r/AbsoluteUnits • u/HomeNowWTF • 1d ago
of a runningback
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u/froction 1d ago
"And will bring up the end of the first half with East Side Elementary up 133-0!
Wait, there's a flag on the play...#98 Lawrence Stamps Sr. is called back for roughing his own quarterback on the handoff. That's a tough break for the ambitious running back and 6th-time 4th grader!"
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u/ufotheater 1d ago
When I was a kid they had weight levels so this couldn't happen, and to keep the kids safe. Whoever is running this program doesn't know wtf they're doing.
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u/HighFiveG 1d ago
Yeah, this is shameful.
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u/Top-Distribution733 1d ago
….. on the parents right?
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u/HighFiveG 1d ago
The parents, the league, anybody involved who isn’t speaking up to prevent this. It benefits nobody.
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u/ApologizingCanadian 1d ago
Doesn't even benefit the kid either TBH. Sure he dominates the competition at that level but there's no way a kid with that body shape A) stays a RB for the long term unless he drastically changes his lifestyle and B) he isn't developping any skills just running over kids half his size.
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u/The-Tarman 1d ago
Yeah, I mean if you want your kid to develop skill it would be better if he was on a more even playing field
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u/Averageandyoverhere 1d ago
Same, it stopped me from playing because I was too big to touch the ball.
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u/Arthesia 1d ago
How big?
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u/Averageandyoverhere 1d ago
In 5th grade I was 6 ft and 130 pounds. In order to touch the ball you had to weigh under 100 pounds.
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u/IDownvoteUrPet 1d ago
Damn I was always too small to play football. I wish they had weight levels where I grew up!
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u/the_divide_et_impera 1d ago
Not when I was a kid. Had to chop the knees lol
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u/zxvasd 1d ago
Been there done that. Thought I was pretty clever until he decided to start kicking.
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u/JavaGeep 1d ago
22 has a future. Good effort.
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u/usernamedottxt 1d ago
I said “holy shit” because #22 was playing way above his level. Big kid hard to tackle, w/e. But #22 putting on the juice to just be in the way while not messing it up with a block in the back or anything. That drive will take him far.
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u/RevolutionNo7 1d ago
Funny, that was my exact takeaway, too, and he showed impressive speed, agility, and spatial awareness
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u/SconeBracket 1d ago
He could have drawn a flag at the end, though. But all eyes were on the runningback.
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u/usernamedottxt 1d ago
I double checked that, he’s actually pushing big boy, his teammate. Not the tackler. Unclear to me why, but hands are clean.
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u/NosmoKing541 1d ago
Bush league, this is why pop warner have weight classes that would put that child back on the bench in the next class of athletes.
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u/usernamedottxt 1d ago
we had a fourth grader in our 6th grade football team.
Tiny kid, but he was way too fucking fast. Best player on our team even then.
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u/muscularsharpie 1d ago
In 8th grade (I'm 37, for context) we had a sixth grader who Steph Curry'd us through a season.
Dude was tiny. But chuck him the ball, BAM, 3 pointer. We learned nothing that year beyond "chuck it to Buttercup!"
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u/NosmoKing541 1d ago
Best player in pop warner we played against was Noshawn Morino
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u/jyaboytskittles 1d ago
Sounds like my buddy Romeo back in the day. He’s gota be 26-27 still standing at like 5’2” and was one of the best players on our varsity basketball team his whole time in high school.
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u/DwightDavid1234 1d ago
#40 made several business decisions.
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u/Extension-Rabbit3654 1d ago
Youre right hes gonna play in college, years after the #98 has his first bypass surgery
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u/theMahatman 1d ago
This is why most youth leagues have striper weight limits
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u/seditioushamster 1d ago
I hated being a red stripe. I create fumbles as a dt and could only fall on the ball.
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u/soullessginger88 1d ago
Yeah, I had to just fall on fumbles when I played when I was really young. The last two years I played I was barely under that limit, and they immediately switched me to full back and linebacker.
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u/Dismal-Sugar-7708 1d ago
Shout out to 22 in RED. Stayed blocking for his teammate... even tho he knew no one was gonna tackle him 😅
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u/MaddRamm 1d ago
He sacked his own QB on the way to that TD. Lololol
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u/GunsGoldCosmicDread 1d ago
You don’t see nearly enough running backs truck their own QBs.
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u/DorkSideOfCryo 1d ago edited 1d ago
His own quarterback was really the only one who got in his way, I don't think anyone else ever touched him except that guy who tried to tackle him in the end zone. That's hilarious..
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u/ThomasTheDankPigeon 1d ago
And #40 was visibly thinking to himself “please for the god someone block me before I catch up to this guy”
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u/paladin_4266 1d ago
Put the kid in as QB, cut out the middle man. He calls his own number every snap. Less chance at a turnover, less carnage, all upside.
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u/FartyBarts69 1d ago
My hometown league has a rule that you can’t run the ball if you weigh over 125 lbs
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u/Paraxom 1d ago
probably what it looked like playing against derrick henry in high school
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u/Notabagofdrugs 1d ago
Didn’t he rush for something like 10k yards in his 4 years? He’s just a fucking beast.
