Susie Wiles's Dad Was Once an NFL Star Who Actually Helped Shape How She Sees Donald Trump
Susie Wiles's parents were married for almost 40 years before they divorced in 1995.
Published Dec. 17 2025, 12:32 p.m. ET
When Donald Trump named Susie Wiles his chief of staff at the White House, she became the first woman to hold that role. Now, the American people have lots of questions about who she is and how she ended up in this position. They also want to know who Susie Wiles's parents are, since she just so happens to have a famous dad.
However, he was never in politics, so there is no chance of Wiles secretly being a political nepo baby. She has spoken about her former NFL star dad before, though the details about her relationship with her mom appear to be more sparse. Still, it's hard for some not to wonder who Wiles's parents are and how they might have helped her become who she is today.
Who were Susie Wiles's parents?
Wiles became the chief of staff in January 2025, when she was 67 years old. Her parents, Kathy Jacobs and Pat Summerall, died in 2005 and 2013, respectively, so they weren't alive to see the achievement. Jacobs and Summerall got divorced in 1995 after 39 years of marriage, according to the Chicago Tribune. From there, Summerall remarried, but there is no clear record of Jacobs remarrying after the divorce.
Although Jacobs was not in the public eye despite her husband's success, she did hold a few causes close to her heart before she died. According to her online obituary, Jacobs was a member of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution and involved in multiple church organizations.
In 2013, ESPN reported that Wiles's father died from cardiac arrest. He was 82 years old. Prior to his death, he had held an NFL career by playing with the New York Giants and the Chicago Cardinals. Before that, he had been drafted to the Detroit Lions, but a preseason injury meant his season with the Lions was shortened.
After Summerall's NFL career ended, he became known for reporting on the game he once played. He worked for CBS Sports and NBC as a commentator. Outside of covering football, he also covered the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament with CBS for more than 20 years.
Pat Summerall was open about his alcoholism.
Toward the end of Summerall's life, he was candid about his substance abuse when it came to alcohol. He even had to undergo a liver transplant in 2004. That same year, he appeared on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, according to the New York Post. He admitted at the time that he wasn't sure if he "deserved" a new liver after years of alcohol use. But, he added, the fact that he got it meant that he was probably supposed to.
"I must have deserved it, or I wouldn't have gotten it," he said at the time. "But based on my life before I went to the Betty Ford Center, my answer to that question was no. But I'm not sure now. I've become a better person. I think I've become a purer person."
When Wiles spoke of her father with Vanity Fair in 2025 and compared him to her boss, Trump, she noted how alcoholics have "big personalities" when they drink. To that tune, she told the outlet, like her father, Trump maintains "a view that there's nothing he can't do. Nothing, zero, nothing."