The New York Times-20080128-Carrying Ball and Message- N-F-L- Rewards a 10-Year-Old

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Carrying Ball and Message: N.F.L. Rewards a 10-Year-Old

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Jared Doutt, a football player from Erie, Pa., will be making his first Super Bowl appearance Sunday.

I'm not too nervous, he said Thursday. Not too nervous.

Immediately after the coin toss, Jared, a 10-year-old San Diego Chargers fan who plays intramural football at Grandview Elementary School in Erie, will run onto the field and hand the game ball to an official.

I keep telling Jared not to worry, said David Bryan, Jared's stepfather. After all, they can't start the game without him.

Two weeks ago, Bryan received a phone call from the N.F.L. and was told that Jared had been randomly chosen from among 50,000 entrants who had registered to be a part of the league's Play 60 Challenge. In the contest, participants pledge to be physically active for at least 60 minutes a day as a way of getting families to understand the dangers of child obesity.

When I told Jared he had won, his eyes got as big as saucers, Bryan said. He couldn't believe it.

Jared, who plays football, soccer, basketball and the piano, had no trouble keeping his commitment to be physically active. By getting selected, Jared and his family received three tickets to Super Bowl XLII at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.; accommodations for seven days and six nights at a hotel; and a rental car with a car seat for Jared's little sister, Gemma, 4, who will also make the trip.

I was in shock when I found out I had been chosen, Jared said. I told my mom, and she thought maybe the whole thing was a scam.

His mother, Bridget Mooney, a Patriots fan who grew up in Northfield, Mass., soon learned it was no scam. She and her father, Patrick Mooney, will be accompanying Jared to the game, watching as he trots onto the field in front of thousands of fans, Giants and Patriots all around him.

We're very excited for him, said Bridget Mooney, who will wear her Tom Brady jersey to the game. For Jared, this contest didn't force him to change his lifestyle a whole lot. He has always been active in sports, which we encourage because we don't want him sitting home all day playing video games.

Jared, an aspiring kicker, said he would try not to let the crowd noise become a factor Sunday.

I'm looking forward to running the ball out there, but I haven't really thought about how I will react to the crowd, he said. Like I said, I'm not too nervous about it.

Jared's favorite player is Drew Brees, but he stuck with the Chargers even after Brees left to join the New Orleans Saints. Despite the fact that his mother and grandfather will be rooting for the Patriots, he said he would cheer for the Giants on Sunday.

I always root for the underdog, he said. I rooted for the Chargers in their playoff game against the Patriots, and now I'm rooting for the Giants, another underdog.

The Giants had better win, he said without a trace of humor in his voice. I'm missing my intramural sports just to be at this game.

[Illustration]PHOTO: Jared Doutt of Erie, Pa., part of the Play 60 Challenge aimed at child obesity, will deliver the game ball Sunday. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE)