DALLAS – Athletes have become bigger celebrities, thanks to social media, and now, celebrities are coming at a younger age.
Pelicans star basketball player Zion Williamson racked up millions of Youtube views as a 16-year-old. High school basketball player Mikey Williams had more than one million followers on Instagram before he started high school.
How about seven years old?
Meet Madden San Miguel, a first-grader from the Dallas area that has more than 100,000 Instagram followers from a mix of football videos and stunts, like pulling a Cadillac Escalade.
“I like playing football,” said Madden. “It’s really fun.”
Madden is nicknamed “Baby Gronk” for his size-- 82 pounds in first grade, which is more than 25-30 pounds larger than the average 7-year-old boy. His real name, also, an obvious reference.
“I named him after John Madden-- the game,” said his dad, Jake San Miguel.
San Miguel plays in flag football leagues and is already signed to a management company.
Enter rapper Boosie. Boosie owns Syndicate Sports Management Company and signed “Baby Gronk” as his first client.
“He’s just a total athlete that I’d never seen before at seven or eight years old,” said Boosie. “He was the perfect fit. He has a good parental system behind him. He’s a star. He makes me happy, man.”
Boosie works with sports manager Walik Gibson, who aims to make “Baby Gronk” a star.
“The football is really not my concern,” said Gibson. “To me, he’s a celebrity.”
When he’s not making videos to thousands of likes, San Miguel does a lot of normal first grader things.
“He’s very busy,” said Jake. “He plays baseball, football, basketball soccer. He loves swimming. What people don’t see is the school part. He was his class president, he loves to be a leader. His teachers say they’ve never seen a kid work so hard.”
Madden has big goals, too.
“My goal is to make to the NFL,” said San Miguel.