Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Determining my son's football future based on his first week of life

Actually, if you wait until day seven you're already behind the curve -- most scouts put top prospects through the ringer by day five of life:

Length: 19 inches
Analysis: Good, but not great. For future WRs you want at least 21 inches at birth; For QBs, 20 minimum. Still, many of the best RBs come in well below those marks -- Barry Sanders was famously just 17.2 inches the day he was born.

Grip: Strong (right hand), Strong (left hand)
Analysis: High marks -- exactly what you want to see from a defensive player or an offensive lineman. However, quick developing hand muscles may make becoming a relief pitcher a more attractive option.

Weight: 6 pounds, 10 ounces
Analysis: Poor. Most lineman, defensive or offensive, are born around 70 pounds. Cowboys DE Leon Lett was actually 90 pounds, 3 ounces at birth. His mother was the Statue of Liberty.

Legs: Two
Analysis: That's the only qualification you need to be a kicker or punter.

Speech: Mostly grunts and belches
Analysis: That was enough to get Andy Reid a head coaching job.

Intangibles: Kicky, stubborn, intense stare
Final analysis: You can't rule out running back until you see his 40-yard-dash times (we'll get to them next week) but initial results point to a hard-hitting player with good ball-hawking skills. Sounds like a safety to me. Anybody got a spare green #20 jersey?

6 comments:

Siegel said...

Ben weighed 10 lbs, 6 oz. at birth. Now he's a 111-pound, 9-year-old tank.

Siegel said...

Oops. I said that backwards. He weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz.

Anonymous said...

Oops...I wrote that backward. Ben was 6 lbs., 10 oz.

mrs shayle said...

Jim - That's just good parenting - the football part, not the math part.

Lari said...

This column explains a lot. Joe was a kicker, you know. As for little Awesome, I can barely wait for daily pix, thinking of his fb prowess is definitely going to keep me up nites.
xo

Unknown said...

Wait a minute, Hannah was 21 inches long, should I be getting her ready for a pro career???

Nancy