QUARTERBACK CHRISTIAN WRAGGE
Christian Wragge is a 9-year-old football player with an arm of an NFL quarterback. I’m exaggerating, but when you see him throw, the ball spiraling through the air for almost half the length of a football field, hanging airborne before it finally drops into the arms of a young receiver, it’s jaw-dropping. He’s in third grade.
I’ve known Christian since he was 3 years old. His mom is our contributing nutrition editor, Sarah Wragge, and his father is CBS News New York This Morning co-anchor Chris Wragge. I follow them both on Instagram, and when Chris started posting videos of Christian playing football, I became obsessed. Yes, they are filmed like NFL highlight reels, but I couldn’t believe the arm on this kid. We’ve done sport phenoms and prodigy stories before, but this one might be the greatest story yet to be told.
Christian has been playing football since kindergarten. Chris has been coaching him and his teammates since then. “I started Christian and 12 of his friends in the Under Armour flag football league called Under the Lights and formed a team. 10 of those 14 kids have been with me for 3 years.”
He himself a college football player, Chris told me, “At the quarterback position, I can speak to the fact that I have looked at, and follow, and have good friends that are quarterback coaches at every level across the country, and there is no one like him at his age in this nation right now”. Lest you think he’s biased, Christian’s elementary school coach, Eric Knight, who is the director and football coach for the town of Wyckoff, NJ, told me “Christian is the best quarterback I’ve ever coached in my 19-year career.”
NORTHEAST SHOWDOWN 7V7 JERSEY DREAM CHASERS 10U CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM, COACHED BY CHRIS WRAGGE, AND MVP CHRISTIAN WRAGGE
Christian plays on multiple teams depending on the season. Chris coaches him on many of those teams. There’s flag football, with 12 on a team, and 7 on 7, which is touch football. He also plays tackle football for his town in full gear, which he just started this year. “He’s been a good flag player and 7 on 7”, Chris said, “but you never know what a kid is going to be like until he puts pads on, and gets hit, and has 11 guys chasing after him, and they’re all in pads. But he went out and turned a lot of heads this past season”.
Christian played on the third grade tackle team with his classmates, and that team went undefeated. He split time playing and practicing with the 4th graders as well. They already had a quarterback, but when they put him in, he would throw touchdowns. He also played a key role their championship superbowl, which they won. “It couldn’t have been a better fall campaign for Christian”, said Chris, “and then it was on to winter football.”
FATHER AND SON, COACH AND QUARTERBACK, CHRIS AND CHRISTIAN WRAGGE
At 9 years old, Christian is already being scouted. “Everybody is recruiting. If there’s a great running back, or wide receiver, or quarterback, everybody wants to get their hands on them. There are so many football leagues around here and teams. They recruit from all over and you don’t have to be from that town. I get business cards from all these coaches. Our town football program is so advanced and so well coached, it doesn’t really benefit him to go play in these other leagues, but it’s very flattering. A lot of high schools also recruit. They have future files and kids they will watch over the years. If he loves it and stays on this trajectory, the sky is the limit.”
It should be said that a quarterback is only as good as their receivers. Christian has had incredibly talented teammates who can run the routes and catch the precision passes he throws, which speaks to the level of the town program. Christian will say the same thing.
When asked him what his goals are, “To play quarterback in the NFL”, and of course, as a kid from New Jersey, “for the New York Giants”. I can see him running on to the field now!
ME AND THE QUARTERBACK KID
