Comments about ‘Ezekiel Ansah, Margus Hunt show youth can wait to start football’

While I do believe kids can wait to start playing football and don't need to start in 1st grade trying to use Ansah and Hunt as the examples is a complete and total joke. Those guys are simply physical freaks that can overcome their lack of skill by sheer athletic ability. They constitute far less than .00000001 percent of the population. Most people, and that includes people that are outstanding athletes in their own right, need to have experience and develop skill to make themselves into a player that might have a chance to make it onto a college team, let alone an NFL team. The only way to do that is to play for quite a few years.

When I was growing up we did not have youth tackle football, no one played until 9th grade. Very few of us even advanced to college, of course very few still do make it to college as football player, but the percentages are now higher in part because kids have had more time to develop as players.

I'm not sure what the proper age is, maybe 7th grade. But waiting until they're 20 isn't going to do it.

Growing up in California as a LDS kid, in those days games were on Sundays. I never had a chance to play football until high school. That's one reason I moved to Utah. I have two kids that play D-1 football largely because they played earlier than myself. Do they need to start in 3rd grade?? Not really.

For example, I have a friends whose sons played at Utah and one at Oregon. These kids were 6'2" 240# in the 7th grade. In California, they have a weight limit and so these kids couldn't play tackle until HS. These kids played flag football until HS. This resulted in them improving their speed and athleticism. Now these kids are playing D-1 FB and more prepared because they were able to develop speed and athleticism.

Big kids that play early, I predict, stay big and slow. What's the difference between HS, College, and Pros??? SPEED and athleticism.