It was all fun and games when they started playing football. Little boys running pell-mell, helmets and shoulder pads practically bigger than they were. No recognizable plays and passes that went every which way.

The older they grew, though, the tougher it got. Now 300-pound linemen come after them, itching for the chance to flatten them and dislocate something. Every word and move is dissected by friends and foes. They get all the credit when things are going well, all the blame when they’re not.

Being an NFL quarterback sure is stressful – for the moms.

“Those are your children,” Olivia Manning said. “That’s where your heart is.”

Parents of any pro athlete obviously take great pride in their children and their accomplishments. For the mothers of NFL players, it’s a little more complicated. The game can be violent and unforgiving, with lives and careers forever altered by a single play.

Their sons are adults, but mothers can’t help but see the little boys they shuttled back and forth to practices and games.

“The father will go to the game or the uncle or anyone else, and they’ll watch the son, but they’ll watch the play. The mother will not take her eyes off the son,” said television commentator John Madden, a former coach of the Oakland Raiders.

“My wife would always just watch the kids,” Madden said. “Watch them on the bench, watch everything they would do. She could tell you more about what he did in that game more than anybody else because she watched him more than anyone else.”

For a quarterback’s mother, it can be particularly gut-wrenching.

Although a wide receiver or running back will take some hard hits, there are plenty of plays where they’re all by themselves, no defensive player anywhere near them. Not the quarterback. On every offensive play, he’s got his hands on the ball, and somebody is coming after him.

“It’s extremely hard watching him,” said Sheryl Carr, whose son David has been sacked a whopping 232 times so far in 41â2 seasons with the Houston Texans.

“I’m thinking, ‘Do you not understand? That’s my child out there!” Sheryl Carr said. “I’ve had to really pray, because I’ve really stressed over that, watching him out there.”

When her son first started playing football, Sheryl Carr made her husband sign the permission slip. No way was she going to tell somebody it was OK to hit her son.

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young liked to tell the story of his mother, Sherry, coming out of the stands to chastise a player who’d knocked the wind out of him with a hard tackle. And this was back when Young was playing Pop Warner.

When Young was deciding whether to retire after his fourth concussion in three years, the two-time MVP often called his parents for advice.

Well, his dad, anyway.

“Usually he’d talk to his father about it, because he knew what I’d say: ‘Well then, don’t play,”‘ Sherry Young said. “I tried to say that when he was 8 years old.”

For many moms, the worrying took on a greater intensity when their sons graduated to the NFL. The competition, of course, is bigger and stronger. Every week, it seems, at least one more player is knocked out for the season by a concussion, broken bone or torn muscle or ligaments; Donovan McNabb needs surgery and will miss the rest of the year after blowing out his right knee Sunday.

Unlike when they were growing up, it’s no longer merely a game.

“This is a business for your kids,” said Betsy Hasselbeck, whose older son Matt starts for the Seattle Seahawks and younger son Tim is a backup with the New York Giants. “We don’t tailgate before a game. When we’re there, we’re there because we’re really looking out for them and hoping for the best for what they do.

“It’s like ‘Take Your Parents To Work Day.”‘

There’s really no good way to prepare, either. Hasselbeck and Olivia Manning saw their husbands get hit plenty when they played in the NFL.

Sure, they were concerned, but it was nothing like watching their sons.

“If (my husband) would catch a pass or get tackled, he’d be on the ground for a short amount of time. In the stands I’m thinking, ‘You’re OK. You’re a big tough guy, you can handle this,”‘ Hasselbeck said of husband Don, a former NFL tight end. “When it’s your own child out there, this is somebody you’ve cared for. It’s been your responsibility their entire life.

“It’s kind of hard to just turn that switch off.”

Never was a mother’s burden on bigger display than in the Manning Bowl earlier this season.

Not only are the Mannings the NFL’s version of the First Family, but the Colts-Giants Sept. 10 matchup was the first time two brothers started at quarterback for opposing teams. Even in training camp, the Colts’ and Giants’ defensive players were salivating at the chance to finally hit a Manning.

It was enough to make any parent shudder.

“I sent a little word through Peyton, ‘Go easy on my little guy,'” Olivia Manning said. “Yeah, right.”