A middle schooler from Mesquite, Texas is trying to play pee wee football. The problem is the child is 6' 3" and weighs 300 pounds. He has never played football before and wants to try football at the pee wee level before playing school football. I see a few problems with this whole story that is beginning to gain national coverage and has caused a dispute within the pee wee football league. The coach of the pee wee team does not seem to see a problem with the child, Elijah Earnheart, playing for his team, but the rules state that the limit to play in the league is 135 pounds. My math may not be great, but I do believe Elijah weighs more than double that amount. The league cites safety of the other children as the major reason to not allow Earnheart to play and this is completely understandable. So who is right and wrong in this whole situation?
A twelve year old that weighs 300 pounds is a bit ridiculous, whether he is 6'3" or 5'0''. How can this be possible? Most college linemen are not much bigger than this and are ten years older than Elijah Earnheart. I am not a parent, but I find it hard to put all the blame on the child for weighing this much at such a young age. As child obesity is a major problem in this country already, having a twelve year old weigh 300 pounds is putting this kid at risk for many health issues later on his life. As this is a sports blog, I will leave the rest of the morals out of this post and talk about how bad this could be. With the weight limit being 135 pounds, which seems low for this age group, a player that is that much bigger than all the other kids could make the league very unsafe for any child that has to line up against Earnheart. Whether he has the strength of a normal guy this size or not, just his sheer size puts the children at risk. If he falls on someone that weighs 135 pounds or less, that kid could easily suffer broken bones because their bodies are not ready to support this amount of weight. It also gives Elijah's team a distinct advantage if he shows any promise at all. All the team would have to do is run behind him every play and they would score on more than fifty percent of these plays. Kids at this age do not have all the tools and secrets on how to defeat a blocker of this size and would discourage more kids from playing after lining up against Elijah. The fact is that it is pure ignorance if they allow this kid to play unless they put in some ground rules first, but that may also lead to a lawsuit as well.
I do believe that if the child really wants to play football, he should have one option and that is to play school football or not at all. It sounds unfair and I know he wants to play with his friends, but school coaches have access to more experience in coaching than most pee wee coaches and would give the kids playing against Elijah a fighting chance. If Earnheart is not able to play football until high school, he runs the risk of being behind in fundamentals which in a full contact sport may put him at risk for injury.
Overall, I believe the pee wee league is doing the right thing by not letting him play, but the parents of this child need to try to talk him into playing school football if he really wants to play. I do believe that if children want to be active they should be, but not at the risk of injuring other children. There is only a few people to blame for the child being this big and the children who are following the rules of the league should not be punished for signing up to play against someone twice their size. If Elijah Earnheart really wants to play he will play school football, if not he needs to understand that there are rules and that safety is the reason he can not play pee wee.
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