This time last year, a lot was different for Giants cornerback Grant Haley.
As he struggled to acclimate to the NFL in his rookie season, Haley’s mother, Dr. Carla Neal-Haley, was in need of a liver transplant.
“Everybody is going through something. No matter big or small, it’s important to them. For me, it was a rough time,” Haley said Sunday at Giants camp. “My mom, as always, told me to go battle and do what I wanted to do, go after my dreams and that she’d be OK. Fortunately, everything worked out and it’s in God’s hand, she’s doing great right now.”
Cathie Seibert, who works as an assistant principal at Griffin Middle School in Smyrna, Ga., near the neighborhood where Neal-Haley works as a pediatrician, took notice of Haley’s wide-spread search to help his mom last year. She tested to ensure that she was a match, and shortly after meeting Neal-Haley knew that she had to help.
It was a surreal moment — and a major relief — for Haley when his mom told him and the rest of his family that she found a donor.
Haley had difficulty focusing on football while worrying about his mom’s condition. But now, with her health back in the right place, paired with his elevated confidence in understanding the Giants’ systems and heading into this year’s training camp with a year under his belt, Haley is ready to get to work.
“[Haley] is very feisty. I think he’s a tough, competitive guy. I think you want that at all positions,” coach Pat Shurmur said. “He’s a little shorter, they give him credit for being feisty, but that’s just part of his nature. I think that’s why he’s going to have success.
“You have to be able to compete. You have to tough, have to be competitive and he’s all of those things. Because no matter how talented you are, if you don’t have those things, you have no chance.”
The undrafted Penn State product is listed as 5-foot-9 on the Giants’ training camp roster, making him the shortest player on the field. But that’s just a part of why Haley feels he has been doubted his whole football life, leaving him to adopt a physical style of play to prove himself.
Haley describes himself as a player with a chip on his shoulder, and that helped him win the spot last year as the Giants’ nickel cornerback and go on to have a decent rookie season. One can only imagine what this season will be like, now that he’s able to focus entirely on football, with a healthy mom to cheer him on.
