It was easy to see this past Saturday was not a typical day for my son, Bradley, during his middle school football game. Everything was fine except for his shotgun snaps from center that were a little high at times. That was a bit unusual for him. He takes a lot of pride in his work at center, especially shotgun snaps. But something was a little off.

In the fourth quarter of a tie game, his shotgun snap on third down went over the quarterback’s head and ended the drive. While there are other parents that may have screamed out things at their child, whether it’s demeaning or encouraging, I just put my head down because I felt his pain. I knew he was going to be mad at himself and hoped he wouldn’t let the feeling linger. Afterall, there was still plenty of time left in the game to make something happen.

Thankfully, thirteen-year-old Bradley is a bit more mature and grown up than ten or eleven-year-old Bradley. As soon as the play was over, he went over to talk to his coach, who gave him a pat on the helmet, and then immediately went over to the sidelines to work on his snapping. I knew he was angry, but the younger Bradley would’ve thrown his helmet, pouted and let this affect his play for the rest of the game.

With less than a minute to go and the game still tied, his team got the ball back and proceeded to march down the field for the game winning touchdown. I was very proud of Bradley on that drive because his snaps were perfect and blocking was solid in pass protection and running the ball Plus, he displayed leadership and guts by bouncing back from a bad play.

I’m proud of him because I know it’s not easy to recover from a mistake. It bothers me as an adult and I can’t imagine how a child feels when he or she makes a mistake, particularly in a youth sports game when teammates and spectators can sometimes be cruel. I know he’s my son and to many readers this may sound like an overenthusiastic parent, but I couldn’t have been prouder of the way he handled it.

That was a mature way to respond to adversity. I was even happier when he told me later that morning, without me asking, that the bad snap was on him and nobody else. He took responsibility for it, put ownership on it, worked to fix the problem and then helped his team win a hard-fought football game.

Sometimes a player can be defined by one or two plays, both good and bad. In reality, it’s better to define a player by his or her total body of work, and that includes hard work off the field to correct mistakes. Players are human and they make mistakes, especially young players, so it’s important they turn the page and learn from their errors.

Peter is a sports anchor for the CBS Sports Radio Network, FOX News Headlines 24/7 and WCBS 880 Radio in New York.  His son Bradley plays middle school football on Long Island and is a participant in the U.S. National Team program while his younger son Jared plays flag football.   Peter, his wife Sheryl and the boys are busy cheering on the New York Jets when they’re not at a youth football field.