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u/irish_faithful 1d ago
Ridiculous this is allowed.
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u/GopherTitties 1d ago
It's not in most peewee leagues. The majority have a weigh limit for carrying the ball. Don't know why they think this is acceptable in this clip
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u/Different_Ad_7778 1d ago
It wasn't in the league I coached. A kid thst big could only block. We had a real big guy on our team who caught a tipped pass and ran it pretty far but the wouldn't let the play stand even though he wasn't the intended receiver
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u/Greedy_Ad1564 1d ago
How was this allowed? Every single kid on one team is smaller than every kid on the other team. Ignoring the giant idiot who ran over his own QB.. this feels like 2 completely different age groups.
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u/Several_Vanilla8916 1d ago
Middle school football can be brutal. I saw a 7th grader take off his helmet to yell at his coach for pulling him for one play after he got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. They were nose to nose. Coach sent him home and I was worried the kid might beat his ass.
In almost every game there was at least one and sometimes two kids bigger than every adult present. These kids are 6’2” 280 lbs at 13.
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u/PompousAssistant 1d ago
That 6’ 2”, ~275 lb kid was Ben, in my 7th grade class. Of course, Paul was the basketball star - he was ~6’ 4” in 7th grade. And you did NOT want to be on the other dodgeball team - he may have been the reason they started calling it “murderball.”
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u/Liquid-Hot_Smegma 1d ago
Hell, even baseball can feel horribly lopsided during adolescence.
When I was about 12, there was one kid who pitched who I’d guess was about 5’5 or 5’6 and built like a rock. Not sure the exact speeds he pitched, but to us kids at the plate, it felt like 100mph fastballs. It was damn near impossible for anyone to even make contact with the ball. I do remember the few times we did get a base hit, we’d celebrate like it was a walk-off grand slam homerun.
This dude was also very full of himself, and unsurprisingly he was the biggest bully at school. Funny thing though — he only grew a couple of more inches, at the most. In junior high, he ended up getting his ass kicked badly in a fight, which thankfully ended the bullying.
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u/New_Hawaialawan 1d ago
It’s a bummer because I loved baseball prior to around 12 years old. The next league was like 12-15 year olds and that range is a tremendous growth gap. One asshole coach allowed a 16 year old to continue as a pitcher.
Dude probably had facial hair. He’d stand out there on the mound and I’d be cowering in the furthest corner of the batters box. So this bearded dude just spent all season mowing down actual children. It was awful. And my fear of batting because worse when another pitcher hit my twice in one game.
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u/CrotalusHorridus 1d ago
Most 12 year olds pitch from 46 feet. If they can touch 65 or 70mph, it gets to home plate just as fast as a major leaguer throwing 100
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u/SignificantGoat4046 1d ago
This at least was still true in high school 2007-2011 football, even 5A (the biggest at the time of my experience, now there is 6a). I played against somoans that were legit 3x bigger than most on our team.
The trans athletes argument always made me laugh. The difference in whatever category you want to judge between a trans woman and a cis woman are insignificant in comparison to the unfair shit a lot of us dealt with in high school lol. It felt like we were playing against fully grown NFL linebackers.
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u/BiscuitDance 23h ago
I coach 7th grade ball. I’m 6’2” 230, and just about every team has at least one kid bigger than me.
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u/jtnichol 1d ago
It’s absolutely dangerous. They got to do it by weight like most other places.
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u/IamJewbaca 1d ago
When I played junior football, they had a weight / age matrix. I was on the smaller side so I was usually one of the older kids on the team.
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u/wimpymist 1d ago edited 1d ago
This happens a lot at these age groups. A team will come from a bigger district that actually picks its players. Another team will be from a smaller newer district. Very mismatched
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u/Healthy_Pay9449 1d ago
Don't watch Derrick Henry play highschool ball but that's just how it is. Usually lack of funding for one school means anyone makes the team
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u/elbowsandbuttholes 1d ago
Most youth leagues have a rule like you can't weigh over a certain limit and carry the ball.
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u/FecalDUI 1d ago
Yup we called ourselves “Dots” because we’d get a bright green dot sticker on our helmets
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u/CautiousCatch1102 1d ago
It was a dumb rule too because it prevented me from playing any position except lineman
Moved schools the next year and went back to WR
I was 6 foot at 13, not my fault.
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u/FunAdvisor_1435 1d ago
These aren't high school kids, this looks like Pop Warner which typically has weight classes.
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u/TheFlyingBoxcar 1d ago
Arite kids, memorize this playbook over the weekend
But coach, all it says is BALL TO 98. Its only one play.
Sounds like you'll have an easy weekend!
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u/i__dont___know 1d ago edited 1d ago
There’s no way they even have regular age categorization much less weight. There’s no way number 8(?) in black and number 7 in red are the same age, not to mention the elephant in the room.
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u/zKingOfClubz 1d ago
I used to coach boys soccer at this age, trust me when I say that the physical differences are VERY evident. You get some kids that hit their growth spurts early and are almost as big as me, (I’m 6’2) with other kids who look like they’re still in Kindergarten on the same team.
