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Cavan Sullivan Is The Youngest Professional Athlete In The History Of North American Sports

Author Cort Freeman and Dave & Chuck the Freak
Cavan Sullivan of the Philadelphia Union just became the youngest athlete in North American sports history! (Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)

Meet Cavan Sullivan. He’s the youngest professional athlete in the history of North American sports and you’ll likely be hearing his name for a long time.

Cavan Sullivan is only 14-years-old but he just made his debut with the Philadelphia Union, becoming the youngest player in Major League Soccer history. According to SportsCenter, he’s not only the youngest player in MLS history–but in the history of North American sports! Get to know him better below.

Who Is Cavan Sullivan?

Cavan Sullivan made history when he checked into the Union’s home game against the New England Revolution during the 85th minute. At 14 years and 293 days of age, he was roughly 2 weeks younger than soccer player Freddy Adu when he made his MLS debut back in 2004 for DC United, per AP News. Adu took to social media to congratulate Cavan saying, “Big congrats to Cavan Sullivan for his record breaking debut today. That’s a hard record to break and the kid did it. Well done and good luck my man.” Cool to see that kind of support, especially coming from the person whose record you just beat. Athletes aren’t always very kind about that. They can take these records very seriously!

Sullivan isn’t the only note-worthy name in his family, however. His 20-year-old brother, Quinn, also plays for the Philadelphia Union and scored a goal in the game. It’s so cool to see brothers playing professional sports together. They probably grew up with that dream and now it’s real life. Huge accomplishment for both of them.

Cavan Sullivan did record a shot on goal during the game, marking the first of his career. It was saved, but it’s still a stat on the sheet. No other 14-year-old can say that right now. Elias Sports Bureau says Sullivan is younger than any player who has appeared in the NBA, NHL, NFL, NWSL, WNBA, or MLB since at least 1970.

Congratulations, Cavan! Can’t wait to see more from you in the future, and maybe you can help bring a World Cup to the United States! See more on his MLS debut below!

Cort Freeman was born and raised in Metro Detroit. He was named Clarkston High School 2009 Class Clown 13 years after graduating. Totally normal thing to happen. That’s thanks to his time spent as an Intern at Comedy Central and Social Media Correspondent for The Colbert Report. Cort has done comedy across the country, both standing up and sitting down. When he’s not trying to make you laugh on-air and online, he’s probably at home enjoying his favorite shows like Seinfeld, South Park, and The Office. He’s also totally uncomfortable writing about himself in the third person. Cort enjoys writing about comedy, food, sports, and entertainment. So, basically anything and everything.

5 Of The Best Football Movies Of All-Time

What are the best football movies of all-time? We came up with a list of 5 of our favorites, did yours make the list?

There are no shortage of excellent movies that are about football. There are classics, new movies, comedies, and dramas all about football. However, what are the best football movies of all-time?

What Are The Best Football Movies Of All-Time?

Football season is quickly coming up! I’m already picturing Sundays in front of the TV with my gameday snacks and no plans for the entire day but watching some games and placing some bets. We’re only a few months away from the start of the 2024-2025 NFL season!

To celebrate, we came up with a list of 5 of the best football movies of all-time. Of course, only picking 5 meant that some great football movies were being left on the cutting room floor. They couldn’t all end up making the list. Recently, we also made lists of the Best Baseball Movies for the MLB season and the Best Basketball Movies during the NBA season. Make sure to come back to check out these lists after you see the list of the best football movies of all-time.

Do you have a football movie in mind? Hopefully it ended up making the list! For this list, I decided to try to make it the best of the best when it comes to football movies. I didn’t want this to be my personal list of favorite football movies, so I tried to think of what most people would consider to be the best. Did some of my personal favorites slip through the cracks? Probably. However, I did my best to remain totally unbiased.

Unfortunately, some great movies didn’t make the cut. I didn’t include Friday Night Lights because I thought the show was better than the movie. Little Giants is one of my personal favorites but I didn’t think it was good enough to earn a spot on the list. Radio is another great movie that you won’t find on the list. Jerry Maguire is a great movie but football wasn’t a big enough part of the movie for it to be considered a “football movie,” in my opinion. Are they great movies! Absolutely! They just didn’t make this list.

Ready to check out the list? Let us know if we missed your favorite football movie if it didn’t end up on the list! See our list of 5 of the best football movies of all-time below!

5 Of The Best Football Movies Of All-Time

  • Remember The Titans

    Remember The Titans is my favorite football movie and I think it’s arguably the best of all-time. It has everything you’d want in a football game! There’s leadership, quality football, there’s comedy, the story is great, you care about the characters–it’s excellent from start to finish. There are so many great quotes in the movie. It’s also very relatable to anyone who played football and grew up playing the game while addressing racial issues at the time.

  • Any Given Sunday

    Is Any Given Sunday my favorite football movie? No, it definitely is not. Is it in my personal Top 10? Honestly, I doubt it. However, you can’t argue it’s one of the best football movies of all-time. You got great performances from Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Jamie Foxx, and Cameron Diaz. They were all perfect in their roles and the movie was well cast. You simply can’t discuss football movies without bringing up Any Given Sunday. It deserves a spot on the list.

  • The Waterboy

    I know I said I wasn’t going to let any personal biases affect the list, but this might be the one exception. We had to have The Waterboy on the list! It’s probably the football movie I’ve seen the most times. It has to be the funniest movie about football, right? Sure, The Longest Yard is good, but it doesn’t hold a candle to The Waterboy. Do you agree?

  • The Replacements

    The Replacements had a great cast with Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman, Brooke Langton, and Jon Favreau. The movie came out in 2000 and has been considered one of the best football movies ever sense. Again, it’s not my personal favorite but I can’t deny it a spot on the list because I don’t like it. However, if another movie were to be added I will admit it would probably take The Replacements place. It would be the replacement…pun not intended but pretty cool how that worked out!

  • Rudy

    You were waiting for this one weren’t you? Thinking it might not make the list? Of course Rudy is going to make the list of the best football movies of all-time. I’d bet most would consider it to be the greatest football movie of all-time. It’s often synonymous with football movies. It’s a timeless classic that will live on for many more generations.

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Author Cort Freeman and Dave & Chuck the Freak
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