Rick Lovato and his father were at the artificial field in Normandy Park near Lincroft, N.J. on Sunday afternoon, just north of where the Garden State Parkway cleaves through Monmouth County, and it was cold.
Just this year, Rick Sr. began to wear gloves when the two of them go to the field and he was glad to have them. Rick Jr. is a football long snapper and heaving a ball between your legs with speed and accuracy isn't something you can practice by yourself.
"I used to complain. You sprain a finger here or jam a finger there, and the laces can cut you.