Run, Evel, Run!!

I have finally done it! I've peer pressured my oldest son into playing football! It took almost 11 years but I have succeeded! It took guilt trips and bribery but Evel made it through his first week of football practice (which is better than I would have done if they expected me to run around in this heat. I don't even like to expend energy breathing when it's this hot).

Maybe it's just me being biased because I am so excited to finally have a reason to scream like a lunatic once a week, but I thought he looked pretty decent at practice. But as usual, he's the smallest kid on the team. I guess that's how it works when the Old Skool's starting cutoff was before his birthday and the New Skool's is after so he's a year younger than every other kid in his grade. Poor kid. Always the baby.

The coaches have him practicing as a receiver right now so I have to resist the urge to yell, "Run, Evel! Run!," every time he catches the ball. But for being little, he moves his butt pretty good. It's always better to have him honing his talent running on a football field instead of away from the scene of a crime. They're going to be rotating him to a few different positions to see if he excels at anything since this is his first year.

That's not entirely true. This is his first year in New Skool's program. I signed him up at Old Skool's program when he was five. That was about as close to a living nightmare as I ever wish to come. I don't know if it was his age or the fact that some of the coaching staff on that program are complete ass clowns, but he hated it. And seeing 4 kids drop at one practice from overheating pretty much scarred him for life. After that it was like trying to force a drunken midget into my car just to get him to practice. I raised him to follow through with anything that he starts, but we quit after he threw his helmet out the window of my moving vehicle. He had drawn his line on this one and I was done trying to drag him across it.

I thought that was the end of football forever so I was shocked and elated when he said that he wanted to sign up this year. I was also a little terrified. Evel is now big enough to throw me out the window of a moving vehicle if he's sees fit. But after week one, he said he loves it. He likes to tackle people. Big shocker. And I met the coaches and they seem like pretty level headed people so we'll wait and see. If you don't hear back from me, check along routes 11/15 in central PA.