Pat Summerall's daughter gets key appointment from Donald Trump
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday named Susie Wiles his chief of staff.
Wiles was the co-chair of Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.
"Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns," Trump said in a statement.
To sports fans, Wiles' name won't ring a bell — but her father's might.
Wiles is the daughter of Pat Summerall, who transitioned from a career as an NFL player to a much longer career as a play-by-play broadcster, notably alongside analyst John Madden on CBS and Fox Sports.
Wiles was cited multiple times by Trump in his acceptance speech Wednesday.
According to a profile of Wiles by The Independent, her political career was at least in part informed by her father's bravado in the broadcast booth.
Writes Alex Hannaford:
"Peter Schorsch, publisher of Florida Politics, who has known Wiles for a decade and considers her a friend, says Summerall would reach tens of millions of people each Sunday with his broadcasts and was such a voice of authority that he thinks some of that ability to take control; to command an audience, rubbed off on Wiles."
- The Independent
Summerall was named the National Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 1977, and inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1994. He was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 1999. That year, he also received the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Pat Summerall Award has been presented since 2006 "to a deserving recipient who through their career has demonstrated the character, integrity and leadership both on and off the job that the name Pat Summerall represents."
Wiles is one of three children born to Summerall, who died in 2013, and his wife Cheri. She will become the first woman ever to hold the title of White House Chief of Staff in Jan. 2025.
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