Leonard Williams still remembers the day clearly.
He was 13 and waiting in a long line to finally sign up to play football. Williams loved the game after watching it on Sundays with his father, Clenon, who himself played at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas, the subject of the book “Friday Night Lights.” Now, Leonard was finally in seventh grade, and his parents were going to allow him to play Pop Warner.
Except he was too big.
When Williams reached the tent, from which a long sign-up line stretched, he was told to step on a scale.