My first organized football was Pop Warner at age 12. From that point on I played every year.. right up to two years in college.. Well one and a half years at college because I quit my sophomore year because I didn't think I was getting enough playing time. Worst decision I ever made.. I really missed the comradery of the guys and of course game days. Fortunately for me Harvard had full padded intramural football where your dorm team played against other dorm teams. That let me scratch my football itch last two years of college. Then every Friday before the Harvard/Yale game the top 4 teams from each school square off at the home field of the home team that year. The intramural season was 6 games followed by playoffs followed by the Yale games. The only drawback was we didn't practice much, maybe once a week, and nobody was in shape.. Fortunately we were in our early 20s so we were kinda in shape whether we knew it or not! LOL! It was still fun as hell .. But I knew I wasn't in shape because I got tired. I had never actually felt tired in a game before. Had damn near passed out in the Florida heat in practice many times.. but never felt fatigue in a game. There were even a few fans in the stands during the Yale games..
After college it was just sandlot football until I started pulling muscles and getting rolled up on .. I switched to flag football at about age 30 and played that until I started breaking bones doing that.. That also coincided with my son starting to play so I had to give up my weekend glory to coach him. I helped coach him and his teams from age 9 to his junior year in high school.. Then after he graduated I coached a couple more years until my wife put her foot down and demanded that I spend evenings and weekends with her and not coaching some stranger's kids! LOL! Some women don't understand football at all I tellya!
