Future For Football is the National Football Foundation’s cross-platform multi-media campaign that celebrates the positive impact football has had on millions of players, coaches, volunteers, and fans is the main mission of Future for Football and there’s lots to find in our area that does the same.
Who is Haley Sandberg?
Haley was a student athlete at the University of Findlay in northern Ohio. She graduated with a degree in Marketing and Sports Business before joining Community Relations at the Cleveland Browns in 2016. While in Cleveland she met her now husband Cord while he was an outfielder in the Philadelphia Phillies organization. In 2018, he retired from baseball and was offered a scholarship as a quarterback at Auburn University. Cord and Haley got married and bought their first home while he attended and played football at Auburn. They used this unique opportunity to open their home to the football team in Auburn. Cord graduated from Auburn in 2021 and finished his football career at Eastern Kentucky University. They now live around Lexington, Kentucky where Cord is a football/baseball coach and Haley works in social media for a golf company and as a creator with Gameday by Scarlet and Gold. In August of this year they welcomed their first child, Grayton.
Haley is passionate about using hospitality as a vessel to minister to athletes from all backgrounds.
Live with Haley Sandberg
Haley, introduce yourself and tell us your story and kind of where you have been, what got you to Auburn, and where you’ve been since then.
My name is Haley Sandberg. I’m so excited to talk to you all today. So, how I got to Auburn is a long story. When people ask me, I’m like, buckle up, here we go. We had a little bit of a backwards journey, but I’ll start from the beginning. I played golf in college in a school in northern Ohio. And from there, my first job was with the Cleveland Browns. I got my degree in Sports Marketing, and I knew I wanted to be in sports. I started out in in the NFL, which was actually where I met Cord, who was currently playing with the Philadelphia Phillies. Before I met Cord, he was drafted out of high school to play baseball. He was committed to play football, to play quarterback at Mississippi State and he forwent that when he was drafted in the third round of the MLB draft and joined the Philadelphia Phillies. After we got engaged, he retired from baseball, he just kind of saw the writing on the wall and his passion is really for football. We went on some official visits which was a weird place to be because you think about a mom going on official visit, not a fiancé going on official visit. So, it’s a little backwards, but we landed on Auburn because a lot of schools preach, faith, family, football, but Auburn exactly that through and through. We landed at Auburn, and he was a scholarship quarterback from 2018 through 2021. He graduated from Auburn in three years.
Obviously, football has been a huge part of Cord’s life, how has it positively impacted your life?
Like I said, I played every sport you could play growing up and ended up going to college. I knew in the long run sports were going to be a part of my life, especially a part of my career. But it wasn’t until I got to Auburn and Cord was on the football team, that I was meeting these people that were making unbelievably positive impacts on people in the community through football, A big part of what we did at Auburn was something we called Tuesday dinners and I cannot take credit for this idea – I give credit where credit is due – to Mrs. Kristi Malzahn. Gus Malzahn was the head coach at the time and they, for the entire football team, did something called family dinners on Sunday nights. This is where all the athletes came and the coaches, coaches’ wives and their children would come for a massive family dinner that was held in the indoor field house. I got to see Kristi love on all of these players and all of these coaches’ wives. So, that’s when I started to see – Oh my gosh! This! This is why I’m here and this is why I’m doing what I’m doing. That’s what I want to do. We had met a couple that was – ironically – in a similar situation to us. He – last name Stovall – had played baseball professionally and then came back to school at Auburn. They were doing Tuesday night dinners where they would host some of the players at their house. After Tyler graduated, we took that on. So every Tuesday night we would have, I don’t know, anywhere from 10 to 15 football players and I would cook dinner and we would play games, so that for us was the biggest – I mean the biggest – blessing that Auburn brought and that football has brought us so far and it just really set my sights on what I want do and how I want to use football for the rest of my life.
In taking on the role of “team parents,” how were you able to use those relationships that you built around football ultimately to impact those other players on the team?
My favorite part was when players that I didn’t know were showing up at our house on Tuesday nights. There were some players that would come every week would bring somebody new. It made it extremely hard to know how much to cook, though – I was either like way over or way under. I never got that down, but that’s OK. I would call Cord and ask how many people are coming? He would be on his way but say I don’t know. My favorite part was seeing the players invite other people over because they enjoyed what was happening and would want to extend the invite. Looking back on that now, we’ve seen five marriages. The players would get more comfortable, and they’d be dating someone and then they would bring her around and bring her the Tuesday dinner. We’ve seen five marriages come out of that like group. Yes, and I honestly, I expect more. We’ve seen five so far and it was just cool to watch these relationships – good, healthy, Christian relationships – grow. That was a neat part of it as well.
