AUSTIN, Texas — Peter Taaffe saw it early. Little Michael Taaffe, in the second grade, had a look in his eye in his first Pop Warner football practices in the West Lake Hills area of Austin.
Michael was competing against third- and fourth-graders and was already exceedingly competitive — the result of being the youngest of four siblings all involved in youth sports. At the end of practice, when the coaches made the kids run wind sprints and most just wanted to get them over with to go home, Peter noticed his son would shift gears.
“Michael had this look on his face and he was not going to lose. He was going to be first, and his life depended on it,” Peter said, laughing. “I thought, this…
