Seawolves Fans

It started with his father tossing him a football in the backyard of their home in Chino Hills, Calif. Kyle Essington, then a fifth-grader and now the star quarterback at Stony Brook University, initially thought nothing more of it than a chance to spend time with his dad, Randy.

Then it started to click. The way Randy handled the ball -- the grip, the spiral, the distance -- was like the quarterbacks Kyle saw when they watched college football on television.

Nothing in the Essington household advertised that Randy had been a premier college quarterback at Colorado who was drafted by the Super Bowl champion Raiders in 1984. "You know how kids are; they want to be like their dad,'' Randy said. "My whole life, I never had any memorabilia of me playing. I never wanted him to think it was everything in the world to me that he played football.''

So Dad never mentioned his football career. "I think Kyle overheard people conversing with Randy and I regarding Randy playing,'' said Julie Essington, Kyle's mom. "Kyle started asking questions. We said, 'It was wonderful. Your dad was drafted by the Raiders.' It made Kyle think, 'Wow, my dad was kind of a big deal.' ''  .....