Leonard Fournette had the breakout game LSU fans have been waiting for this past week against Auburn, when he rushed for 228 yards on just 19 carries and three touchdowns.

It was the culmination of years of hype around Fournette, who was a prodigy out of New Orleans who was already famous in the area by the time he hit middle school. (I lived in New Orleans for five years in the late aughts and was well aware of the legend of Fournette by the time he was a freshman in high school.)

In a great USA TODAY Sports story from George Schroeder, he dives into Fournette’s backstory, and some of the anecdotes are incredible.

My favorite: Opposing parents were so sick of losing to Fournette they started a petition to ban him. When he was 12.

From USA TODAY Sports:

At 12, his talent was too much. Parents from opposing teams signed a petition to have him banned. “He was bigger than everyone,” says Corey Scott, Fournette’s uncle. “He basically just destroyed ‘park ball.’ He was running over all the kids.”

“Park ball” is what youth football is called in New Orleans, where the game is played in public parks around the city.

Another great story? When he was 12 years old, Fournette matched up against Tyrann “Honey Badger” Mathieu, who was a senior in high school at the time.

Again, from Schroeder’s story:

As a seventh-grader, Fournette played for St. Augustine High School’s freshman team. The next season, coaches put him into a drill opposite Tyrann Mathieu, who was then a senior who would go on to become a consensus All-American at LSU. Fournette ran over the Honey Badger.

At 12 years old Fournette steamrolled Mathieu, a high school senior headed to LSU with a scholarship. Simply unreal.

Read the entire story over at USA TODAY Sports.