.. and as a tall athletic-built kid he was always stuck on the line (X weight). The spring league had different weight rules.. so he could play a little TE. If you are a 12-year-old kid that has always been called a 'big hog' (or other names little league coaches use to make playing OL fun)... catching TD's is appealing. (It's also why he liked Rugby)

Our team also had some big sponsors... so they had their own equipment (They had SpeedFlex helmets before the high school team).

If he didn't BEG us to do it.. we probably wouldn't have done it.

The worst part is that his football 'club' team also formed a lower-level AAU basketball team and a baseball team... all coached by the same coaches every year. It built a group of kids that became best friends for life.