NIU football’s Dan Sheldon races down the sideline and is downed by the ultra-quick Jacob Winter. Who, you ask?

Sheldon, NIU’s wide receiver/punt returner and running back Michael Turner lined up to play football on June 14. This time the players were not dodging 250-pound linebackers, but feisty 7-year olds.

“Jacob became a big fan last year because of the football team’s success,” said Jacob’s father, Jim. “So we arranged for them to come to his birthday party,”

Jacob watched the Huskies defeat Wake Forest in his first NIU football game from the bleachers of Huskie Stadium. However, the bleachers did not bring Jacob close enough to the players.

Wolf Shafer, the son of NIU football defensive coordinator Scott Shafer, played baseball with Jacob’s older brother Josh last summer. So, Jim asked Scott Shafer if he would ask Sheldon and Turner to come to Jacob’s birthday party.

Sheldon, Turner and the rest of the NIU football squad had been conditioning Monday through Thursday in June. Being asked to go to a 7-year-old’s birthday party caught Sheldon off-guard.

“It was an odd request,” Sheldon said. “We didn’t really know what to expect when we got there.”

Jim measured off his backyard in five-yard increments. Half of a football field, end zone and all, was substituted for the Winter’s backyard. Field goal posts made of PVC pipe topped off the makeshift field. All that was missing were 18 7-year olds and two Huskie football players.

The 228-pound senior running back and 5-foot-11 junior wideout coached and quarterbacked each of the teams.

Sheldon said the game was like playing sandlot football when he was a kid.

“We ran trick plays like double-reverse passes,” Sheldon said. “It was a lot of fun.”

The punishing game of two-hand-touch football had taken its toll on two of the Huskies’ top offensive threats. Nevertheless, enough fuel remained in the players tanks after the game to autograph mini-footballs and take a picture with all the kids.

Each player’s success last season left an impression on Jacob, but Sheldon edged Turner out in the voting for Jacob’s favorite player.

“I like Dan Sheldon because he is really fast and because he returns punts,” Jacob said.

Jacob believes NIU will do well this year, and is looking forward to seeing another victory in NIU’s season opener.

At the end of the day, the kids chased the players’ car down the street, waving goodbye as Sheldon and Turner headed back down the road to reality.

“I just can’t think of a way to thank these guys enough,” Jim Winter said.