Mitchell- Football stud or major wussy ?

This was Mitchell's first year of football. And it may just be his last.

Mitchell may not look that athletic,but the kid was born with a ball in his hand. Almost literally. When he was a toddler he would run around with a little Nerf football in his arm at all times . It was like a little security blanket. I have pictures of him at the fair in the little petting zoo part petting the animals and he still had his little football in the crook of his arm. He wouldn't put it down. He could catch pretty well as a toddler also.

We tried soccer first. He wasn't really trying in the beginning so we bribed him with $5.00 per goal scored. This worked well with our girls because they each scored about two goals per season. Well, his first game he scored 5 goals. We decided to tone it down to $1.00 per goal to keep us out of the poor house.

When I signed him up for football I wasn't really expecting much. Those of you that know Mitch know that he is a shortish, scrawneyish fellow. He's not the shortest or smallest in his class, but he is definitely not the biggest. It is flag football so I thought it would be pretty harmless.

Mitchell took to it and loved it right away. He can be pretty quick, and it is easy for him to run the plays. Unfortunately, the kid can be a whiner. He loved the practices and hated the games. It was kind of funny, because some of the (tougher) kids were complaining that they didn't get enough play time in the games, and Mitchell was complaining that he had to play the whole game and couldn't get a break! He tends to fall to the ground whenever he gets hit ( he does this at home too folks, it is lots of fun) and cries whenever he perceives something as unfair.

Some of his qualms are legitimate. Like this one,"Mom, it's FLAG FOOTBALL! That whole team tackled me! Did you see me at the bottom of that pile?" Yes I did. He had a point. Some of those kids are pretty competitive. Some of them are pretty huge for "5 and 6 year olds". They haven't been checking birth certificates previously, and I heard that they will start next year. That is a good idea.

His coach watches him at practice and just can't believe he won't keep playing. "You gotta get that kid into Pop Warner. He would be awesome!" Nope. He won't do it.

Maybe he will grow out of this,"Drama Queen" phase and toughen up a little. Maybe by next year he will be ready. But he just turned 7 in January, and I just can't get myself to expect that much from a 7 year old.

I didn't get any pictures of the poor kid all season. I tried once, and the battery was dead. Wendell meant to take some video of the tournament and forgot the video camera. Luckily my good friend Tiffany got some shots of him at the Cardinal football camp. (Yes she is 6 months pregnant, took her three boys including a toddler and my son because I was sick. And she still managed to get pictures of him. Amazing)