Teams of two

Turns out you can have a football party for four- and five-year-olds where an actual football game takes place even if it only lasts five minutes and only half of the handful of party guests opt to participate. (Water balloon tosses and pin-the-football-on-the-football player were more universally popular, but Will loved playing some real football with Rob’s dad as coach.)

Papa’s main role though, as ordered by Will, was to “do the halftime show.” One time last week Will even began to worry about whether Papa would flake: “I’m worried Papa’s not a good rememberer,” he said. “I’m worried he’s going to forget to do the halftime show.”

Papa declined to twirl batons or dance with pom poms but he did bring a boom-box and rally some moms for a ragged version of the “Cupid Shuffle” while their sons looked on in bewilderment. Out of respect for those of us involved, we’ll omit photos on that one.

But here are some some highlights from the football action.