Gym Candy

Mick Johnson’s first memory is being four years old. His father gives him a small purple and gold football. In their backyard, his father teaches him the rules of the game “but he never let [Mick] have anything for nothing, not even then”(3). Mick is not resentful. He takes to football immediately and his admiration for his father, Mike, is boundless. Mike is stronger and taller than the other boys’ fathers, and their basement is full of trophies and football memorabilia from his days as a college football star. Mick’s mother was a former gymnast, but she worries that Mike is putting too much pressure on Mick. She encourages Mick to be himself, and to not worry about the pressure of football, if he decides that it isn’t for him. 

Mick started kindergarten a year later than most kids, which gave him an advantage in the Pop Warner football league by the time he began playing in third grade. He was an immediate star, having been trained by his father, and being a year older and bigger than the other players. His father began taking him to every football camp he could find. His mother worried that everything was about football, but Mick didn’t complain.