Mason: Eyes on the NFL

Mason has been into football for a long time. A really long time. He first became interested in the sport when he caught it on TV around the tender age of five—although, in Mason’s case, “tender” may not be the best description!

“All the hitting and stuff got me into [football],” Mason observes wryly. For kids who want to play football, there are a couple of options, such as programs through Pop Warner—an organization that offers football, cheerleading, and dance for young people. Kids as young as five can play Pop Warner football. Mason adds that there are also flag football leagues for kids, “if you don’t like tackling.” Of course, for him, tackling was always part of the appeal. “It’s the best part,” he says with a laugh.

For this 14-year-old from Orange, California, joining the high school team this year was an important step in a journey that has taken him from five-year-old fan to full-fledged varsity player. Last summer, before the start of the school year, Mason joined football practice with fellow freshmen. During these pre-tryout practices, everyone who signs up can play, but the players do get sorted into groups according to ability. Mason was placed with the top players. When it came time to try out in the fall, he successfully pursued the positions of defensive end and running back.

The defensive end’s mission is to contain everything the opposing team tries, and to prevent opposing players from running around him. “If they go around you, then you’ve kind of failed at the job you’re supposed to do. But If they stay in between you and the other end, then you’ve done your job,” Mason explains.

In his offensive position as running back, Mason’s role is to help his team advance down the field when the quarterback passes or hands off the football to him. His preferred position? Probably defensive end. “I like defense a little bit more. I like hitting people more than getting hit,” Mason laughs.

Nevertheless, even practice can be pretty brutal. Fall is the hottest time of year in Mason’s area, and his team practices for about three hours after school every day, even in 90-plus-degree heat. Lately, the coach has really been putting them through their paces, too. At first, if the team made a mistake, they’d simply correct it and return to practicing. Now, the coach penalizes the team with “gases”—running up and down the field once for every mistake.

“So if we made ten mistakes? Up and down the field ten times,” Mason explains. This started after the team lost two of their first five games—although three wins out of five is nothing to sneeze at. “We’re doing pretty well,” Mason admits.

The team’s proudest moment came during their second game of the season. The opposing team was in the lead 6-0.

“It was one of those games where it wasn’t our best game on offense, and our defense stepped up. And from once [the other team] scored and beyond, we didn’t let them score any runs, and we ended up winning the football game 8-6. It was a really close game,” Mason says.

As defensive end, Mason was a big part of the victory, which felt pretty good. As an individual player, Mason’s peak experience so far this year was during their first game, when he sacked the quarterback five times in one game and made six tackles that prevented touchdowns. What a way to start out the season! Was the coach walking on air? “He was very proud,” Mason confirms.

Mason has made a lot of new friends on the varsity team at his high school. But because the kids from the junior high that he attended now all go to the same high school, he’s still able to hang out with old friends too. When he gets the chance, Mason enjoys mountain biking with his friends. He also spends time with his girlfriend of eight months when he can, but their class schedules don’t mesh, and between his football practice and her volleyball practice, their opportunities to hang out are few and far between. Then, of course, there’s homework. Not one to shy away from hard work, Mason says math is his favorite class because of “the challenge, really. I’m in Algebra I right now, and it’s pretty good so far. As it gets harder, I’ll like it even more.”

Mason’s Dad, Kergan, and his Pappy, Russ, have attended all of his games so far this season, along with his little brother, Marcus. Marcus is 12, and he tends to look up to Mason. “Sometimes he doesn’t show it,” Mason qualifies, but he can sense that his brother takes an interest in what he is up to. So far, though, Marcus hasn’t been bitten by the football bug. “My little brother likes more mysteries and stuff,” Mason says. “That’s cool.”

Sometimes, Mason feels like his family sticks out. He and his brother are African-American and their parents are white. Mason can occasionally read surprise in strangers’ expressions as they react to the fact that his family includes people of more than one ethnicity, and that his parents are a same-sex couple. Once, as a kid, Mason got lost in a store and approached an employee to page his dad.

“They were naturally thinking, probably, [that a] bigger African-American man would walk up, but my dad walked up,” Mason remembers. “People maybe don’t expect that at first.” Still, Mason doesn’t take offense, and he doesn’t blame people for reacting with surprise.

“I guess it’s kind of natural, because sometimes, when you see people, you expect them to be with their own ethnicity. You’re not expecting something different,” he reasons.

Mason also feels that coming from a family that some might view as non-traditional is advantageous in that it has contributed to his own open-mindedness. Mason is a thoughtful young man who avoids making assumptions about others. He also feels that Marcus is becoming more aware-and more comfortable in his awareness-that some people may perceive their family as different.

Just as families come in all shapes and sizes, so do athletes. Mason cheerfully declares himself to be “short,” and at 5’3”, he doesn’t quite fit the stereotypical image of the towering football player. But speed and agility are considered more important qualities than sheer mass for both defensive ends and running backs, and as his performance on the varsity team has shown this year, height is no obstacle to Mason’s dream of winning a football scholarship.

“Right now, unless I get seriously injured, that’s kind of my plan in life: just get a scholarship to a good college and then hopefully go into the NFL,” Mason says. Maybe it’s partly this sense of purpose that leads Mason to describe himself as “really happy.” Would it be fair to say that he is always in a good mood?

“Yeah,” he says. “Always.”