The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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2015 RECRUITING ISSUE year in 2002 with the Philadelphia Eagles), Runyan hung up his cleats and shoulder pads for pressed suits. He retired from the NFL follow- ing the 2009 season, and ran for the United States House of Representa- tives, winning New Jersey's Third Congressional District. Runyan's son, Jon Daniel Runyan Jr., eventually found his way on the football field just like dad, though it took him a little longer than expected to realize it was his love. "I played a lot of basketball when I was younger," Runyan Jr. said. "I didn't really pick up football until later. It was just flag football and bas- ketball when I was growing up. "I was always bigger than a lot of the kids my age, and since the leagues were divided up by weight, I would have had to play with kids a lot older than me. My parents didn't want me to have to do that, so I didn't start playing football seriously until high school." Despite the fact that he didn't start playing on the offensive line until later than most pick up the game, and although he's just 6-4, 275 pounds (dad was listed at 6-9, 270 as a freshman in Ann Arbor), Runyan has put together an impressive foot- ball résumé. He's a two-time all-state performer — and state champion — for one of Pennsylvania's power pro- grams. All that with a coach right at his own dining room table who didn't start giving any instruction until his son was ready to pick up the pigskin on his own terms. "I think my dad was pretty hands- off when I was growing up," the younger Runyan said. "He didn't try to get me out working on my football skills or anything. He's a coach for