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u/shermanhill 1d ago
Yeah, I was the shortest kid in school and sang soprano until the summer between middle and high school.
Turned into a 6’3” bass.
Life is weird.
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u/zKingOfClubz 1d ago
I can actually relate myself, I was 5’4 entering eighth grade singing soprano in choir. Then I had a massive growth spurt and entered ninth grade at 6’0 and became a tenor.
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u/ForeverShiny 1d ago
I used to play rugby over here in Europe and my country is very international, but small so we played with teams in a league from a neighbouring country. I remember a whole year around age 12-13 where there was me, a tall lanky Spaniard and a guy from a Nordic country that was built like the RB here and the three of us were basically unstoppable because we were so much bigger and pretty much as fast as the little French fellas we were playing.
I remember running down a guy from another team that produced a clean line break so I tackled him at full speed from behind and the kid just started crying (even though I don't think he was hurt). Ref comes up to me and tells me that while it was absolutely a clean tackle, I should take it easy for the rest of the game. NGL I went home pretty proud that day even though now as a parent I'd be horrified
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u/Shadowfaxx71 1d ago
I was a coach for peewee football for years and we had a 12 year old that was 6'2 and big enough to drag an entire defensive line to the endzone. He later went on to play in the NFL.
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u/DiligentGuitar246 1d ago
His name? Doug Flutie.
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u/wilsonpossible 1d ago
I coach middle school track. Our smallest is VERY small. Some of the biggest may to out around 180. There was an 8th grader from another school solidly 6'3" 200 with a low body fat percentage. It's striking how different middle school kids are on the opposing ends
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u/Helmett-13 1d ago
We used to have weight limits when I played Pop Warner for reasons like this, haha!!
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u/Doctormaul68 1d ago
Did that kid flunk several years in a row to be that big?
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u/SirGingy 1d ago
I see a lot of people saying weight restrictions, but I know for sure there is an age restriction. And hey who know he's the tallest in his grade but could be done growing.
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u/bigchimp121 1d ago
Parents will literally hold their kid back going into 1st grade so they do better at sports through their childhood.
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u/tetragram83 1d ago
That looks incredibly unsafe. Dont kid leagues usually have weight and height restrictions for positions that carry the ball?
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u/Enough_Bedroom1421 1d ago
They do. Weighed before every game if you run the ball. This can't be real.
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u/Vavent 1d ago
Pretty stupid. No one gains anything from this. That running back could have a great future playing football, but with that body type you know it isn’t going to be as a running back. So the coach is playing him at a position he doesn’t need to learn instead of getting him started learning how to play the line, which is where he will realistically end up. The only logical reason to do this is to get easy wins against pee wee competition, and at that level, just why? None of the other kids on either team are learning anything, either, because they don’t even have to do their jobs to score.
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u/BonfireinRageValley 1d ago
His number is 98, which means he does play the line or at least should be with that number. I am assuming he doesn't play RB every offensive down or splits between DL and RB.
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u/Stunning_Nothing 1d ago
The good thing for the other team is that he only has the stamina for one run per game.
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u/richwat00 1d ago
Dude layed out his own quarterback!
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u/TellFit7415 1d ago
Lmao missed that on the first watch. The QB looks back at him like et tu Brute?
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u/CanadianSpector 1d ago
This is why our local youth program has weight restrictions on RBs and QBs.
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u/Malakad0ge3 1d ago
This reminds me of the joke my grandpa used to tell
A mans talking to his son after work, "Hey son how was school?"
Son goes "oh school was great, we did colors and numbers and i knew them all!"
The father says "That's great son, that's because you're smart."
The son goes "We answered questions about animals, the lion, the elephant, whales, and i knew all of them too!"
"That's because you're smart Son"
The son then says "And at PE we were changing and I had the biggest dick out of everyone! Is that because im smart?"
The father then goes "No, its because you're 35 fucking years old!"
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u/squirrelbiscuit77 1d ago
Great move in behalf of the coaches. Win alot of games and get this kid cardio. Geniuses!
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u/LockNessCrotchMonst 1d ago
He's a long strider, he'll never make it in the NFL.
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u/wimpymist 1d ago
As soon as other kids his puberty he will be dropped to middle pack. I remember a kid hit a massive growth spurt in middle school. During freshman year tryouts Junior varsity coaches were all over him because of his size. We all knew he had zero athletic ability or strength so the freshman coach let Junior varsity have him. He was always the worst player on the team and got out worked by guys half his size.
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u/kakaroto1989 1d ago
That must ruin all fun to everyone
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u/BBaddict2 1d ago
I agree. Using a future offensive tackle in HS or possibly beyond as your RB to win games in peewee is doing that child absolutely no good.
You’re not developing him as a future player that can succeed, you’re feeding your own ego as a coach.
A good coach would put him at tackle and run everything behind him so he grows as a blocker.
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u/NigerianFriedChicken 1d ago
Pffft.
This kinda play happens so rarely it doesn’t stunt anyone’s growth as a player. There will be hundreds and thousands of other plays in the future to “grow as a blocker”.
Getting a touchdown as a big guy is amazing.
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u/Bjorn_Blackmane 1d ago
Ran over his own qb lol