How did that role as being the team parents prepare y’all for being parents when Grayton was born?
I’m only two months into this, so I’m not seasoned by any means, but honestly something practical is cooking. I had just gotten married, and even during our engagement when I wasn’t even married yet, so it was a part of teaching me to cook and host, really. And then it really gave me that itch for hospitality and I understand that’s one of my giftings. I just know when Grayton gets older, it’s likely that he’ll probably play sports and he will have his friends or his teammates. I can’t wait to host them in our home one day.
What was your favorite part of being involved in football and following along with Cord’s collegiate career?
I loved just being a part of Auburn. I didn’t go to school there, but the team and the Auburn family welcomed me in as part of the family. That was incredible and game day is so fun. The coolest part for me was that my parents and I traveled to all of the away games. If it was an SEC game, I wanted to see the stadium. My parents and I did a lot of traveling together and we got to see the cities that the teams were playing while Cord was in meetings. That was a really special time for me because I was freshly married and not in the house anymore, so just a really special time.
What was your favorite football memory at Auburn?
Personally, I have to pick when Cord played In the Sanford game, and he threw two touchdowns. Like i said, I met him while he played baseball, so I watched him hit home runs and then he told me that he was really good at football when he played back in the day, but I had no idea, and it was really cool to see him out there.
Cord has continued his life in football as a coach. How do you support him and how do you all continue impacting the players that he’s working with now?
It’s been a unique experience. This is our third team – he played at Auburn, he played at Eastern Kentucky, and now he’s coaching high school. It’s been a unique experience to understand where we fit in and where we can be most helpful at each of these locations. At Auburn, it happened to be Tuesday night dinners and at Eastern Kentucky, we didn’t do them on Tuesday nights, but it was the same thing, just having the players over inside the house. Then, this next stop high schools where it’s his first coaching job. He’s a position coach so it’s looked more on the individual level. We can’t have high school players come up here – the school Is in Lexington, and we live like half an hour away. So that just doesn’t work for us. But it’s looked more like Cord mentoring, one-on-one, helping with questions. These kids are getting ready to go to college, so questions with college, they want his experience from Auburn, and it literally it looks like car rides to and from practice for some of the kids. It’s definitely different, but it’s been a unique opportunity to see where we fit in and where we can help most.
I know you mentioned Grayton being involved in sports. What are y’all leaning towards, baseball or football?
His dad would say golf. His dad would say neither. But I think Cord has so much knowledge in both baseball and football. He’s played both of these sports at incredibly high levels. I’m bragging on Cord a little bit, but I think he has so much to offer, even in those two areas. I come from a basketball family, so that would be the way I’m pulling. But we both love golf, so I don’t know, it’ll be somewhere in there. People say “oh, what if he wants to do something different? What if he wants to be in the band?” He might, but all we talk about football. So, it’d be a low chance there, but we’ll see.
How’s life as a new mom?
Oh gosh, we’re figuring it out. We are. We’re down to only one middle of the night feeding, so we’re doing well so far. That’s what I keep telling Cord, but he’s like, no, we can get rid of that. We can get rid of that one. We can slow down. No, but it’s been great. He’s so sweet. We just laugh at everything he does right now. So yeah, that’s been great. And then Cord’s coaching, so we’ve been doing Friday Night Lights just Grayton and I – we only go to the first half and then we go home and go to bed at halftime. But it’s been fun cause Cord’s in a very new season of life. I’ve only ever known Cord as an athlete. I’ve never known him on the job site of things so it’s a unique situation. I’ve been on the job side of things since 2016, so it’s definitely been a massive transition having a baby and a real job – I’m sorry, you know, traditional job.
Do you feel like it’s more time consuming being a coach or player, or more demanding being a coach or being a player?
He wants to go back on to the collegiate scene and that would be, I think, more demanding as a coach as the hours are really long, but on the high school side, the hours have been great, which I am so thankful for. I think it’s such a blessing since we have a newborn. He’s home most of the time, and I’m so grateful for that.
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