Want to motivate your son during a football drill? Try a BB gun!

Here’s Robert Barker, 41, of Lake County Fla. We’ll get to the charges in a minute, but first I would just like to remark on Mr. Barker’s obvious dedication to wearing hats. That is a quite vivid difference between neighboring ecosystems; it’s like having the U.S.-Canadian border on your face. Anyway, this pasty-topped fellow stands accused of asshattery in the first degree, i.e. making his stepson run sprints in full football gear in 91-degree heat, even though the boy had just left football practice complaining of side pain.

When they got home, Barker told the teen he needed more conditioning so he set up cones about 20 yards apart in the front yard of their home. He made the boy run sprints in his football gear using the BB gun to signal the beginning of the drill, he said.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

It was 91 degrees with a heat index of 107 on Saturday, a deputy said in a report.

Barker, a former football player, said the sprints would help alleviate the athlete’s pain, which he said was likely caused by a lack of conditioning.

An anonymous caller heard the gun and called deputies, who appeared on the scene after the boy already had taken a cold shower.

Barker was charged with one count of child abuse and one count of aggravated assault with a weapon. He bonded out of the Lake County jail on Sunday. As a condition of his release, he cannot have any contact with the youth.

Yes, for this lad, Hell Week is finally over. For his part, the stepfather says it was “all a misunderstanding.” The residents of the ruddy, sunburned portion of his face tend to agree, but the inhabitants of the frigid northern snowscape of his forehead think he is a nothing more than a criminal.
Meanwhile, in the mysterious, forested southern beard area, ominous native drums can be heard …
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Man accused of using BB gun to force teenager to exercise apologizes [Orlando Sentinel]