There may be hope in bringing my older son to the Dark Side.
He is starting up his 3rd season of football in 5th grade. Even though they want to use him in a skill position on offense (something he wasn't able to do the first two years due to size and weight limits) he still seems more excited about defense. He can play any position on defense from DT to the secondary. He just has an unusual very good blend of size, height, speed, agility and overall athleticism and one of, if not the best, conditioning on the team thanks to him being in club swim. Last year he played mostly DT on defense with some DE and even a little OLB in a 5-2 alignment (hardly ever throw at that age). I think the best spot for him to use his abilities is at DE. Plus, this year they have a couple of boys that can play DT that are a bit taller and heftier than him and they have a good amount of smaller kids with good speed.
Anyways.... the whole point of all of this is he is getting super excited about DE. in the past he has been obsessed (still is really) with speed. So, it wasn't totally shocking (though still deeply disappointing) that Tyreek Hill and thus the Chefs became his favorites. (I had him pointed towards Ruggs and his jersey number is even 11 because of that push but we all know how that ended up).
I have been talking to him about effort and always keeping the motor running. That if he doesn't give up on ANY play and goes hard until that whistle blows then he will make 1 or 2 more plays a game and in football that can be the difference of the game. I mentioned Crosby because he is probably the best example of this. He perked up and he showed more interest in Maxx so I kept chatting him up about why Maxx is so good and how exactly good he is compared to the other NFL players. I read an article on The Athletic that mentioned how Crosby runs extra sprints at practices which goes directly into what I have been trying to encourage my sons mindset to be. So, I showed him that part of the article and his face lite up like 'wow'. So then we watched highlights of Maxx in both college and the Raiders and we broke some of it down, talked about his moved, his high motor and how he is held on almost every play but still keeps going. It was a good little Dad/Son time that went on much longer than his normal attention span for watching sports stuff (he loves to play but doesn't last long watching).
Hoping that that can be something that brings him to where he belongs. The only good thing right now is that he is no longer a Chef fan after Hill was traded..... comparatively having a son that is a Fins fan is much better than a Chef fan but I have always thought my kids would follow me in being stupidly in love with the Raiders.