I was always the youngest kid in my class. I was 4 when I started k/g and turned 5 a week into the school starting. Even being the youngest, I was always the biggest boy in my class (a couple girls were taller at times). At age 14 I was 6' 200lbs. (was 6' 2" 235lbs by my Soph. year) I LOVED football.
I had the priv. to learn to play football with this guy's kid.
6-time Pro Bowler
3-time NFLPA NFC Offensive Lineman of the year (1976, 1977, 1978)
5-time All-Pro (1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980)
His son, Dan Dierdorf Jr. was an amazing talent. He could litterally play any position on the team, and was pretty close to the best at any of those positions.
Run, kick, throw, block, Dan Jr. could do it all. I had size on him, but he had this raw talent and ability that was amazing to see. He was prob. 6' 210lbs ish, and one of the meanest son of a guns i've ever met.
His 1st day at my High School as a freshman he got into a fight with one of the toughest seniors in the school. Dan Jr. smashed him into a locker, picked him up by the back of the belt and his shirt collar, and THREW him through the glass doors of the Office. (of course, nobody "saw" who did it, and the kid said he "tripped")
He ended up being a fullback (mostly) and would "rate" a game by how many players on the other side he could knock out of the game. A "good" game to him was at least 6 players on the opposing team having to be benched from him knocking the stuffing out of them. (I think his record was 12-13)
The coaches on the other teams would complain about him being allowed to play on both off. and def. Looking back, it really wasn't fair. This kid had one of the greatest lineman in the history of the game as a Dad.
(you should have seen his Dad pull up on his 1000cc BMW motorcycle and it looked like a mini-bike under him)
Me and Dan jr. were put on the Varsity team as Freshman and Dan was involved in a fumble where there was a HUGE pile up of kids. Litterally most players on both sides were in a huge pile and fighting for the ball.
When the ref's finally cleared everybody off, Dan jr. had the ball. He was on the edge of the pile with his arm snaked in holding the ball and what had to be a couple thousand pounds of kids piled on top of it.
He broke LITTERALLY every bone in his right hand, and never played ball again. (he ended up getting sent to a military school)
Towards the start of my Sophmore year I slipped while mowing the yard and put my left foot under the mower. (I am one of the reasons there is a guard now on the back of push mowers)
Thus ended my football career.
Always was a "what if" to me. Not saying I could have been a "pro" or anything, but I for sure could have played Div. 1 ball. I was a nose guard and averaged 3-4 sacs a game. By the time I was a Senior, I coulda been 260lbs easy. (I grew to 6'4")
Oh well. C'est la vie
