The rules of youth football vary from state to state, but one rule is pretty consistent: the players cannot be adults.
Apparently a coach in Providence, Rhode Island didn't get the memo. According to ABC6, the coach of the Capital City Buccaneers played an 18-year-old in a game meant for 13- and 14-year-olds.
He wasn't hard to pick out of the crowd, as a parent of the opposing Scituate Titans quickly noticed there was something different about this particular player.
"I could zoom right in and see the facial hair," said Kevin Stockwell. "You know most 13-year-olds are starting to get facial hair. This gentleman had facial hair and had arm tattoos."
The refs noticed the hulking 18-year-old as well, and pulled him out of the game after a few plays.
The parents complained to league officials immediately, and the news quickly made it to Alexandra Diaz, the horrified founder of the Buccaneers.
"It was a disgrace to me [and] to our organization because that's not what we stand for," Diaz said. "The coach told me it was his idea. He takes full responsibility for it."
League vice president Nelson Pedro has reportedly removed the Buccaneers from competition, effective immediately. Of course, the situation could have been much worse had the 18-year-old caused serious injury to a child before being kicked out of the game.
A master of understatement, Pedro summed up the feelings of everyone involved in the incident.
"Certainly everybody is a little disappointed," he said.
