When my son was three years old, his first experience in youth sports was on the soccer field. To say that Bradley was energetic at a young age would be an understatement. The fact that he fell in love with sports pretty quickly made for an interesting dynamic. 

You could tell right from the start that Bradley didn’t just show up to look good in the uniform. He always had fun playing in the backyard or at the playground, but this was a chance for him to play in a real game as he would watch on television or when we would go as a family to a sporting event. He played hard, dribbled the ball up and down the field and scored a few goals.

For Bradley, playing sports at a young age was a necessity because he needed an activity or an outlet to release his energy and emotions. As part of USA Football’s Football Development Model, creating an emotional outlet for a child is part of the pillar focused on the whole person and multi-sport development.  

He was exposed to football at a young age because he grew up in a football-crazy home. I also used to take him to practice every day when I was the radio voice of the Arena Football League’s New York Dragons. It just never dawned on my wife and me that playing football was even possible at that young of an age. At the end of the day, he was still a year away from that being a reality. 

For many families in our community, soccer was the starting point when it came to youth sports. That’s what we decided to do with Bradley and subsequently with our younger son, Jared. 

We eventually registered Bradley for peanut instructional tackle football and the rest, as they say, is history. He loved to play sports, but he also loved to get his aggression and emotions out. Football certainly gave him that platform. Ten years later, he’s still playing football. He’s still getting those aggressions out, although, they’re different now than they were when he was four, five or even six years old.

This sport helps him relieve stress that occurred earlier in the week. Maybe there’s anger built up about something that is going on in the world and he uses football to let his emotions run wild. And also, just being naturally excited and motivated to do well and win.

When you think about the definition of this pillar of focus within the Football Development Model, there’s no question that football is the right sport for a young athlete to use as an outlet for letting out emotions. While the objective is to learn the fundamentals and the proper techniques, there are also emotional, social and mental aspects of a football player to keep in mind.

Football is a big part of my son’s life. It’s his happy place, but it’s also an outlet for emotion. He leaves it all on the football field. 

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 and the XFL’s New York Guardians when they’re not at a youth football field.