He has caught touchdown passes in Super Bowls, delivered by the arm of a living legend. He has smoked cigars inside a swirl of green-and-gold confetti while being cheered by hundreds of thousands outside Lambeau Field.Yet when the moment arrived last Friday — seeing his son score the dramatic goal that propelled the United States into the World Cup’s knockout round, while becoming one of the tournament’s breakout stars — Antonio Freeman experienced a high unlike any other.“It’s still kind of like an out-of-body experience,” the former Green Bay Packers star said. “When I made those plays back in the day, I scored for a team. He scored for a country. To see the shots of people celebrating outside, and all over the country … and to see the excitement in the eyes of his teammates … man, it’s a lot to take in.“I cried the whole game. I’ve never cried that much in my life.”The former All-Pro receiver’s sobs reflect a futbol-watching nation’s euphoria. As 21-year-old defender Alex Freeman emerges as an out-of-nowhere sensation in the country that’s co-hosting the World Cup, his accomplished (American-)football-playing father is immersed in the mania. There have been tears, cheers and some hauntingly familiar fears, all of which the elder Freeman, 54, shared during our hour-long conversation on Father’s Day.Obviously, Antonio Freeman, who’ll be at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., Thursday to watch the U.S. (which has already clinched first place in Group D) face Turkey, isn’t your typical soccer dad.As someone who has known him for decades — I covered many of his biggest games with the Packers in the 1990s and 2000s, shared a lot of late-night laughs and once followed him around Baltimore, his hometown, for several days while reporting a Sports Illustrated profile — I’m caught up in the emotion, too. (Oddly, I have some practice in this area: Another old friend with whom I have some history, Dennis Rodman, has a kid who’s a star on the U.S. women’s team.)Seeing Alex Freeman thrive in his chosen sport while noticing some of his dad’s distinguishing traits on the pitch — playing out on the sports world’s grandest stage — well, that’s a surreal experience. And late in the first half of the U.S.’s 2-0 victory over Australia last Friday, as Freeman lay on the ground following a head-on-head collision, it was impossible not to draw some haunting parallels.“I’ve seen that movie before,” the elder Freeman said. “He looked like Antonio Freeman going across the middle to catch a Brett Favre pass, getting lit up by the safety on a head shot and laying there motionless while the whole stadium got quiet.”At first, Freeman was concerned for his son’s well-being: No, no, no. Please, get up. Please be OK, Alex.He thought of Alex’s mom, Rochelle Hinkle, who’d witnessed some similarly scary scenes, dating to Antonio’s days as a Virginia Tech wideout.“She had to watch me in that situation so many times,” he said. “I mean, that’s one of the reasons we sent him to soccer (instead of football). I had to think about the times that she and my mom and dad had to watch me lay there like that. And when it’s your son …”Alex got up, cleared concussion protocol and stayed in the game. Minutes later, after teammate Sergiño Dest’s hard shot was deflected high into the air, Team USA’s youngest player crashed the goal, leaped high and headed the ball into the net as Australia goalkeeper Patrick Beach attempted to punch it away.His father screamed with excitement, cried his eyes out and — for a few seconds — allowed himself the guilty pleasure of appreciating his genes at work.“Come on, man — that’s that football player in him,” Freeman said. “He’s not gonna stay down, and he’s not gonna let his team down in that moment. And then a couple of minutes later he’s attacking with his head?“Some football coaches probably looked at that and said, ‘I’d love to have that kid on my team.’”Alex Freeman, left, received medical attention after a collision with Paul Okon-Engstler of Australia. (Alex Grimm / Getty Images)Alex’s path to soccer stardom was relatively low key. Alex’s stepfather, Jake Hinkle, introduced him to the sport at a young age. Antonio, who has remained on good terms with Rochelle (and lives near the Hinkles in South Florida), supported Alex’s passion for the beautiful game while fending off overtures from football coaches.When Alex was attending American Heritage high school, a football powerhouse in Plantation, Fla., former NFL cornerback Pat Surtain was the team’s head coach. Rochelle worked there as an assistant to the principal, and was less enthralled with the idea of Alex following his father’s path.“There were a number of guys who I played (in the NFL) with that were around the program,” Freeman said. “Guys used to call me and say, ‘When are you gonna let Alex come out for the football team?’ Oronde Gadsden (Sr.) called me every year — his son (now with the Los Angeles Chargers) was the star receiver. He said, ‘We could put (Alex) in the slot!’“Eventually, I had to tell them, ‘No, he’s gonna play academy soccer.’ And guess what: Mom was right. Mom’s always right.”Heading into his junior year of high school, Alex, on the verge of turning 16, became a fulltime resident of Orlando City’s Academy, meaning he’d live a few hours away from his parents. The following summer Antonio watched Alex’s U-17 club win the MLS Next Cup in Frisco, Texas, and noticed that things were starting to change.