Mike Rattler: Meet Spencer Rattler’s Father and His Life Today

Mike Rattler is the father of Spencer Rattler, the American football quarterback drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 2024. Long before the draft, Mike was a youth sports coach in Phoenix, Arizona, who taught his son to throw, coached his early teams, and stayed closely involved through high school, college and the road to the NFL.

Unlike many parents of famous athletes, Mike Rattler has a documented public record of his own, built from years of interviews about his son. This article looks at who he is, what he does for a living, how he raised two young athletes with his wife Susan, and where his life stands today.

Who Is Mike Rattler?

Mike Rattler, whose full name is Michael Rattler, is a sales professional and a former youth sports coach from Phoenix, Arizona. He became known to football fans as the father of Spencer Michael Rattler, who was born in Phoenix on September 28, 2000, and who grew from a record breaking high school quarterback into an NFL player.

Mike is not a former professional athlete, and he has never presented himself as one. Sports reporting describes a man who played football growing up and who turned that love of sport into years of coaching in development leagues. His public role has always been practical: coach, driver, adviser and, during his son’s college years, the person who handled many media and business requests so that Spencer could concentrate on football.

His own birth date and early life have not been published in reliable sports sources, and this article does not guess at them. What is well documented is his adult life in Phoenix: his job, his marriage, his two children, and his long involvement in their sporting lives.

His Work in Sales

For his living, Mike Rattler works as a regional sales representative for Citizens Automobile and Recreation Finance. That description appears consistently across profiles of the family from major sports outlets. The company works in finance for cars and recreational vehicles, and a regional sales role means looking after dealer and business relationships across an area rather than working in one office.

It is ordinary, steady work, and profiles of the family make a point of that. While his son became one of the most talked about young quarterbacks in the United States, Mike kept his regular job. Reports describe him arranging his working life so that he could be present at practices and games, and one widely repeated detail says he very rarely missed any of Spencer’s games or training sessions over the years.

No reliable source publishes his salary or a personal net worth, and this article offers no figure for his wealth. Figures attached to the family online usually belong to his son’s NFL earnings, not to Mike himself, and the two should not be mixed together.

Family Life With Susan Rattler

Mike Rattler is married to Susan Konkel Rattler. Susan is a second grade teacher in the Paradise Valley Unified School District in the Phoenix area, and profiles of the family say she has worked in education for more than thirty years. Together, Mike and Susan raised two children in Phoenix: Spencer, the elder, and his younger sister Olivia.

Olivia Rattler became an athlete in her own right. She chose volleyball, played beach volleyball, and went on to play at Missouri State University. Family reporting describes the two children practising together in the backyard as they grew up, taking turns: Olivia would catch footballs for her brother, and Spencer would help her with her own training in return.

Profiles of the household describe a simple division of strengths. Susan brought the habits of a teacher into the home: structure, discipline and steady encouragement. Mike brought the habits of a coach: competition, preparation and direct advice. Sports writers who have covered Spencer for years often credit that mix for the way he handled the setbacks in his career, including losing his starting place in college and rebuilding at a new school.

In June 2019, Spencer marked Father’s Day with a public message to his father, thanking him for teaching him the game and for making him the man he had become. It is one of the few direct public statements about their relationship, and it matches what reporters had already seen for years on sidelines in Arizona.

The Coach Who Saw It First

Mike Rattler’s best known role is as his son’s first coach. In interviews with Arizona and national sports media, he has recalled that Spencer showed throwing talent at a very young age, around two years old, and that as a boy Spencer first wanted to play as a wide receiver. His father’s answer, repeated in profiles, was that the only player who could be sure of throwing him the ball was Spencer himself, and so the boy became a quarterback.

Mike coached Spencer and other children in youth football, basketball and baseball. A line he used with his young teams has been quoted in reporting: big time players step up in big time games. Spencer embraced that idea, and stories from those years describe a child who loved overtime games and pressure moments, on the football field and on the basketball court.

