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Tyler Jenson, left, plays quarterback for La Cueva East and likes to run the football and score. (COURTESY OF MICHELLE JENSON)
When the NFL resumes its playoff festivities this week, men such as Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning and Ray Lewis will play their parts.
And so will a young Albuquerque man named Tyler Jenson, all 4 feet, 11 inches and 74 pounds of him.
Jenson is off to Atlanta this week as the nation’s leading NFL Punt, Pass and Kick scorer among 8- and 9-year-old boys.
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PPK New Mexicans
Here are the Punt, Pass and Kick sectional winners from New Mexico and where they ranked nationally: |
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He will compete with three other boys on Sunday during the Atlanta Falcons playoff game.
“I think I’ll do pretty good,” Jenson says.
Tyler’s brother, Thomas, 13, got him into football.
“My brother played, so I wanted to play,” Tyler says. “He’s my inspiration.”
Tyler plays quarterback for YAFL’s La Cueva East Rookies. The best part of playing football, he says, is “running the ball” and “scoring.”
It was while he was competing in YAFL that the Jensons found out about the local PPK competition.
Turns out, it was a journey his father, Tom Jenson Jr., traveled some 40 years ago when he competed in the PPK, going from Tucson to San Diego.
“We thought, ‘That’s cool,” Tyler’s mother Michelle says, “so we asked our son if he wanted to do it.”
“They said it was fun and I should try it,” Tyler says.
So he did.
The first round of competition was at Milne Stadium in September.
“I was nervous because there were a lot of people,” Tyler says.
But he won and advanced to sectional competition in Arizona in October. He captured sectionals, too.
That put him in competition to become the Arizona Cardinals representative.
And he took that.
“That was awesome,” says Tyler, whose favorite subjects are math and science.
He got to stand on the sidelines during a portion of the Cardinals-St. Louis Rams game and got his competition jersey signed by a number of the Cardinals, including Beanie Wells.
Alas, the Cardinals are not his favorite team. The Green Bay Packers are.
“I like Aaron Rodgers and the cheeseheads,” he says.
But winning the Cardinals’ competition wasn’t enough. Each NFL team had a competition and only the top four scorers among them would earn the trip to Atlanta. So he had to wait for all the results to trickle in.
Tyler’s score ended up the best in the country.
Fred Hultberg has been conducting New Mexico’s PPK for 15 years and says this is the first time a New Mexican has finished with the nation’s highest score.
Highlights of the competition will be shown throughout the Falcons’ playoff game. If he wins, he will be among those introduced to the nation between the third and fourth quarters.
So what is he most looking forward to?
“The airplane ride,” Tyler says.
It won’t be his first. He was born in Florida, but he and his family moved to Albuquerque the week of his sixth birthday.
And, it turns out, football is not his favorite sport. Hockey and swimming are. He recently competed with a club hockey team in Colorado.
But this week, it’s all about football. He says his father and brother have given him some tips:
“Stay concentrated, look at the ball, follow through on your throw.”
And enjoy the moment, because the years pass quickly. His 10th birthday, after all, is next Monday.
— This article appeared on page B1 of the Albuquerque Journal
-- Email the reporter at ejohnson@abqjournal.com Call the reporter at 505-823-3933