“You’re kind of waiting for the needle to move,” Freeman recalled. “There were some college coaches at the first game, and one of them was from (University of Wisconsin-Green Bay), and he recognized me. Then a few other college recruiters came up and talked to me. It was like, ‘Wow, this is what I’ve been talking about.’“They were interested in him, to a degree — but there was always a ‘but.’ I didn’t really realize that in college soccer, only one or two guys get full scholarships. I was coming from the football world, which is obviously much different. And, of course, no one knew then what his real potential was.”The elder Freeman is well versed in meteoric rises. A third-round pick in the 1995 draft, he quickly became an elite player during a magical time in Titletown. The 81-yard touchdown pass Freeman caught from Favre was the longest in Super Bowl history at the time, and it came in his second season. That score put the Packers ahead of the New England Patriots for good as Green Bay captured its first Lombardi Trophy in 29 years.A year later, in Super Bowl XXXII, Freeman caught a pair of touchdown passes from Favre — including one that tied the game in the fourth quarter — before the Packers fell to the Denver Broncos. He was a first-team All-Pro in 1998 and signed a top-of-the-market contract (seven years, $42 million) with Green Bay the following August.“I thought the highs would last forever,” said Freeman, who last played during the 2003 season. “But sports is a rollercoaster.”Last September, a few hours before the Packers’ season-opening victory over the Detroit Lions, I caught up with Freeman at a Starbucks near Lambeau Field. We stood in the parking lot and reminisced — and I heard all about Alex’s soccer journey. The kid was killing it in MLS, starting as an outside right defender for Orlando City.“It’s crazy,” Antonio told me then. “I mean, it just keeps getting better. I’m having so much fun.”Alex Freeman entered the world stage as a defender for Villareal in La Liga. (Jose Jordan / AFP via Getty Images)A few months later, things got even more real when Alex was acquired by Villarreal, a top-flight Spanish club. He left an Orlando team retreat in Cancun that had just begun and moved abruptly across the pond — to play in La Liga, against some of the world’s best. Unlike his MLS club, Villarreal deployed the 6-foot-2 Freeman mostly as a pure defender, discouraging attacks from the wing.He acquitted himself well, but his true gift — as showcased in his first two World Cup appearances — is doubling as an offensive catalyst.“This formation that coach (Mauricio) Pochettino is using, it’s amazing,” Antonio Freeman said. “To allow him to come from the right fullback position and insert himself into the offense with room to operate, and then go back and defend when he needs to — it’s like adding an extra scorer. It’s the same thing on the left with Antonee Robinson. And then you have Chris Richards and Tim Ream locking it down in the middle. It’s so exciting to watch.”Freeman watched the first U.S. game, a 4-1 victory over Paraguay on June 12 at SoFi, while sitting next to close friend and former Packers teammate Derrick Mayes. The two former receivers were highly emotional — “From the opening moment, Free and I put our glasses on and we were crying like babies,” Mayes said — but seeing Alex shine on the world stage also made sense to them.“It’s a meteoric rise,” Mayes said, “but it’s not a surprise.”To underscore his point, Mayes, who frequently accelerated my rap education via his Blaupunkt speakers in the ’90s, referenced a quote from “Coming of Age,” a song on Jay-Z’s first album: “You let your s— bubble quietly and then you blow!”Said Mayes: “When you watch him, he’s got a differentiator. He’s the one out there that moves like a football player. He plays differently. His hips move like a receiver running a route. His footwork is different. It’s in his blood.”Overcome with emotion, Antonio Freeman decided to watch last Friday’s game on television, alone, so that he could fully lock into the experience. He was able to appreciate the insights of the commentators and absorb some visuals he otherwise wouldn’t have seen.Best of all, Freeman said, he had a high-def view of the way his son’s older, more established teammates treated him as an important ally, jubilantly celebrating his goal (after an extended VAR review) and relishing his presence.Alex Freeman of the USMNT celebrates after scoring his team’s second goal during a win over Australia. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)“These are the big boys,” Freeman said. “They’re veterans who are very established in their soccer careers. To see the guys rally around him, to see the excitement in their eyes, it’s just unbelievable. This whole journey’s been so incredible.”Freeman knows that the road for his son will soon become more challenging, beginning with the U.S. team’s first elimination game, against another group’s third-place finisher at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on July 1. He expects Alex to embrace the challenge — “that’s the way he’s wired” — and, no matter the result, to make his parents proud.“As parents, we put so much into our kids, and to see it all pay off like this … man, it’s just crazy,” Freeman said. “We all want better for our kids. That’s the nerve-racking part of this (World Cup); the watching, the waiting. It’s a lot. It’s overwhelming.“It’s been a blur, a wave of emotions. It still hasn’t really set in. I can’t really describe it — but it’s an amazing high.”