Parny Hagerman and her neighbor Surrey Hardcastle have a lot in common. They live just a few yards from each other on Bailey Island. Both are retired school administrators and each has nearly two dozen grandkids. What’s more, Hagerman and Hardcastle both have grandsons in the NFL.
It makes sense that they’re friends — but that friendship might be put to the test this weekend, when those grandsons appear on opposite teams in this weekend’s Super Bowl, the biggest football game in the universe.
Hagerman’s grandson, Jackson “Jake” Bobo, is a Seattle Seahawks wide receiver. Hardcastle’s grandson, Ashton Grant, is the New England Patriots’ quarterbacks coach.
Hardcastle said that over the years, she and her friend have exchanged news about their grandsons’ football careers, but they never dreamed they would be on opposite sides in the biggest of big games.
“Isn’t it crazy — we’re both on this one little island, where there’s no more than 400 people in the wintertime?” Hagerman said.
Grant grew up in Manchester, Connecticut, and played football at Manchester High School before spending a postgraduate year in East Coast Prep’s football program. He then attended Assumption University in Massachusetts, where the wide receiver set school records for career touchdown receptions and receiving yards. He also set a single-season record for touchdown receptions — 13 — in 2016.
After college, Grant attended training camp with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Bears before playing for the Salt Lake Stallions of the short-lived Alliance of American Football. Grant started his coaching career at Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 2019.
The next year, Grant entered the NFL on a coaching fellowship with the Cleveland Browns. He stayed with the team for five seasons, progressing through several offensive roles and working alongside consultant Mike Vrabel in 2024. When Vrabel was hired as head coach of the Patriots, he brought on Grant to serve as quarterbacks coach.
The Patriots’ quarterback play has been key to their turnaround this year, from 4-13 to 14-3, as second-year signal caller Drake Maye had a breakout season and became a finalist for NFL MVP.
“I was never, ever a Patriots fan” before Grant landed there, Hardcastle said. “We were Eagles fans because that was Ashton’s favorite team growing up.”
Hagerman’s grandson, whom she still often refers to as Jakey, grew up in North Andover, Massachusetts, and attended Belmont Hill School. When he was a junior, the team won the New England Prep School football championship.
Bobo then played four years at Duke University and, eligible because of the NCAA’s pandemic waiver for the 2020 season, a fifth at UCLA. He caught 74 passes for 794 yards in his last year at Duke, then another 57 for 817 yards in his one year at UCLA.
Bobo joined the Seahawks in 2023 and appeared in all 17 games that season. He finished the year with 19 receptions for 196 yards and two touchdowns. That year, Bobo inspired the social media hashtag #MoreBobo, celebrating his work ethic and playmaking skills.
Bobo wasn’t a big part of the Seahawks’ offense in the 2025 regular season, with just two catches on two targets. But he helped the Seahawks reach the Super Bowl with a 17-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter of the NFC championship game.
“And I was always a Patriots fan until Jakey signed with the Seahawks,” Hagerman said, “though I didn’t like what management did to Tom Brady and I don’t like (former head coach Bill) Belichick’s trophy girlfriend — his original wife was to die for.”
Though Hagerman and Hardcastle can see one another’s houses out their windows, and all their grandchildren spent many summer days and holidays with them on the island, they don’t think Bobo and Grant ever met.
“He was very close with the neighbors’ kids here. He’d walk right in and raid their refrigerator. And he spent every Christmas here,” Hardcastle said of Grant. “Just a few years ago, before he was even engaged to his wife, he brought her up here to go sailing with us on the Alert. It was very important to him — to share that whole scene with her.”
The Alert is a 70-foot excursion schooner based on Bailey Island.
“He loved to go tubing behind our boat, right out here,” said Hardcastle’s husband, Hugh, pointing to the water behind their house. “And I loved flipping them over — I flipped all my grandkids.”
Hagerman remembers Bobo having similar fun, just down the hill at her house.
“I have four daughters and they produced all these children,” Hagerman said of her large extended family. “We all worked in schools, so we had summers off and the kids could come anytime.”
Both grandmothers agree that their football-playing grandsons have one thing in common. Neither has set foot in the water off Bailey Island since 2020’s fatal shark attack.
“Jake is deathly afraid of sharks. He won’t even jump off the dock into the water,” Hagerman said. “I said, ‘Jake, that’s absurd. Don’t be silly. You’re a grown man.'”
Hagerman, courtesy of Bobo, plans to attend the big game on Sunday in Santa Clara, California, at the home of the San Francisco 49ers. The Hardcastles also got an invite but opted to watch from home.
Though neither woman was a hardcore football fan before their grandsons played in the NFL, they have a competitive streak of their own, which comes out when they play tennis.
“Parny is competitive about everything, actually,” Hardcastle said, laughing.
“Let’s just say that if we meet at the net, I just might make you a target,” Hagerman said, also chuckling.
Still, they vow not to let tennis, the Super Bowl, or anything else get in the way of their friendship.
“Of course not,” said Hardcastle. “There are bigger things in life than football.”
