Bowl appearances to Emmy Awards—thus believes his daughter Ashley is his greatest accomplishment.
“To me there’s no level of pride anybody could have in their child that would exceed mine,” he says. “She set that bar as high as it could be set.”
—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.