My BS17 has played football since he was 10 years old. I've never deluded myself into thinking that he was going pro. We spent every single football season, trekking him here, there and everywhere. Never missed a game, never late for a practice, have traveled to different states for camps and games. The reason we did it was because it was the best remedy for his ADHD. He was able to burn the energy on the field and come home, bathe, eat dinner, do his HW and knock out, exhausted. Too tired to bounce off the walls.
Football kept him off the streets and off of drugs and focused on school. It got him accepted into 4 separate colleges and while his college isn't fully paid for by football, it will certainly get him some financial help and in this economy, it's all I can ask for.
I will say, we ONLY signed him up for football. There was no way in hell I was doing multiple sports or activities.

"scorching gonads".

best make-believe team name EVERRRRR.

I have heard so many of these stories from parents with my bios, steps and now grandkids.

My DD was an excellent basketball player, travel, AAU, you name it. She got a lot of offers for smaller state schools to play ball. She walked away from it when she graduated. I was so happy she didn't want to play at the college level.
A good friend of hers that she played on many youth teams played basketball and football in high school. He was the school 'star' athlete...good family, all of it. He wasn't recruited to our big University near us for bball, but was picked for local smaller college for football.

He ended up getting arrested for public intoxication, dropped out of school and never did anything with all of his 'star' talent.

I read this article a while back and actually got a chuckle out of some of the comments.

My DS played travel hockey and is now in high school hockey. Yes, I schlepped him all over the midwest, from Chicago to Pittsburgh, Detroit to Cincinnati... and everywhere in between.

And he loves the sport. But if he came to me tomorrow and said he didn't LOVE it anymore, I'd let him quit.

I also know that he'll probably never strap on his goalie pads after the last game of his senior year. I'm OK with that.

I have a friend who is abso-freakin-lutely convinced her kid is going to make it to the NHL. He's an average player... good at times, has scored some goals, has some good defensive moves. But NHL? And he's so brainwashed he says it too (at age 15). Now mind you, we have the honor of knowing two kids (one is 15, one is 17) who have been drafted into the Juniors from this area. That's a pretty big deal, but Juniors is still a LONG WAY OFF from the NHL. And these boys are pretty spectacular players, to say the least. I at least hope this mom and her kid have "alternative plans" for when he doesn't make it.

I shared this on FB, and interestingly enough she didn't comment on it... even though she usually comments on everything I post.