High School Player's Season in Jeopardy Unless He Can Find Size 22 Cleats

It's not uncommon for an exceptionally large kid -- whether it be Pee Wee, junior high or high school -- to have trouble finding pants, or a jersey, or maybe even a helmet that fits properly. That's what happens when some rug rats hit puberty a lot earlier than their classmates. But I don't ever remember hearing of a player whose season was in jeopardy because he couldn't find shoes to cover his size 22 feet.

Meet Connor Duffy, a 6-8, 300-pound junior tackle on Kingsway Regional High School football team. Via the Gloucester County Times (by way of PFT):

"A lot of guys in college and the NFL wear sneakers (on turf), but we need cleats to have the best traction," [head coach Tony] Barchuk said. "If it's raining and he has sneakers on ..."

"He missed a couple of days of practice last week because he rolled his ankle," added Connor's mother, Gretchen. "It's frustrating, he just wants to play football."

Duffy was on the JV team as a freshman and in that time he's grown three inches and his shoe size has gone from 18 to 22. And not even the Al Gore Machine has been able to help Duffy find cleats that fit properly.

"They go up to 19, and after that they only sell them to special athletes," Connor said. "We had mini-camp in June, and I've been looking for cleats since the end of mini-camp. I thought I could just find them online, but I guess I can't."

FanHouse's Michael David Smith pointed out that in a quick Google search he found Jimmy Kleinsasser to have the biggest NFL shoe size -- 18. And a PFT reader said there's a player named Jamarcus Webb with size 24s, although I haven't been able to confirm it.

And while I haven't checked, I'll go ahead and wager that one of the Gramatica brothers holds the record for the NFL's tiniest feet. I'm guessing a size 4. Five max.