The powers-that-be in football are desperately trying to convince parents that the game is safe for children. This story out of Rhode Island probably won't help. Kevin Stockwell was shooting video of his child playing in a league for 13- and 14-year-olds when he noticed a man, who according to the local ABC affiliate is believed to be nearly 20, suit up and play a few downs for the rival Capital City Buccaneers:"I could zoom right in and see the facial hair. You know most 13-year-olds are starting to get facial hair. This gentleman had facial hair and had arm tattoos."The facial hair and tattoos were a good giveaway, as was the fact that No. 84 happened to be twice as big as most other players.The founder of the Buccaneers club, Alexandra Diaz, said the coach made the switch to bring in the unidentified man, an older brother of one of the players, when she stepped away at the beginning of the second half. Fortunately it wasn't long before a referee realized what was going on and removed him from the game."It was a disgrace to me to our organization because that's not what we stand for," said Diaz.The Buccaneers have been removed from the youth league indefinitely and the coach in question has been fired. Let this be a lesson to any of you others coaches considering suiting up a huge adult male and sending him into the game to face young boys: people tend to notice that kind of shit.[WLNE-TV]
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