If you have been reading the blog for a while, you have read about our son Grant’s athletic exploits here, here, here and here.

Well, now our family is entering a whole new athletic world — tackle football.

For the last two years, Grant has played Upward flag football at a local church, but this past season, he didn’t really enjoy it. He was the oldest kid on his team, and the only one who could throw and handle the ball. In Upward, that’s almost a curse, because quarterbacks can’t run past the line of scrimmage. So while he threw a few touchdown passes, he never scored. About 75 percent of his plays consisted of him handing the ball off and watching someone else run.

So he has been itching to move up, and this season, he gets his chance. Grant will be playing on the Carter Hornets 8-year-old team and he can’t wait. Saturday was the first official team function, which consisted of him getting fitted for his pads, helmet and uniform. As you can see from the pictures below, he was pretty tickled about it.

Although I’m not sure his dreams of scoring a touchdown will be fulfilled this season, either. Of the kids who showed up, he was the tallest and heaviest, which means he will likely be playing offensive and defensive line. Maybe they’ll let him be the center.

Still, it’s (relatively) the same game that he sees our Alabama Crimson Tide play on Saturdays, so I would imagine that will probably be good enough for him.

The tough part, though, is that his summer vacation is rapidly dwindling away. Practice starts the first of July and the games begin at the end of August.

And so it goes…