The coaching also had an academic side. In one reported family story, Spencer wanted to earn certain rewards as a teenager, and his father set a condition: straight top grades in his first two high school years. Spencer met the challenge. The story is told in sports profiles as an example of how Mike linked sport and school together instead of treating them as rivals.

At Pinnacle High School in Phoenix, Spencer became the top rated quarterback in the national recruiting class of 2019. He broke the Arizona high school passing record, finishing with 11,083 passing yards and 116 passing touchdowns, and he won the Elite 11 finals most valuable player honour in 2018. Behind those numbers stood years of backyard work and youth coaching from his father.

Standing Beside Spencer Through the Hard Years

Mike Rattler’s most public moment came in October 2018, during Spencer’s senior year at Pinnacle. Spencer was ruled ineligible for the rest of the season, including the playoffs, for breaking a district code of conduct rule. It was Mike who spoke to The Arizona Republic on the family’s behalf. He confirmed the decision, said the family could not say more, and explained that they had discussed everything with Lincoln Riley, Spencer’s future head coach at Oklahoma. He also stressed that there was nothing on his son’s permanent record.

The episode was later touched on in QB1: Beyond the Lights, the Netflix documentary series that followed Spencer in his final high school year. Years later, during the 2024 NFL draft, league reporting said some teams still held that teenage television image against Spencer. He was finally drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the fifth round, with the 150th overall pick. Through that long wait, his parents remained his most visible supporters.

The college years tested the family again. Spencer started at Oklahoma, led the team to a Big 12 championship in 2020, then lost the starting job to Caleb Williams in 2021 and transferred to South Carolina. There he rebuilt his reputation over two seasons, starting 25 games and throwing for 6,212 yards and 37 touchdowns. During the college years, as name, image and likeness deals became part of the sport, Mike helped handle interviews and business requests connected to his son, a role reported by several outlets, so that Spencer could focus on playing.

Mike Rattler’s Life Today

Today, Mike Rattler’s life still centres on Phoenix, his work in sales, and his family. His son is a professional quarterback with the New Orleans Saints, who gave Spencer his first NFL starts during the 2024 season after an injury to the team’s starter, and his daughter Olivia has built her own sporting path in beach volleyball.

He remains what he has been throughout the story: a father who shows up. He has not launched a media career, written a book or turned his son’s fame into a business of his own, and no reliable report suggests he plans to. For readers asking what Mike Rattler does in 2026, the accurate answer is also the simplest one: the same work, in the same city, with the same close role in his children’s lives.

FAQs

Who is Mike Rattler?

Mike Rattler, full name Michael Rattler, is the father of New Orleans Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler. He is a regional sales representative from Phoenix, Arizona, and a former youth sports coach.

What does Mike Rattler do for a living?

He works as a regional sales representative for Citizens Automobile and Recreation Finance. Alongside that job, he spent years coaching youth football, basketball and baseball, including his son’s early teams.

Who are Mike Rattler’s wife and children?

His wife is Susan Konkel Rattler, a second grade teacher with more than thirty years in education. Their children are Spencer Rattler, the NFL quarterback, and Olivia Rattler, a beach volleyball player who played at Missouri State University.

How did Mike Rattler help Spencer’s career?

He coached Spencer from childhood, encouraged him to play quarterback, set academic standards alongside sporting ones, spoke for the family during a difficult school suspension in 2018, and later helped handle media and endorsement requests during Spencer’s college years.

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Final Thoughts

Mike Rattler’s story is a reminder that some of the most important people in sport never appear on the field as professionals. He was the first coach, the steady working father, and the family spokesman in a hard moment, and each of those roles left a mark on his son’s career.

Spencer Rattler’s path, from a Phoenix backyard to an NFL roster, was not smooth, and it was not a solo journey. By every documented account, Mike Rattler was there for all of it, and he is still there today.

Featured photo: Spencer Rattler – public domain photo, via Wikimedia Commons